• A Star Is Born led nominations for the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nods including best ensemble on Wednesday, firmly establishing Bradley Cooper's romantic revival as this year's Academy Awards front-runner. In nominations announced in West Hollywood, Calif., the actors guild -- one of the most predictive bellwethers of the Oscars -- threw cold water on the awards campaigns of numerous contenders while elevating others. But A Star Is Born fared the best of all, landing nominations for Cooper (best male actor), Lady Gaga (best female actor) and Sam Elliott (best supporting male actor). The other nominees for the group's top award, best ensemble, were: Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, BlacKkKlansman and Crazy Rich Asians. That category is the most closely watched because only once in the past two decades has the eventual Oscars best picture winner not been nominated for best ensemble at the SAG Awards. The one aberration came last year when Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water overcame the SAG omission on its way to winning best picture. That's worrisome news for Oscar hopefuls like Vice, Adam McKay's Dick Cheney biopic (which led last week's Golden Globe nominations); Alfonso Cuaron's Netflix drama Roma (the overwhelming choice of critics groups); and the 1962 road trip Green Book. Vice still scored SAG nods for Christian Bale and Amy Adams, just as Green Book won nominations for Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. But Roma was shut out entirely, as was Damien Chazelle's Neil Armstrong drama First Man and Barry Jenkins' Harlem love story If Beale Street Could Talk. The SAG Awards will be held Jan. 27.
• Kathie Lee Gifford will put aside her morning glass of wine and step away from NBC's Today show in April. NBC News chief Noah Oppenheim told staffers this week that Gifford will leave the show after 11 years of getting up early, most recently hosting the 10 a.m. hour slot alongside Hoda Kotb and sipping plenty of reds. In a memo to the staff, Oppenheim called the 65-year-old Gifford "one of the most enduring and endearing talents in morning television. In short -- she is a legend." He said she will focus on her film, music and book projects. In the memo, Oppenheim said Gifford told him she was leaving "with a grateful heart but I'm truly excited for this new creative season in my life." The move comes as NBC News struggles to remake its sprawling four-hour morning show after the cancellation earlier this year of Megyn Kelly's hour-long slot. Before landing the NBC gig, Gifford co-hosted Live opposite Regis Philbin for 11 years. She left that show in 2000 and joined Today in 2008.
A Section on 12/13/2018