WGA Awards Have Surprise Ending

Surprise endings were were part of the film plot tonight in the 66th annual Writers Guild of America Awards presented during simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles' J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live.

Beating out more-publicized competitors, Her creator Spike Jonze won the Best Original Screenplay award, and Captain Phillips writer Billy Ray received the Best Adapted Screenplay honor.

Jonze was selected from a field that featured screenwriters Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell of  American Hustle;  Woody Allen of  Blue Jasmine; Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack of Dallas Buyers Club and Bob Nelson of Nebraska.

Ray finished ahead of writers Tracy Letts of August: Osage County; Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke of Before Midnight; Peter Berg of Lone Survivor and Terence Winter of The Wolf of Wall Street.

Among television programs, Breaking Bad continues its final speed run through the awards season with wins in the Best Dramas Series and Best Episodic Drama (“Confessions”) categories.

The stable of writers penning the HBO show Veep won for Best Comedy Series.

Comedian Brad Garrett hosted the Los Angeles ceremony.

The event included comic/director Mel Brooks presenting the Screen Laurel lifetime achievement award to Paul Mazursky. Actor Henry Winkler gave the Television Laurel lifetime achievement award to Garry Marshall and Jennifer Tilly handed the Valentine Davies Award to producer/director Sam Simon. Thomas C. Cook, the screenwriter behind The China Syndrome, was posthumously honored with the Morgan Cox Award for Guild service.

--City News Service