2006 Emmy Award Nominations

[anonymous1980]

Well, this just proves the Emmy voters do not watch the films when voting for the nomination. Some of them vote purely by name recognition. It's very unfair that Ellen Burstyn gets a nomination for simply being Ellen Burstyn while a lesser known actress who has a bigger, more substantial and more difficult role in another movie or this movie gets snubbed.

[OscarGuy]

Also in defense of Burstyn, it has been stated that ALL actors, regardless of role length, in HBO pictures are submitted for Emmy consideration. This was HBO's doing, not Burstyn's. I know it's not her fault but I think people out there assume (partly because Tom O'Neil has made them think such) that only the actors submit their own names. Which isn't true. Usually the publicists or the production companies submit the names but if they don't, it's up to the performer to make sure they get submitted.

I think Emmy voters should give her the Emmy just to say "screw you" to all the belly-achers.

[flipp525]

Ellen Burstyn's 14 second Emmy nominated performance.

Poor Ellen Burstyn. It’s not her fault, for godsakes. It’s the stupid voters who didn’t even watch the damn film (which was quite good, I thought – have a review posted in Films of 2006). I'd think that after the debacle of not winning a much-deserved Oscar for ‘Requiem for a Dream’ in 2000, people might be more willing to separate the performer from the circumstances under which she’s been ridiculously nominated.

I don’t think this is a “Judi Dench-ism” either. Dench stole every scene she was in and was probably one of the best things about SIL.

[anonymous1980]

Ellen Burstyn's 14 second Emmy nominated performance.

[anonymous1980]

My final predictions:

OUTSTANDING MADE FOR TELEVISION MOVIE
Flight 93 (A&E)

OUSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
The Office (NBC)

OUTSTANDING MINISERIES
Bleak House: Masterpiece Theater (PBS)

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC or COMEDY SERIES
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC)

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC or COMEDY SPECIAL
The XX Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony (NBC)

OUTSTANDING REALITY/COMPETITION PROGRAM
American Idol (Fox)

OUSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES, MOVIE or DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Ben Kingsley, Mrs. Harris (HBO)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES, MOVIE or DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Helen Mirren, Elizabeth I (HBO)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES, MOVIE or DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth I (HBO)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES, MOVIE or DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Kelly MacDonald, The Girl in the Cafe (HBO)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Allison Janney, The West Wing (NBC)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Alan Alda, The West Wing (NBC)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Steve Carrell, The Office (NBC)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jane Kaczmarek, Malcolm in the Middle (Fox)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Bryan Cranston, Malcolm in the Middle (Fox)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl (NBC)

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A VARIETY or MUSIC PROGRAM
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING IN A MINISERIES, MOVIE or DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Tom Hooper, Elizabeth I (HBO)

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A MINISERIES, MOVIE or DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Andrew Davies, Bleak House: Masterpiece Theater (PBS)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jack Bender, Lost: "Live Together, Die Alone" (ABC)

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A DRAMA SERIES
Shonda Rhimes, Grey's Anatomy: "It's the End of the World"/"As We Know It" (ABC)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING IN A COMEDY SERIES
Marc Buckland, My Name Is Earl: "Pilot" (NBC)

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jim Vallely, Mitchell Hurwitz, Richard Day and Chuck Tatham, Arrested Development: "Development Arrested" (Fox)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING IN A VARIETY or MUSIC PROGRAM
Bruce Gowers, American Idol: "Finale" (Fox)

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A VARIETY or MUSIC PROGRAM
David Javerbaum, Rachel Axler, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Steve Bodow, Tim Carvell, Stephen Colbert, Eric Drysdale, J.R. Havlan, Scott Jacobson, Ben Karlin, Rob Kutner, Sam Means, Chris Regan, Jason Reich, Jason Ross and Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Henry Ian Cusick, Lost (ABC)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Patricia Clarkson, Six Feet Under (HBO)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Leslie Jordan, Will & Grace (NBC)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Blythe Danner, Will & Grace (NBC)

[Big Magilla]

It's got to be those damn old people again. They remember Burstyn playing Mrs. Harris in an older TV movie and want to recognize her for that as well. It's the same thing that happened last year when Jane Alexander, who memorably played Eleanor Roosevelt twice in the 1970s, played Eleanor's mother-in-law in the Kenneth Branagh version and actually won for very few minutes of screen time. Granted it was more than 14 seconds, but still, symptomatic of the problem. Gotta take away Jane Wyman and Jane Wyatt's voting rights.

[dws1982]

Here's an article about Ellen Burstyn's nominated performance, which you could miss entirely if you go to the bathroom at just the right spot:

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An article on Ellen Burstyn's 14 second Emmy nominated performance from The Hollywood Reporter:

Burstyn's Emmy nom no vote of confidence

By Ray Richmond

Remember the furor that erupted in 1999 over the Oscar win of Dame Judi Dench as best supporting actress for "Shakespeare in Love"? The issue was the brevity of her role, eight minutes to be exact.

But if that was short, what does that make the Emmy-nominated performance of Ellen Burstyn in the HBO docudrama "Mrs. Harris"? Burstyn is in all of two semi-connected scenes, the first running nine seconds, the second five seconds. Grand total: 14 seconds. That's more than 34 times shorter than the performance for which Dame Judi received such flak.

I am not making this up. In fact, I timed it four times just to be precise. Here is the sum total of Burstyn's performance, an on-screen Chyron identifying her character as "Former Tarnower Steady" (Tarnower being Dr. Herman Tarnower, the murdered protagonist of the piece):

Former Steady (sitting, smoking a cigarette, in flashback, sporting a European accent, music playing in background): "I had my own money, so he was more relaxed with me, though I don't know it can be said that Herman was relaxed with any woman."

Former Steady (some 15 seconds later): "His favorite piece of music was the film score from 'Cleopatra.'"

And there you have it. The full quantity of Burstyn's work in the film that didn't wind up on the cutting-room floor. So minuscule is it that HBO didn't even bother to list Burstyn on its consideration page in the network Emmy screener kit sent out to voters. If she were to win, her acceptance speech would exceed the length of her performance threefold.

In the "Mrs. Harris" credits, Burstyn is identified as "Ex-Lover #3." On the HBO Web site, she finally has a proper handle: Gerda Stedman. But by any name, how does something like this happen? How does a performance that's so ridiculously unsubstantial -- so small it can't properly even be called a cameo and isn't even long enough to fill a clip during the Emmycast -- get recognized, crowding out far more worthy pieces of work?

One thing this can't be blamed on is the new nominee voting system, which has already been accused of everything short of aiding the terrorists. This choice had nothing to do with the Blue Ribbon panels and indeed may have been avoided had that system been in place for the category.

No, this is more attributable to a perfect storm of voter laziness and a lack of adequate TV academy oversight. Burstyn was submitted in the first place because every performer gets entered from HBO's projects, no matter how inconsequential the role, to avoid charges of favoritism or exclusion. And the academy's rules as they stand now list no time minimum that an actor has to be on-screen.

That brings it back to the voters, who no doubt looked at the name Ellen Burstyn on their ballot, view her as a great actress and pushed her as one of the category's five nominees without bothering to slip "Mrs. Harris" into their DVD player -- or at the very least eyeing Burstyn's performance.

Yes, this is one of those times when it can be pretty definitively declared that votes came in based on reputation alone, because you simply don't nominate an actress for an award whose role finds her uttering a scant 38 words unless muteness is part of the character and it's about facial expression as much as dialogue. That's not the case here. Not in 14 seconds.

The academy ought to be embarrassed over this. So might Burstyn, who could have (and should have) sent a strong message by renouncing her nomination on the grounds of outlandishness. (Calls to Burstyn's publicist for comment were unsuccessful.)

Allowing this kind of travesty to stand threatens to irreparably diminish the Emmy's value and make a mockery of an honor that's having a lot of trouble coping with middle age as it is.

[Nik]

BTW, Tom O'Neil is now insisting in his silly column at The Envelope, that the Emmy nominations are a success and a triumph. He doesn't get the bashing they received and - once again - he's taking the position that all the naysayers are clueless and he's the only one who's seen the light. Wow. Could this sad little man BE any more out of touch?

I guess though we have to at least be grateful that he didn't resort to his usual shtick of calling all the dismissive critics macho, testosterone driven thugs who only want to be hip and cool.

[dws1982]

Comedy submissions--

COMEDY SERIES:
Arrested Development • ("Mr. F" & "Ocean Walker", "Making a Stand" & "S.O.B.s", "Exit Strategy" & "Development Arrested")
Curb Your Enthusiasm • ("Larry David Sandwich" & "Christ Nail", "Ski Lift" & "Korean Bookie", "Lewis Needs a Kidney" & "The End")
The Office • ("The Dundies" & "Christmas Party", "The Injury" & "Booze Cruise", "The Secret" & "Valentine's Day")
Scrubs • ("My Jiggly Ball" & "My Way Home", "My Big Bird" & "My Half-Acre", "My Own Personal Hell" & "My Lunch")
Two And A Half Men • ("Principal Gallagher's Lesbian Lover" & "Hi, Mr. Horned One", "Sleep Tight Puddin' Pop" & "That Special Tug", "Santa's Village" & "Madame and Her Special Friend")

COMEDY LEAD ACTOR:
Curb Your Enthusiasm • Larry David ("The Ski Lift")
The King Of Queens • Kevin James ("Pole Lox")
Monk • Tony Shalhoub ("Mr. Monk Bumps His Head")
The Office • Steve Carell ("The Injury")
Two And A Half Men • Charlie Sheen ("The Unfortunate Little Schnauzer")

COMEDY LEAD ACTRESS:
The Comeback • Lisa Kudrow ("Valerie Does Another Classic Leno")
Malcolm In The Middle • Jane Kaczmarek ("Lois Strikes Back")
New Adventures Of Old Christine • Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Supertramp")
Out Of Practice • Stockard Channing ("I'll Cry If I Want To")
Will & Grace • Debra Messing ("The Finale")

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Arrested Development • Will Arnett ("Making a Stand", "S.O.B.s")
Entourage • Jeremy Piven ("The Bat Mitzvah", "Exodus")
Malcolm In The Middle • Bryan Cranston ("Hal Grieves", "College Recruiters")
Two And A Half Men • Jon Cryer ("That Special Tug", "Weekend in Bangkok")
Will & Grace • Sean Hayes ("Alive & Schtiking", "I Love L. Gay")

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Curb Your Enthusiasm • Cheryl Hines ("The Bowtie", "The Korean Bookie")
Desperate Housewives • Alfre Woodard ("You'll Never Get Away From Me", "I Know Things Now")
My Name Is Earl • Jaime Pressly ("Joy's Wedding", "Bounty Hunter")
Weeds • Elizabeth Perkins ("You Can't Miss the Bear", "The Punishment Light")
Will & Grace • Megan Mullally ("The Finale")

[dws1982]

These are confirmed submissions for the Drama categories--

DRAMA SERIES:
Grey’s Anatomy • ("Bring the Pain" & "Into You Like a Train", "Thanks for the Memories" & "Break on Through", "It's the End of the World" & "As We Know It")
House • ("Autopsy" & "The Mistake", "Distractions" & "Clueless", "House vs. God" & "No Reason")
The Sopranos • ("Members Only" & "Join the Club", "Fleshy Part of the Thigh" & "Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Present", "Live Free or Die" & "The Ride")
24 • ("7:00-8:00am" & "8:00-9:00am", "9:00-10:00am" & "10:00-11:00am", 11:00am-12:00pm" & "12:00-1:00pm")
The West Wing • ("Here Today" & "Undecideds", "Election Day Part 2" & "Requiem", "The Cold" & "Tomorrow")

DRAMA LEAD ACTOR:
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit • Christopher Meloni ("Ripped")
Rescue Me • Denis Leary ("Justice")
Six Feet Under • Peter Krause ("Time Flies")
24 • Kiefer Sutherland ("Day 5: 7:00-8:00am")
The West Wing • Martin Sheen ("Tomorrow")

DRAMA LEAD ACTRESS:
The Closer • Kyra Sedgwick ("Fantasy Date")
Commander In Chief • Geena Davis ("Pilot")
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit • Mariska Hargitay ("911")
Six Feet Under • Frances Conroy ("Everyone's Waiting")
The West Wing • Allison Janney ("Institutional Memory")

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Boston Legal • William Shatner ("Witches of Mass Destruction", "Live Big")
Huff • Oliver Platt ("Red Meat", "So...What Brings You to Armageddon")
The Sopranos • Michael Imperioli ("Luxury Lounge" & "The Ride")
24 • Gregory Itzin ("Day 5: 3:00-4:00am", "Day 5: 6:00-7:00am")
The West Wing • Alan Alda ("Two Weeks Out", "The Last Hurrah")

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Boston Legal • Candice Bergen ("Ass Fat Jungle", "Live Big")
Grey’s Anatomy • Sandra Oh ("Deny Deny Deny", "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer")
Grey’s Anatomy • Chandra Wilson ("Deny Deny Deny", "As We Know It")
Huff • Blythe Danner ("Maps Don't Talk Part 2", "So...What Brings You to Armageddon")
24 • Jean Smart ("Day 5: 5:00-6:00am", "Day 5: 6:00-7:00am")

[Nik]

LMAO re: Tom O Neil! Thanks for sharing that dws. This guy is so weird and really where the heck is he coming from on that Star Jones angle? An underdog with America on her side? Huh? Someone's been sniffing too much crazy glue. EVERYONE I know is laughing their asses off because the general consensus before and after her ignoble exit was that Star was a big, self congratulatory, homophobic, neo-con cow. Good riddance!

[VanHelsing]

Ever since I realize that the Emmys are all about rewarding a single best episode out of the whole season of the show, I've lost interest in it.

So, for example, the omission of Lost & Desperate Housewives from the Best Series categories only mean that the episodes that they sent out for consideration are weak. Not the whole season. Blah!

[dws1982]

Since Damien mentioned Tom appearing on TV talking about Star Jones, I thought I'd post this, from Tom O'Neil's newly created wikipedia entry:

Tom O'Neil is a film and television critic, and a hollywood commentator who often appears as a pundit on shows featuring pop culture content. He has also worked as a producer for the TV Land network, writer for the New York Times and more recently as editor of the Hollywood gossip rag In Touch weekly. Mr O'Neil stirred up controversy during a recent appearance on MSNBC's Scarborough Country. The shows focus was the recent fall out at ABC caused by the dismissal of Attorney Star Jones from ABC'S daytime hit, The View. During the show O'Neil commented that in his opinion Star Jones career would be boosted because she was essentially being seen as the underdog, O'Neil stated that "... mainstream America is almost inherintly on [Star's] side because she represents the misfit woman. The woman who wasn't the right color, the woman who wasn't stacked like a model...". O'Neil's comments struck a negative cord with many woman across the country. Women are left wondering what the "right" color is and why not being "stacked like a model" categorizes them as "misfits". As someone who appears on shows like this often, to add his 2 cents and 15 minutes to conversations about Hollywood, you'd think that by now he'd have been trained to have much more tact than to make racist and chauvenistic comments on a nationally syndicated television program, clips of which are available for streaming views over the internet.

God bless whomever wrote that.

[rudeboy]

Actually, the show was pretty good up until the point that Rod Lurie was replaced. And Davis was fantastic on the show. Outside of this board, she got a significant amount of praise and a lot of it from regular folks.

Really? I've seen a few episodes and it appears like a very one-note, forgettable performance on a formulaic show (does every single episode have to end with the Donald Sutherland character scheming?) Maybe I have a thing against TV presidents - I've always found Martin Sheen to be by far the most unimpressive member of the West Wing ensemble.

[OscarGuy]

Actually, the show was pretty good up until the point that Rod Lurie was replaced. And Davis was fantastic on the show. Outside of this board, she got a significant amount of praise and a lot of it from regular folks.