Women of a certain age (whatever that is) say there's a shortage of good roles for their age group, but check out the vintage of many of the ladies up for Screen Actors Guild Awards: Shirley Jones, Cloris Leachman, Helen Mirren (of course) and Meryl Streep all are on the downhill side of 50 and still making fine contributions to their craft.
And Meryl is in such demand that she's a no show, even though her Oscar nomination last week for "The Devil Wears Prada" increases her odds of winning here. But she has a good excuse. Seems she accepted an invitation about a year ago to cohost tonight's 10th annual benefit for Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. She's sharing the stage with former Vice President Al Gore, with whom she'll hand the Global Citizen Award to Prince Charles. Said she would have enjoyed celebrating with her fellow SAG members but she felt she should not renege on the other commitment. Let's see... British royalty or Hollywood royalty?