SAG Award Nominees: Who Got Snubbed?

Meryl Streep. George Clooney. Brad Pitt. Many of this year's SAG Award nominees were foregone conclusions, thanks to largely positive reviews in high-profile movies — not to mention early wins in varioius critics' circle awards. That's all fine and good, but on to the juicy topic of crushed hopes: Who got overlooked? Here are five:

1. Shailene Woodley. Yes, she was nominated as part of The Descendants' ensemble, but in it Woodley, 20, gave a brilliant turn as Clooney's feisty, troubled teenage daughter. Too bad she got squeezed out by The Artist's silent comedienne, Berenice Bejo, and The Help's Jessica Chastain.

2. Michael Fassbender. With lauded roles in Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method and Shame, the handsome Irish actor seems to have done himself a disservice by spreading his mojo too thin in the minds of his fellow actors. Either that, or the old-aged SAG constituency is still blushing from the Christmas package he so blatantly unwrapped in the NC-17-rated Shame.

3. Ryan Gosling. First Bradley Cooper steals his title as People's "Sexiest Man Alive," now he gets snubbed for a year of career-defining work — most notably as the enigmatically stone-faced driver in Drive. Gosling also delivered a solid performance in The Ides of March, a movie the SAG appears to have either hated or forgotten.

4. Albert Brooks. Speaking of Drive, was there some boycott against the film that we're not aware of? While it's somewhat understandable (though still not fair) that there was no love for Gosling in the highly competive lead actor category, Brooks ought to be a frontrunner to win best supporting actor not just from the SAG but from the Academy, as well. Jonah Hill for Moneyball? Nick Nolte for Warrior? Seriously?

5. Andy Serkis. His performance in Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the very definition of award-worthy: believable, moving, spectacular and — at times — astonishing. But the SAG just won't give up its fuddy-duddy notions that motion capture technology does it all by itself. Too bad.