kudos (30 posts)

Steve Granitz WireImage.com

This is shaping up to be not much of a year for Emmy repeats (unless James Spader runs away with it again).

My Name Is Earl star Jaime Pressly, who was named Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy in 2007, has been left off the shortlist of female laugh-inducers who stand a chance of hearing their names announced July 17, when the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences reveals all the nominees for the 59th Prime-Time Emmy Awards.

Meanwhile, the competition Pressly beat out last year has made the cut, according to another top-secret list obtained by the L.A. Times' Gold Derby blog.

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CLIFF LIPSON/CBS

Ted and Barney weren't the only ones to give Abby the receptionist the brushoff.

Britney Spears' hyped two-episode appearance on How I Met Your Mother didn't catch the eye of Emmy voters, who left her off their list of semifinalists for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, per the latest round of Emmy scoopage from the L.A. Times' Gold Derby blog.

Spears shouldn't feel too snubbed, though—fellow twentysomething Mary-Kate Olsen, who played a pot-dealing proselytizer on Weeds, didn't make the cut, either. And she's been acting all her life!

But this year, only two under-40 thesps made the first cut, the relative young'uns being Sarah Silverman, who could be a two-time Emmy nominee thanks to her turn as a psycho fan on Monk, and Oscar nominee Amy Ryan, who made quite the impression as the Michael-liking "new Toby" on The Office.

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FX, ABC

The women of Lost are nowhere to be found.

None of the eligible female players from ABC's mind-boggling island mystery—in addition to the XX crew of Battlestar Galactica, women married to Bill Paxton and hardly anyone who solves crime—made it onto the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences' list of semifinalists for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Not that some pretty fine thesps didn't make the cut, per the list obtained by the L.A. Times' Gold Derby blog. But this year it was lawyers, moms, people giving or receiving therapy, people who just plain need therapy and some familiar hot doctors who tickled Emmy voters' fancy.

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Ash Knotek/ZUMAPress.com

While excitable critics are abuzz about a possible posthumous Oscar nomination for Heath Ledger's Joker, there's a more immediate honor for the late star.

Ledger's hometown of Perth, Australia, has named an $88 million playhouse after the actor.

West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter, accompanied by Ledger's father Kim, this morning announced plans for the 575-seat Heath Ledger Theatre.

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ABC/RANDY HOLMES

As far as the Academy is concerned, Christina Applegate is right up there with America Ferrera. And so is Sarah Silverman, give or take a little polarizing ethnic humor.

Along with Ferrera, last year's winner, Silverman and Applegate have landed on the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' shortlist of thesps in the running for the 2008 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, according to the Los Angeles Times' Gold Derby blog.

While the writers' strike threw a wrench in the second-season schedule for Silverman's eponymous Comedy Central sitcom and shortened the first season of Applegate's return to TV in ABC's Samantha Who?, both arrived to winning reviews and will be returning to their respective networks next season.

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AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

T-Pain has a knack for showing up in the right place at the right time.

"I'd like to thank T-Pain for gettin' on the record with me," said Kanye West, a two-time winner Tuesday at the 2008 BET Awards, upon accepting their award for Best Collaboration on the Graduation tune "Good Life." "This man's a genius. What he does, what he writes...we're blessed to be in this man's presence."

The 22-year-old rapper-producer, a featured artist on no less than 18 singles (so far) in 2007 and 2008, entered the evening with a leading five nominations, although his shared win with West was it for now.

West was also named Best Male Hip-Hop Artist for the second time, his first win in that category coming in 2005, when Late Registration was still a new album.

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Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com, HBO / Paul Schrialdi

Jerry Seinfeld is going multimedia to honor his favorite monster, George Carlin.

In a New York Times editorial today and an appearance on last night's Larry King Live, Seinfeld recalled his final conversation with Carlin, which devolved into a riff on mortality.

"The honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about," Seinfeld writes in the Times. "I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.

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Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com

It's going to take an army—or at least a stronger contingent than they've got over at The View—to take down Ellen DeGeneres.

The master of witty self-deprecation won her fourth consecutive trophy for Outstanding Talk Show Host, once again besting Barbara Walters & Co. and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

"I never take this for granted...Every single year, I know people joke about it…It's not what we do it for, but it feels so good," DeGeneres said while thanking her fans, crew, family and fiancée, Portia de Rossi.

"We all know this has been a crazy year. On my show, we've done a lot of crying and a lot of laughing, and I've cried all by myself and people laugh, and then I cry some more...I know you're counting me down, but it's the longest day of the year, I just read, so I can go on," she continued, referring to tonight's summer solstice.

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They couldn't help it from being a sad day, but the hundreds of mourners who attended a private mass and memorial service for Tim Russert did their best to point out the most shining moments of a life well lived.

"As Tim would look out on this gathering, he would say, 'It's wild, it's wild. My family, my closest friends from near and far, the powerful, the ordinary and the largest contingence of all in this room—those who think they should be his successor on Meet the Press," longtime friend and colleague Tom Brokaw began his tribute, drawing hearty laughter from the crowd packed into the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for this afternoon's memorial.

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Hundreds lined up and eventually thousands arrived Tuesday to pay their last respects to one of journalism's favorite sons, Meet the Press host Tim Russert. His sudden death at age 58 last week left colleagues, friends and fans reeling—especially considering coverage of this year's presidential election is now without one of the most respected political voices in Washington, D.C.

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Paul Schiraldi

There once were seven words that you couldn't say on TV. Luckily for George Carlin, you could say them on stage.

The 71-year-old comedian, whose half-century in stand-up has been spent pointing out the funnier foibles mankind has to offer, will receive the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

The honor will be presented to the bearded society-skewerer Nov. 10 at the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will later be televised on PBS.

Richard Pryor was the first comic to receive the award in 1998. Past honorees include Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin.

Nancy Kaszerman/ZumaPress.com

Metallica want opinions about Death Magnetic to live freely online.

The platinum-selling rockers have announced the title of their next album, which despite its fine pedigree (produced by über-visionary Rick Rubin), has already created its share of controversy for the shaggily coiffed quartet.

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