Awards Blossom For <I>American Beauty</I>

American Beauty has swept the preliminaries. Now it's on to the Academy Awards for the movie that has emerged as the rock-solid Oscar front-runner.

The dark but hilarious fable of suburban mania took top Screen Actors Guild honors Sunday night for Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, who play a couple whose marriage has lapsed into farce. The movie also won the guild's ensemble acting award.

"What this movie actually tries to put out there is that in our notions of what is beautiful or what we're told is beautiful, sometimes we miss the things that are simple and clearly beautiful in our own heart," Spacey said.

Acclaimed stage director Sam Mendes, who made his feature-film debut with American Beauty, took top honors Saturday from the Directors Guild of America.

Only four times in the 52-year history of the Directors Guild awards has the winner failed to go on to receive the Oscar.

The Screen Actors awards are only in their sixth year, but they already have an accurate track record. Nine of the 10 previous guild lead acting winners went on to take home Oscars.

Both also are nominated for supporting-actor Oscars, though the guild's track record is weaker in those categories. Only half the past winners have gone on to receive Academy Awards.

Caine already has a supporting-actor Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters, as does Spacey for The Usual Suspects.

Shot for a modest $15 million, American Beauty has capitalized on its leading eight Oscar nominations, padding its gross by more than $20 million since it was re-released last month. The movie is pushing the $100 million mark.

In the film, Spacey plays a dour middle-aged husband on a search to restore meaning to his life. He smokes pot with a neighbor kid, lusts after his daughter's high-school friend and unsuccessfully tries to cut through the icy materialism that has possessed his wife.

Bening said the cast and crew viewed it as a small picture from the outset, even though it was produced by Steven Spielberg's blockbuster-minded DreamWorks SKG studio.

"We thought maybe if we got it right, we could make a quality picture that maybe a few people would see," Bening said backstage Sunday. "We worked toward the hope that maybe it would be a great movie, but we never thought it would be a popular movie."

Michael J. Fox, who announced this year he is leaing ABC's Spin City because of his fight with Parkinson's disease, received the award for male actor in a comedy series for the second straight year.

The HBO mob series The Sopranos swept the dramatic TV series awards. James Gandolfini won for male actor, Edie Falco for female actor and the cast won the ensemble honor.

Sidney Poitier was honored with the guild's life achievement award. The tribute included clips from such Poitier films as A Place in the Sun, To Sir With Love and In the Heat of the Night.

Here is a list of the winners :

• MALE ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE: Kevin Spacey, American Beauty.

• FEMALE ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE: Annette Bening, American Beauty.

• SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE: Michael Caine, The Cider House Rules.

• SUPPORTING FEMALE ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE: Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted.

• CAST, MOTION PICTURE: American Beauty.

• MALE ACTOR, TV DRAMA SERIES: James Gandolfini, The Sopranos.
• FEMALE ACTOR, TV DRAMA SERIES: Edie Falco, The Sopranos.

• ENSEMBLE ACTING, TV DRAMA SERIES: The Sopranos.

• MALE ACTOR, TV COMEDY SERIES: Michael J. Fox, Spin City.

• FEMALE ACTOR, TV COMEDY SERIES: Lisa Kudrow, Friends.

• ENSEMBLE ACTING, TV COMEDY SERIES: Frasier.

• MALE ACTOR, TV MOVIES OR MINISERIES: Jack Lemmon, Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays With Morrie.

• FEMALE ACTOR, TV MOVIE OR MINISERIES: Halle Berry, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

• LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Sidney Poitier.

• FEATURE FILM: Sam Mendes, American Beauty.

• DOCUMENTARY: Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen, On the Ropes.

• TELEVISION MOVIE: Milt Jackson, Tuesdays With Morrie.

• TELEVISION DRAMATIC SERIES: David Chase, The Sopranos, pilot episode.

• TELEVISION COMEDY SERIES: Thomas Schlamme, Sports Night.
• TELEVISION MUSICAL VARIETY: Dennie A. Gordon, Tracey Takes On...End of the World.

• TELEVISION DAYTIME SERIAL: Roger W. Inman and Herbert D. Stein, Days of Our Lives, Episode 8557.
• TELEVISION CHILDREN'S PROGRAM: Amy Schatz, Goodnight Moon & Other Sleepy Time Tales.

• COMMERCIALS: Bryan Buckley.
• LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Steven Spielberg.
• DIVERSITY AWARD: Home Box Office.

• FRANK CAPRA ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Cheryl Downey.
• FRANKLIN J. SCHAFFNER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Scott L. Rindenow.
• LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN SPORTS DIRECTION AWARD: Chet Forte.

By David Germain