The Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations have cancelled an in-person announcement planned for Wednesday morning due to devastating wildfires and winds in the Los Angeles area. The nominations for awards honouring the best performances in movies and television will be announced by press release instead of at a live event hosted by actors Joey King and Cooper Koch.
Homes and structures are burning in a pair of wind-swept fire in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles and Altadena, a neighbourhood near Pasadena, California.
Kristen Bell will host the 31st annual awards ceremony, which will stream live on Netflix on February 23 at 8 pm Eastern from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. Idris Elba hosted last year’s ceremony.
The SAG Awards are a reliable Oscar bellwether for the acting and best picture categories.
According to the latest reports, California firefighters are battling wind-whipped wildfires that tore across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled and straining resources as officials prepared for the situation to worsen.
Another blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city’s Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences.
Actor James Woods posted footage of flames burning through bushes and past palm trees on a hill near his home. The towering orange flames billowed among the landscaped yards between the homes.
“Standing in my driveway, getting ready to evacuate,” Woods said in the short video on X.
The fires have led to the cancellation of several entertainment events, including Wednesday’s premiere of the Robbie Williams biopic “Better Man”, a premiere of Jennifer Lopez’s “Unstoppable” movie and the premiere of Universal Pictures’ upcoming horror film “Wolf Man”.
