Modern Family kept it light over the heavy stuff, while the telecast producers went mad trying to get the show in on time.
Here's what's happening backstage at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:
6 p.m. PT: Sofia Vergara's voice precedes her and the Modern Family cast. Her laugh can be heard from the other side of our press-room curtain.
- Julianna Margulies is fine with acting; she's less fine with the red carpet. "I'm still trying to perfect the hand on the hip," The Good Wife winner tells us.
- Margulies is taking advantage of a feature that 'til now we'd never noticed at the SAG Awards: a statue-holder! (Now, express yourself to the press with two free hands!)
PHOTOS: 2011 SAG Awards: Twitpics!
- In case you were wondering, Melissa Leo has parted ways with the purse she carried on stage when she accepted her SAG. (Maybe she found a purse-holder?)
- Leo's a cool customer this awards season. She's also a fantastic movie critic. When asked for the secret to The Fighter's success, Leo lays it on us: "It's a great f--kin' movie!"
- We were right about the statue-holder: It is a must-have! The cast of Modern Family is fighting over it. ("Hey, why you put yours there?" Vergara asks Eric Stonestreet. "'Cause it's heavy," he shoots back.)
- For the record, the statue-holder can only hold one statue at a time; Vergara and Stonestreet were bantering, not fighting; and, in any case, Stonestreet manned up, and ended up holding his own Actor just like everybody else in the cast.
- When Vergara reveals she employs a stylist because "sometimes it's not so easy to dress my [something-something we can't quite hear]," Stonestreet seems to sense reporters didn't quite get that the last part. So, he translates repeats, "her Golden Globes."
- If the end of the telecast felt rushed, it's because it was. We could hear the PA announcer repeatedly remind attendees that the show was running long, and longer, and, finally, that it "was in trouble."