A rising star in the award show category is the Screen Actors Guild awards®, otherwise known as the SAG Awards.™ The Screen Actor's Guild is the union for actors. If you don't have a SAG card in Hollywood, you don't work. These awards are unique, insofar as they honor strictly performers, and because all 96,000 members of the actors' union get to vote on who will take home the awards. Next year, the 16th annual show were held on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. (Click here for a list of the 2009 nominees.) Scheduled presenters in 2009 included Anthony Hopkins, Katie Holmes, Amy Adams, Ralph Fiennes, Claire Danes, Eric McCormack, Susan Sarandon, William Shatner, Marisa Tomei, Josh Brolin, Christina Applegate, Ernest Borgnine, Amy Poehler, Kyra Sedgwick, and Forest Whitaker. SAG is a relative newcomer to the award show scene, but the annual show now represents a fine opportunity for first-class star-gazing in L.A. Tickets to the awards show inside the Shrine aren't available to the general public, just to SAG members. But in previous years, Audiences Unlimited have offered tickets to the red carpet arrivals outside the Shrine. (You would send them your mailing address, and they would send your tickets in the mail.) This year (2009), they are auctioning off red carpet bleacher seats on eBay (for charity). You can bid in the auction (in January 2009) by going to this link. Typically, the stars begin arriving at the Shrine at around 3 p.m. In past years, the report was that if you showed up at 1 p.m. on the day of the event (with your free ticket), chances were good that you would get a fine seat just a few feet away from the red carpet. (The bleachers filled up rather quickly, though; if you arrived after 2 p.m., you probably wouldn't get a seat at all.) Who might you see?

At previous shows, stars walking down the red carpet included

Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close, Diane Lane, Ron Howard, Ethan Hawke, Elijah Wood, Tom Cruise, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, Gweneth Paltrow, Warren Betty & Annette Bening, Kevin Spacey, Sidney Poitier, Julie Christie, Vanessa Redgrave, Julianne Moore, Hilary Swank, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack Lemmon, Haley Joel Osment, Sally Field, Peter Fonda, Patrick Stewart, Noah Wyle, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Jennifer Anniston, Ian McKellen, Charlize Theron, Ashley Tisdale, Kim Cattrall, Anjelica Huston, Kevin Bacon, Ed Asner, Tom Selleck, Helen Mirren, Debra Messing, Martin Landau, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Arquette, Matthew Perry, Helen Hunt, Ellen Burstyn, Hank Azaria, Dennis Franz, Rick Schroder, Calista Flockhart, Peter MacNicol, Lucy Liu, Ray Romano, Roberto Benigi, Christina Applegate, America Fererra, Tracey Ullman, Dylan McDermott, Lara Flynn Boyle, Camryn Manheim, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, James Gandolfini and the cast of "The Sopranos."

Since 1997, the awards show has been held at the Shrine Auditorium, usually two weeks before the Oscars show in mid-March.

Perhaps because it takes place right before the Oscars (while the Academy is still deciding on who will be the winners), the stars are particularly friendly to the crowds in the bleachers at the SAG Awards. Celebrities as big as Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Noah Wyle and Martin Sheen took the time to come over to the bleachers and shake hands with the public. That's not something you see at many award shows.

 Getting there: Location of the awards ceremony may vary. Phone for this years' location. The Shrine Auditorium is located across the street from the U.S.C. campus, just north of Exposition Park, at 649 W. Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles. / From Hollywood, take the Hollywood (101) Freeway south (about five miles) to the Harbor (110) Freeway south. Take the Harbor Freeway south (about three miles) to the Exposition Boulevard exit. Go west one block west on Exposition, then turn right (north) on Figueroa Street. Go one long block north, and turn left (west) on Jefferson Blvd. The Shrine will be on your right (north) side.