Can the Chicago fire be put out? The musical burned up the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards on Sunday, winning the prize for best ensemble work by a cast and awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress just two weeks before Hollywood’s big show goes on — the Oscars.The Awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress went to a pair of high-kicking homicidal hoofers played by Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.Backstage, the cast refused to talk of their chances. Said Zellweger, ‘‘I don’t know, I don’t know from the process . but we are having a good time.’’Zellweger won the Best Actress award, beating out favourite Nicole Kidman, whose character in The Hours commits suicide in the beginning of the filmDaniel Day-Lewis, who plays a criminal mastermind in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York after taking five years off from film-making, was named Best Actor.Given that the night was about celebration, a war with Iraq was pushed to the back burner, and when asked how a war might affect the Oscars, Day-Lewis seemed to have mixed feelings.‘‘Undoubtedly it will,’’ he said. ‘‘I think people will be fearful, I think a lot of people will be extremely sad . It will be affected, but who knows how.’’Stockard Channing, who won the Best Actress award in a mini-series or TV movie, took a swipe at President George W. Bush. Channing was asked what conversation she would have with President Bush and said, ‘‘No conversation. He is a President who doesn’t listen to anybody.’’ (Reuters)
