Meryl Streep, Laura Linney & Alec Baldwin Among SAG Award Winners

Meryl Streep won the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for her performance in the screen adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt. Streep was one of several theater vets to win awards at the 15th annual SAG Awards, held on January 25 in Los Angeles.

Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti were honored for their performances in the HBO miniseries John Adams, and Alec Baldwin won Best Actor in a Comedy Series for 30 Rock. Jane Krakowski gave the acceptance speech when the 30 Rock cast was awarded outstanding ensemble in a comedy. A taped presentation honoring Lifetime Achievement Award winner James Earl Jones prominently featured theatrical clips from productions ranging from The Great White Hope to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Two of the three original stars of the Broadway revival of Speed-the-Plow were at the ceremony, though the cameras didn’t indicate whether their paths crossed: Entourage star Jeremy Piven lost out to Baldwin, and Elisabeth Moss took the stage as part of the winning acting ensemble for a TV drama in Mad Men.

Other winners included Sean Penn Milk, Kate Winslet The Reader, Heath Ledger The Dark Knight, Hugh Laurie House, Sally Field Brothers & Sisters, Tina Fey 30 Rock and the acting ensemble of Slumdog Millionaire.