Pre-award season frenzy continues with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announcing their nominees today. Many people in the biz believe the SAG Awards, along with other guild awards, are the true predictors of Oscar gold.

Leading the pack is Doubt, with five nominations. Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button nabbed three noms each. For the SAG Awards, actors choose their favorite performances of the past season and vote internally. Fellow actors have called the SAG Awards their favorite and see it as a great honor to be recognized by their peers. Signs continue to point toward a posthumous Oscar nod for Heath Ledger as he is up for Best Supporting Actor here.

And the nominees are…

Best Actor: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Sean Penn, Milk; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie, Changeling; Melissa Leo, Frozen River; Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road; and Meryl Streep, Doubt.

Best Ensemble: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Doubt, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire.

The SAG awards honor television actors as well as those on the Silver Screen. Unfortunately, SNL, as a variety show, is not eligible for the awards. But Tina Fey is nominated for her work on 30 Rock. We hope she wins for her work there and her spot-on hilarious impression of Sarah Palin. Star-watchers should be on alert when the awards take place on January 25th.

For the full list of nominees, go to: www.sagawards.org.