LOS ANGELES - The Help has received plenty of help in its pursuit of a best picture Oscar after dominating the Screen Actors Guild Awards, but the news was not so good for Australian actor Guy Pearce.
The former Neighbours star missed out on a SAG statuette for his role in the TV mini-series Mildred Pierce.
Pearce won an Emmy for the Mildred Pierce role opposite Kate Winslet last September, but inside Los Angeles' historic Shrine Auditorium yesterday it was Paul Giamatti for Too Big to Fail who won the SAG trophy for outstanding performance by an actor in a TV movie or mini-series.
The big shock at the ceremony, which traditionally foreshadows the winners at the Academy Awards, was the dominance of The Help, a drama set in racially charged 1960s Mississippi.
Before the ceremony the black-and-white silent film The Artist was considered the runaway favourite to claim the SAG ensemble award and next month's best picture Oscar.
Meryl Streep, playing former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, and Michelle Williams, playing Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, were the top picks for best actress.
The Help, however, won the SAG ensemble award while its star, Viola Davis, who plays an African American maid, beat Streep and Williams for the best actress trophy.
``The stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of colour or women, it is all of our burden,'' a triumphant Davis said after the ensemble win.
The best actor SAG went to script with French actor Jean Dujardin winning for his role in The Artist.
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