Hollywood stars including Bill Murray, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara were stranded outside the 2023 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards when a fire marshal temporarily blocked access to the venue on Sunday night.
Amount associate editor Ramin Setoodeh posted video clips on Twitter showing hundreds of formally dressed actors and other attendees milling around the luxury Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
“Total chaos in the SAGA departments as Claire Foy and Rooney Mara are not allowed into the ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel – they are told they have to wait for the fire marshal to let them and hundreds of other guests in,” said Mr. Setoodeh.
The reporter later added: “Even Bill Murray has to wait. This is madness!”
It is not yet clear what caused the blockage, but it appeared to be resolved by 5pm local time on Sunday.
The SAG Awards are among the more prestigious of Hollywood’s many awards ceremonies, held by the powerful motion picture and television union now known as SAG-AFTRA.
They are considered by many in the industry to be a reliable bellwether for the Oscars in March, as actors make up the largest voting block in the Motion Picture Academy.
In a video clip of Sunday’s confusion, The queen and First man star Claire Foy can be seen with an expression of disbelief or annoyance as she stands among a crowd of people at the hotel.
In another video, comedy legend Bill Murray is also seen looking around while a man wearing an earpiece, possibly a security guard, stands nearby.
Anti-vaccine activists had announced they would stage a protest outside the awards ceremony against the Union’s strict vaccine rules. It is unclear whether this was related to the fire marshal’s decision.
This year’s SAG Award nominations were led by reality-bending sci-fi fables Everything everywhere at once and Irish tragicomedy Banshees of Inisherinwith five nominations each.