Acting Out

At the 7th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night, Tony Soprano discovered his tough guy stance doesn't measure up to the power of the President. Though HBO's ''The Sopranos'' won three awards last year, the hit drama walked away empty handed as NBC's ''The West Wing'' scored awards for stars Martin Sheen (Best Actor in a Dramatic Series), Allison Janney (Best Actress) and the series itself (Best Ensemble).

The other big winner was the drug wars drama ''Traffic.'' Benicio Del Toro beat out ''Gladiator'' star Russell Crowe and ''Cast Away'''s Tom Hanks in the Best Actor category, hinting that the 34 year old actor may be headed for Oscar gold, where he's nominated as a Best Supporting Actor. The''Traffic'' cast also took home a naked green guy (the SAG Award icon) for Best Ensemble.

EW.com went backstage to get the scoop on the best, the worst, and the weirdest mements of the evening.

BEST ACTING IN AN ACCEPTANCE SPEECH How many times will we have to see ''Erin Brockovich'' star Julia Roberts feign shock as she rakes in award after award for her cleavage enhanced heroine? Despite reaping a Golden Globe for ''Brockovich'' and being everyone's front runner for a Best Actress Oscar, the Toothsome One refuses to prepare an acceptance speech, instead choosing to chatter adorably (and often nonsensically) every time she takes home another statuette. ''To get used to it would be to lose a pulse, to lose the breath of life,'' Roberts explained backstage after accepting SAG's Best Actress award. ''To get used to things like this would be to take them for granted.'' Yeah, yeah, but can't you just scribble some notes on a cue card next time, PLEASE?

BEST PLOT TWIST ''Will & Grace'''s Sean Hayes, who took home an award as part of the night's Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series, admitted his self absorbed character will soon have someone new to worry about on the show. ''Jack's gonna find out he has a son through sperm donations he gave earlier in life,'' Hayes explained. Costar Eric McCormack quipped, ''Woody Harrelson's playing the son.'' Now that's stunt casting!

MOST HONEST MOMENT When asked about his odds for taking home a future Oscar, Michael Douglas -- a SAG winner (best ensemble acting, for ''Traffic'') but NOT an Oscar nominee this year -- responded, ''My chances are shit! I ain't got no chances!'' Just for that shining zinger, we take back all of those jokes about him and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Well, at least some of them.

MOST EMBARRASSING FILM CLIPS Some little gremlin in the editing room went out of his way to find the gooniest, ugliest film clips of the nominees in the Best Actress categories. Debra Messing visibly grimaced during a ''Will & Grace'' flashback scene, showing her hair styled in a nightmarish late '80s afro-poodle cut; Sally Field gaped in horror at a clip which showed her ''ER'' character, Maggie Wyczenski, shrieking like Linda Blair in ''The Exorcist'' as she was tied to a hospital bed. And Alison Janney's clip? She was featured talking turkey with an actual Thanksgiving gobbler. But drama winner Janney wasn't complaining. ''I quit acting so many times,'' she said from the podium, remembering the time she took an aptitude test to find a new career. ''They told me I would make an excellent systems analyst. I still don't know what that is.''

SHINIEST OUTFIT Robert Downey Jr. may be clean and sober, but has anybody checked up on his stylist lately? The ''Ally McBeal'' actor, who won Best Actor in a Comedy Series, showed up wearing white shoes, white tie, white shirt, and shiny blue suit that made him look like the world's best dressed car salesman. And if Guild members voted for Downey hoping for a heartfelt, weepy speech about his battle with addiction, no such luck. Downey delivered by the numbers patter about his costars (noting that fellow ''McBeal'' nominee Peter MacNicol was so hard working he brought his script to the awards show to memorize), then trotted offstage.

BIGGEST UNDERSTATEMENT Brian Dennehy, who took home an award for his role in Showtime's ''Death of a Salesman,'' described his hackneyed new show ''The Fighting Fitzgeralds'' as ''a sitcom which does not advance the cause of Western civilization one inch. In fact some would say we shove it back a little bit.''

SNEAKIEST STRIKE COMMENT SAG President William Daniels (''Boy Meets World'') delivered a short but sweet speech which thanked the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild, and the American Federation of Musicians before sneaking in this clever line referring to the possible actors' strike that is expected to shut down Hollywood this summer. ''Our art is collaborative,'' he said, ''but so is our hard won collective bargaining success.'' Hint, hint. Other stars weren't so subtle about their feelings. Sarah Jessica Parker admitted that ''Sex and the City'' had a ''contingency plan'' in case the strike went into effect, ''West Wing'''s John Spencer admitted his fingers were crossed that issues could be resolved without a strike, and Brian Dennehy explained, ''If it's a long strike, all of us will suffer, especially the people who make $15,000 a year. But it's hard for me to criticize anybody because I'm not as active in the union as I should be. I just take all of the benefits and complain about it from time to time.''

MOST IRONIC MOMENT Chris O'Donnell (''Vertical Limit'') was chosen to introduce a segment dedicated to character actors. Did it ever occur to anyone that O'Donnell is, to put it kindly, not exactly known as one of Hollywood's more versatile young character actors? Who was their second choice, a plank of wood?