The 59th Annual Emmy nominations have been announced and boy am I pissed. The overrated Heroes stole a spot from the superior dramas like Friday Night Lights and Dexter, and Two and a Half Men somehow managed to yet again get a nod even though it’s one of the worst comedies on television.

The brilliant Michael C. Hall was snubbed as well, which I will be bitter about until next July, and Weeds was snubbed of a very well deserved nomination for Best Comedy Series to make room for the just okay Entourage and the embarrassing Two and a Half Men.

There are some things I’m very happy about, though. America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams got respective nods in the Lead Actress and Supporting Actress categories and I so hope they both win. Also, finally Kevin Dillon was given a nod for his comic portrayal of Johnny Drama on HBO’s Entourage. Sally Field received a nod for her powerful and poignant performance on Brothers and Sisters this year, and my favorite Grey’s Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl finally got her nomination for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Kudos to Felicity Huffman for being the only actress from Desperate Housewives nominated this year–she gave a fantastic performance in that heart-racing episode called “Bang”, but honestly I’m hoping it finally goes to my girl Mary-Louise Parker who, though she already has an Emmy from Angels In America, has deserved another one for Weeds since day one.

Congrats to all!

Outstanding Drama Series
Boston Legal
Grey’s Anatomy
Heroes
House
The Sopranos

Outstanding Comedy Series
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty

Outstanding Reality Series
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing with the Stars
Project Runway
Top Chef

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Late Night With Conan O’Brien
Late Show With David Letterman
Real Time With Bill Maher

Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Patricia Arquette (Medium)
Minnie Driver (The Riches)
Edie Falco (The Sopranos)
Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters)
Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

Lead Actor in a Drama Series
James Gandolfini (The Sopranos)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Denis Leary (Rescue Me)
James Spader (Boston Legal)
Kiefer Sutherland (24)

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters)
Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy)
Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy)
Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy)
Aida Turturro (The Sopranos)
Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos)

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
William Shatner (Boston Legal)
Masi Oka (Heroes)
T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy)
Michael Emerson (Lost)
Terry O’Quinn (Lost)
Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos)

Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Ricky Gervais (Extras)
Tony Shalhoub (Monk)
Steve Carell (The Office)
Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men)

Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives)
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (New Adventures of Old Christine)
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty)
Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds)

Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Kevin Dillon (Entourage)
Jeremy Piven (Entourage)
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)
Rainn Wilson (The Office)
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men)

Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl)
Jenna Fischer (The Office)
Conchata Ferrell (Two and a Half Men)
Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men)
Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty)
Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds)

See the rest of the nominations here

Woohoo! I’m so happy today because my Desperate Housewives ladies Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman nabbed Golden Globe nominations! The show itself also got a nomination for Best Comedy Series.

But something interesting about this year’s nominations is…they nominated three people multiple times. Clint Eastwood got two Best Director nominations, Helen Mirren got two nominations for Best Actress in a Mini-Series as well as a Best Actress in a Drama nomination, and Leonardo DiCaprio received two nominations for Best Actor–one for Blood Diamond and one for The Departed.

It seems REALLY stupid to me, because obviously the person cannot win for both. It’s a waste of a nomination, especially when there are other deserving candidates who could be nominated. Luckily, there’s rules against this at the Oscars.

Some other nominations that made me happy:

Jeremy Piven - Entourage
Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
Patricia Arquette- Medium
Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer
Michael C. Hall - Dexter
Katherine Heigl - Grey’s Anatomy
Ugly Betty
Thank You For Smoking

Snubs:

Vanessa Williams - Ugly Betty
Mariska Hargitay - Law & Order: SVU
Bill Condon - Dreamgirls (Best Director)
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson (One of Leo’s noms would have gone to him)

You can view the entire list of nominees here.

In the September issue of Out magazine, Johnny Knoxville, who the magazine brands as quite possibly the gayest straight man ever (which, honestly, I could think of some gayer ones), talks about Jackass (the show and the movies), and A Dirty Shame, a film he made with John Waters. And of course, addresses his gay fanbase.

During the filming of A Dirty Shame—a film credited for bringing gay bears into the collective American consciousness, Knoxville developed a thing for bear culture and tried to get himself on the cover of American Grizzly magazine.

“They said they don’t do celebrity endorsements,” he laments. “I was so angry and hurt. I asked John, ‘Do you have a number for the editor?’ But he didn’t want me to grovel.” Instead, Knoxville tattooed a bear on his arm with Grrr! written across its belly. Then he bought all the MTV executives subscriptions to American Grizzly, “whether they liked it or not.”

Which pretty much sums up the Jackass mentality. Its devoted fan base knows that not only is Jackass really juvenile, it’s also perceived as really, really gay, a quality that Knoxville appears to relish. “A few different publications gave us awards for, uh, gayness,” he says.

“After this next movie comes out we might be looking at some lifetime achievement awards.” The franchise is essentially Girls Gone Wild for homos, an amateurish production where jockish straight boys get naked and, as Knoxville says, “wrestle around and hurt each other. There’s ass play, giggling. It just comes real natural.” So natural that while shooting Wildboyz—the Jackass crew’s current MTV venture, which is like National Geographic with G-strings and injuries—“they got some notes from above saying, ‘OK, guys, this is almost too gay. Can you tone down the gayness?’ And so they tried to make it not as gay, but then it just got gayer,” Knoxville says. “So it seems we are no longer driving the ship.”

More of the article can be found at Out.com, you can read it in full in the September issue of Out magazine.

More pics in the forum.
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So the new season of Showtime’s biggest hit..wait…Showtimes ONLY hit Weeds started last week, and I have to say guys, I’m ridiculously underwhelmed. I’m disappointed in the writers and producers of this show because honestly, you’re letting your only gem slip. It was SUCH a great show, and although it far from sucks now, it’s no longer must-see TV.

Okay, did anyone else WAY see the DEA agent’s comment coming that he knew Nancy was a drug dealer? First of all, I kind of had a feeling he knew when he called her saying he was in front of her house and was about to walk in. Then once Nancy got in the car and started rambling I was like…”I bet you at the end of the little speech, he’s gonna say he knows”. And what do you know? He did.

Y’know, I love this show, always have–and will continue to watch anyway…but the first two episodes of this season just don’t have the spark that I loved from previous episodes. Kind of the problem I had with the second season of Desperate Housewives. I was like..okay, this is still a good show–but it’s just not pitch perfect like it was before.

Hopefully the next few episodes of Weeds will get better, because so far I’ve been pretty underwhelmed. Even the lines they’re giving the BRILLIANT Elizabeth Perkins (who is half the reason I watch the show) are pretty stale.

Many critics and even people within the show itself (Felicity Huffman, James Denton, Mehcad Brooks) admitted that the first season of ABC’s darling dramedy Desperate Housewives suffered a dip in the creative department during it’s second season–particularly at the beginning. Most say it had a lot to do with the weakness of its central mystery (which is why I’m boggled as to how Woodard landed an Emmy nom, but that’s another story)–others say it wasn’t as funny and that the storylines became too Melrose Place.

ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson was asked by a reporter Tuesday about the “creative collapse” of the hit show–and he begged to differ that “collapse” was the right choice of word. After all, Desperate Housewives was ABC’s most watched series this past season–it must be doing something right to have 22 million viewers coming back every Sunday night. McPherson says the show will get back to its “wicked comedy” that the viewers and critics alike so enjoyed the first season, once the show’s third year begins. He says:

“I think everyone including [creator Marc Cherry] admitted that at the beginning of last year we stumbled a little bit, [We] answered so many questions at the end of the first season that he really spent too much time, I think, setting up the mystery, setting up the new arcs, and this year we’re going to jump right in.”

Due to the departure of Executive Producer Tom Spezialy, the show’s creator Marc Cherry will have more creative control this season, and has more of it mapped out, McPherson assures. He goes on to add:

“Marc has, partly because of the responsibility of 100 percent falling on his shoulders, has really stepped up and gotten out ahead of it, and we have seen more arcing of the entire season from a specific story standpoint and soap standpoint than we’ve ever seen so far.”

Desperate Housewives garnered about 22.2 million viewers a week during its second season, off about 6 percent from the 23.7 million it got in 2004-05. Additionally, it was the No. 3 show on TV among adults 18-49, trailing only the two editions of American Idol–hardly a flop.

In regards to the Emmy snubs, McPherson said:

“Who wins the Emmys is one thing, but to have that kind of oversight just, to me, is remarkable, I think for one year [for Lost] to win it and then the next year to not be nominated, for one year one of the Desperate Housewives to win the best actress and then for none of them to be nominated the next year, there’s a problem.”

Don’t even get me started on the unforgivable snub of Marcia Cross. Well okay, I suppose I could forgive if Elizabeth Perkins walks away with a statue come August.

This week’s Video Clip of the Week is the first episode of one of my favorite show’s ever Weeds, which of course stars the Goddess Mary Louise Parker and the divine Elizabeth Perkins (whoo! Emmy nominee). Check it out. There’s four parts.