Amy Adams

’Doubt’ leads SAG awards race

’Milk,’ ’Button’ follow with three nominations

One day, there’s infighting at the Screen Actors Guild — and the next, the org’s patting itself on the back.

“Doubt” dominated the SAG nominations, announced early Thursday, with five nominations, followed by “Milk” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with a trio each.

“The Dark Knight,” “Frost/Nixon” and “Slumdog Millionaire” each nabbed a pair of mentions.

“Doubt” scored noms for actress Meryl Streep, supporting actresses Amy Adams and Viola Davis and supporting actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. It also received a nomination for ensemble cast along with “Milk,” “Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”

The same quartet of “Doubt” thesps received Golden Globe bids last week.

In coming weeks SAG will be sending out two sets of ballots to its 110,000 dues current members — the nominees for the SAG awards and its referendum for a strike authorization.

SAG will hand out the awards at a Shrine Auditorium ceremony telecast live on TBS and TNT on Jan. 25. That’s a mere two days after it announces the results of its strike authorization vote and the day after SAG’s national board is scheduled to meet in Los Angeles.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg — the leading proponent of the strike authorization — obligingly answered queries about it. “I’m not as optimistic as I’d like to be, but we’re getting there,” he replied when asked about recent moves by high-profile stars and the New York board to oppose the vote.

The announcements included several nominees who had already come out for the authorization — Laura Dern for “Recount” — and against it, including Sally Field for “Brothers and Sisters” and Alec Baldwin for “30 Rock.”

Baldwin, who has won the trophy for male comedy TV actor for two years running, excoriated Rosenberg, national exec director Doug Allen and the negotiating committee at a raucous town hall meeting Monday, saying they should all step down.

Highlights of Thursday’s announcements included the late Heath Ledger receiving a supporting actor nom for “The Dark Knight” and Kate Winslet drawing two bids — one for actress in “Revolutionary Road” and one for supporting actress in “The Reader.”

Taraji P. Henson received three mentions: supporting actress in “Benjamin Button” along with cast nominations for “Button” and “Boston Legal” on the TV side.

Key contenders missing out on the SAG leading actor noms include Leonardo DiCaprio for “Revolutionary Road,” Clint Eastwood for “Grand Torino” and Benicio Del Toro for “Che.”

Notable snubs in the actress category included Sally Hawkins for “Happy-Go-Lucky,” Rosemarie DeWitt for “Rachel Getting Married” and Kristin Scott Thomas for “I’ve Loved You So Long.”

In the TV categories, “30 Rock,” “Boston Legal,” “The Closer,” “John Adams” and “Mad Men” took three nominations each. “Bernard and Doris,” “Dexter,” “Entourage,” “House,” “Recount,” “The Office” and “Weeds” each received a pair.

Though more numerous, SAG’s TV noms receive less notice given that they’re announced in the middle of the current season. The nominations come following a year in which the ‘07-’08 season was truncated due to the WGA strike.

SAG rules are simple — for the 2009 awards, “Motion pictures and television and cable programs exhibited or broadcast during the 2008 calendar year shall be eligible for nomination.”