Veteran stars come up big at SAG

Hollywood's actors picked veteran performers Alec Baldwin and Betty White, and the comedy Modern Family as three of their top TV winners at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday.

The offbeat Modern Family claimed its second straight win for best TV comedy, while Baldwin was named best actor in a TV comedy for the sixth year for his role as a TV executive on 30 Rock, and White, who turned 90-year-old earlier this month, took the comedy actress trophy for a second time in Hot in Cleveland.

An obviously surprised White acknowledged her co-stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick.

The win "belongs with four of us", she said, then looked at her statuette with a gleam in her eye and a joke on her mind. "I'm dealing them right-in with this. I'm not going to let them keep this, but I will let them see it."

In other TV awards, Kate Winslet was named best actress in a small-screen movie or miniseries for Mildred Pierce, and Paul Giamatti won the trophy for actor in a movie or mini-series with Too Big to Fail.

While SAG honors TV performances, the group's film awards are more closely watched for their impact on Oscars because actors make up the biggest voting group at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which picks Oscar winners.

Film actors taking home early SAG honors included Christopher Plummer with the first film honor for supporting actor. Plummer, 82, who plays an elderly man who comes out of the closet as gay much to the chagrin of his family, thanked his fellow actors from the stage, calling them a wacky but wonderful bunch of artists.

"I just can't tell you what fun I've had being a member of the world's second oldest profession," Plummer joked on stage. "When they honor you, it's like being lit by the holy grail. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

The second film award went to Octavia Spencer for supporting actress in The Help that proved to be a surprise over Berenice Bejo of silent film romance The Artist.