12th Annual SAG Awards nominations announcement with Ellen Pompeo - January 05, 2006

Source: Grey Anatomy Net

Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations
By Scott Huver, Hollywood.com Staff

Three things became apparent at the nominations announcement for the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards: Brokeback Mountain was the film to beat with four nominations; Felicity Huffman led all the thespians with three nominations for her work on both her series Desperate Housewives and her film Transamerica and Grey's Anatomy's Ellen Pompeo needs to work on her poker face.

Pompeo looked as smartly chic in a chocolate Yves St. Laurent dress and spotted Alexander McQueen scarf as anyone could be expected to at 6 a.m., when she joined Benjamin Bratt on stage at West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center to unveil the nominations. And while she and Bratt bypassed tepid awards show banter and got right down to business with the announcements, on three occasions the Grey’s Anatomy actress’ professional demeanor would dissolve in favor of a big, bright, twinkly-eyed grin. Each time, the reason why was revealed five seconds later: she’d spotted a Grey’s Anatomy nomination--one each for her co-stars Patrick Dempsey and Sandra Oh, as well as an ensemble nod for the entire cast--on the teleprompter.

“I’m very excited to go to work and give them all the good news, if they haven’t heard it already,” Pompeo told Hollywood.com after the nominations, expecting a little something extra waiting on the set for the cast. “Recently we’ve been celebrating with cake and champagne, so I’m sure we’ll follow suit for this, also.” She was especially excited about Dempsey ’s nom for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: “His story is so amazing and he’s taken in everything with so much grace. I’m thrilled for him and I’m so happy to work with him every day.”

If Pompeo felt any disappointment about not getting her own individual nomination, it didn’t show. “It’s not disappointing because we are an ensemble cast, and we got recognized as a group,” she said. “That’s what’s important--that we got acknowledged at all. And there’s plenty of time for personal awards and stuff like that. I’m just happy to be a working actor.”

The actress did indulge in a little mock-professional jealousy at her Sunday night network mate Huffman’s big morning as a triple-nominee: “She’s okay,” Pompeo sniffed. “No--of course, she’s fantastic. I mean, come on! And I really have to applaud her tremendously, because the hour-long drama is so tough. Well, I guess that’s considered a comedy. But still, it’s such a rigorous schedule, and so for her to take her break and take on a role of this magnitude is just a tremendous effort on her part. And who else could really pull it off? So it’s great to see her get recognized.”

Source: Hollywood