Who the Emmys Missed

Every year the Emmys miss some great actors and it's just a shame. But in a parallel dimension somewhere, all these people were nominated and I was really happy:

• Lauren Graham, best actress in a comedy, Gilmore Girls. The buzz is that the Emmy rules were changed this year in part to help her get a nod because WB and UPN can't ever get nominations. But Lauren submitted a strangely whiney episode and didn't get the nomination.
• Kristen Bell, best actress in a drama, Veronica Mars. This girl has taken away a bit of the sting of Buffy being off the air. She's really quirky, funny, and downright talented.
• Edie Falco, best actress in a drama, The Sopranos. Yes, she's won before. But this was her best year ever. I was shocked she wasn't given a nod.
• Jeremy Piven, best actor in a comedy, Entourage. I have no idea why he was nominated instead for supporting actor.
• Mary McDonnell, best supporting actress in a drama, Battlestar Galactica. Folks, the show (and Mary) are just that good.
• Terry O'Quinn (Locke) and Josh Holloway (Sawyer) are both fantastic on Lost. They should get supporting actor noms.
• Marcia Cross, best actress in a comedy, Desperate Housewives. She was robbed, robbed I tell you. This year there was almost nothing good about the show, except for Bree. She had some fantastic scenes.
• Ellen Pompeo, best actress in a drama, Grey's Anatomy. The show has gotten so many kudos, but really the character of Meredith is the linchpin. Her deep sorrow, her goofiness, and issues hold the show together. I think the role is flashy, but certainly hard to play.

More Words for Lindsay Lohan

"You can't show up late...It's very, very disrespectful," William H. Macy said of Lindsay Lohan on the press junket for his new movie Everyone's Hero. He continues, "I think what an actor has to realize...when you show up an hour late, 150 people have been scrambling to cover for you. There is not an apology big enough in the world to have to make 150 people scramble. It's nothing but disrespect. And Lindsay Lohan is not the only one. A lot of actors show up late as if they're God's gift to the film. It's inexcusable, and they should have their asses kicked."

Ouch! Rock on, William H.

I Don't Think Taylor Hicks is Gay...

One of the tabloids recently had an article about Taylor Hicks' sordid gay past. I don't believe it--there's no way he's a homo. But it turns out that Hicks' former Alabama producer has been selling Taylor's old songs on iTunes and when Taylor got a judge to stop the songs, the producer got nasty. He said he had turned down big-time money offers to talk of Taylor's lurid sexual and drug-using past. Eeek.

Lost Scoop on E! Online

Kristin at E! Online just visited the set of Lost and has some juicy tidbits to share today. They include:

• Desmond, Henry Gale, and Tom Cruise's cousin (Ethan) will all play a large part in the story this season.
• The hatch is gone. No more. The set is pulled down so we won't see it anymore.
• Could Claire be Jack's half-sister?
• The Others live in a crazy location (not those tents) that we haven't seen yet.
• We'll find this season why Locke was wheelchair-bound.

Emmy Ponderings

I've been waiting to talk about the Emmys because the nominations came out months before this weekend's awards and the nominee ommissions were more glaring than usual. For a complete list of nominations you can visit GoldDerby.com. Tomorrow I'll mention people who should have been nominated. But here are my musings on this year's nominees:

• Fantastic that Jeremy Piven was nominated for Entourage. But why supporting? That makes ab-so-lute-ly no sense. Everyone knows he's the heart of the show.
• Glad to see that Grey's Anatomy did so well: a best drama series nomination and props to Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson for supporting nods.
• Rock on, Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback), Jean Smart (24), and Steve Carrell (The Office)--all under-appreciated actors.
• Nice that no one forgot about Peter Krause and Frances Conroy in the final season of Six Feet Under. They're up for actor and actress. And cheers to remembering Arrested Development up for best comedy.
• But I can't can't can't believe The West Wing get nominated as best drama for it's lousy final season. And Allison Janney might have had a great last episode, but she almost never on the show last season. Honestly, she could crap on the toilet for a whole episode and they would still give her an Emmy.
• How did Alfre Woodard get nominated for a ridiculous ridiculous role and performance on Desperate Housewives? And Stockard Channing got nominated for best actress in her Out of Practice show which had like 3 episodes before getting canceled!

The Emmys got a lot of (deserved) crap from critics for the crazy nominations this year. The judging system was changed, but the votes still seem arbitrary with people voting for shows or performances they have never seen. Probably the biggest uproar in the nominations has been Ellen Burstyn's supporting actress nomination for HBO's miniseries Mrs. Harris. Turns out Burstyn is only in the movie for a total of 14 seconds in an unnamed role. The people who voted simply saw her name and said, "Oh, Ellen Burstyn! I know her from movies. She must be good in this."

The Best Project Runway Ever!

I'm not kidding. Last night's episode was so good that I had to spontaneously react and chat with strangers, sweaty strangers, at the gym. The designers found out that they had to design for an "everyday woman" and then their own mothers and sisters marched out on the runway as their models! Of course there was a catch: the designers had to design for someone else's mom or sis. Ack!

A few thoughts:

• Somehow Vincent won the challenge, which is nuts because his dress wasn't that pretty. It should have been Uli's glamorous, stylish piece.
• I still say (as I've said from day 1) Uli will win the whole shebang.
• I was sad to see Robert (and his mole) leave the show, but he really hasn't created anything of note lately. So his exit wasn't that much of a surprise.
• Wasn't it funny how alike the designers and their mothers were? Whether they looked alike, or acted alike, it made me laugh.
• A (sweaty) woman at the gym got pissed when fuckhead Jeffrey berated Angela's mother. The gym lady said, "If I were Angela, I would bitchslap his ass."
• I think the bitchslap-deserving Jeffrey will be the next to leave the runway. I hope so anyway!

Sticking it to Tom Cruise

Pretty hilarious that the same day Paramount drops Tom Cruise on his flat ass, the studio hires the South Park creators. Remember Tom has had it in for the guys since this year's "Trapped in the Closet" episode of South Park devoted to Scientology. It realllly sucks to be Tom Cruise today.

Stargate SG-1 Not Dead

I was a bit sad yesterday when I heard that Stargate SG-1 was being cancelled at the end of this (it's 10th) season on Sci Fi. I mean, how was I going to get a weekly fix of Ben Browder? But it turns out that MGM, the company that owns the franchise, is looking to have the series move toward television movies and possibly even another feature film. (Remember the tv show is based on the 1994 movie with Kurt Russell and James Spader). And...some of the main characters may just migrate to the newer show Stargate Atlantis.

Schadenfreude Delight

About a month ago we talked about how Tom Cruise's usual huge money deal with Paramount was about to be whittled down. Well, I guess I was wrong. Turns out, Paramount has fired Tom Cruise flat-out. Viacom head Sumner Redstone says of Cruise, "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount." Fan-fucking-tastic!

Look for a tiny trail of red in tonight's starry sky. It's Tom Cruise's ego as it falls to earth from its degrading orbit. Now Tom's ego can soar at the same true height as his star status: the front porch light of the Church of Scientology headquarters.

When the Levees Broke

If you didn't watch the two-hour first half of Spike Lee's new documentary about hurricane Katrina on HBO last night, be warned: it's hard to watch. The thing that caught me most off guard was the few shots of bodies bloated and floating in the water. It was horrific.

The documentary consists mostly of interviews with locals and officials and clip footage of New Orleans and the hurricane. And to Spike's credit, he made the decision early on to focus on New Orleans as microcosm of the disaster. What you begin to see (and remember from a year ago) is how much like American refugees the people of New Orleans become. Many had no way to leave the city pre-hurricane--there was no good evacuation plan for the poor, homeless, and elderly. When some tried to walk across the bridge into other cities, cops met them with rifles and shotguns.

Watching the smug and innefectual Bush do nothing to rally his cronies (Rice, Brown, and Chertoff) is just mind-numbing. Truly unbelievable. But props to the public officials who were interviewed. Neither Nagan nor Blanco have anything to be proud of, but both help to provide a real history of what happened. Perhaps my favorite talking head was CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien. She shows a real rage and bewilderment and how our federal government can get aid to Tsunami victims across the world in 2 days , when it takes 5 days to get aid to one of our own cities. It's astounding.

Race Riots on Survivor!

Not really...but methinks there is some drama in the newest evolution of the hit show: the buzz is that Survivor cast meembers will be grouped by race into four tribes in the new season. Of course they have grouped already by age and sex, so this isn't all that new. But I feel race is a little more touchy a subject. A few years back, Real World/Road Rules Challenge was going to do an entire season with gays versus straights. But right before they started filming, MTV balked. I wonder if this Survivor will actually be filmed with tribes in racial groups, or if it too will be an incendiary idea that falls by the wayside.

Prison Break Death?

Holy crap! Don't read if you missed Prison Break last night. In the last few minutes of the show, one of the main characters was killed off! I didn't see it coming at all, but goodbye Robin Tunney's character, Veronica. (I would shed a little tear but I never really liked her to begin with).

I Feel Pretty

If you haven't seen the new Nike commercial with Maria Sharapova, do yourself a favor and take a look. Maybe it's because I'm gay the spot involves showtunes, I don't know, but this commercial is absolutely genius.

On the Tube Tonight

Hey, a few things not to miss on TV tonight:

• The season premiere of Prison Break which promises to continue its sexy man factor, as the inmates have escaped and are running from The Law.
• It's the penultimate episode of this season's Kyle XY on ABC Family.
• I'm really not a fan of Spike Lee at all, but his first half of the documentary When the Levees Broke begins tonight on HBO.
• I'm going to skip the series premiere of Vanished on Fox tonight. It's gotten so-so buzz. But if any of you watch it and it's good, be sure to let me know.

Kal Penn to 24!

I love me some Kal Penn, so I'm happy to hear he's joining Kiefer and his cadre on 24. Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle wasn't the best movie ever, but there were some scenes that made me laugh my ass off. Go rent the movie and you can see a nice scene of Kal (Kumar) doing a little manscaping.

Give Samuel L. Jackson a Parachute!

Well...Snakes on a Plane did lousy business its opening weekend. But is that any surprise? Sure, it had a great internet campaign. Yeah, it was cool that Jackson would leave voice mail messages for people. And the title rocked. But what studio heads can't seem to understand is that if the movie blows, no matter how fucking badass the actors in it, nobody wants to see it. And the studio had to know the movie was a stinker--they didn't even let critics advance screen it.

Everyone I know said the same thing about Snakes on a Plane, "I'm thinking about going to see the movie, but it's probably going to stink, so I should get drunk first." Maybe one day the studios will learn...but my guess is not that soon.