We've Hit The Emmy Eligibility Wall. Who Are You Rooting For?

Saturday May 31st marks the final day of Emmy eligibility for the 2014 ceremony. Given the wildly varying schedules of television series in our modern 1,000+ channel world, episodes airing after this date will still apply if the season has enough episodes out to qualify. Eligibility periods can get confusing. Take Penny Dreadful on cable and Black Box (with Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave) on ABC for perfect examples. Both debuted before the cutoff date but neither of them have aired more than half their first season episodes yet so do they qualify or do they have to wait until next year? (Any Emmy trivia experts out there know?) 

Simpler examples that can still be a bit headscratching to the flow of the calendar happen over at Netflix. [Lots more after the jump...]

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The Linkae

After Ellen "Return of the Lesbian Villain"
/Film Sharon Stone does Mrs Robinson at The Graduate live-read
KCRW Tilda Swinton guest DJ special. She's a fan of Marilyn Manson, Björk & Bowie. We could have guessed as much!
Vanity Fair Daniel Radcliffe does the Proust Questionnaire 

What is your greatest regret? I’m 24! I think it’s a little early for all that

Pajiba Cameron Diaz vs Kiki Dunst in the battle of the vapid remarks
AV Club Tony Kushner working on another Steven Spielberg project The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. Sounds intriguing but anything that keeps Tony away from writing that Viola Davis as a politician movie is a problem for me
Judgmental Maps NYC by stereotype
Variety a new memoir on Ethel Merman. When is she getting a biopic for chrissakes?
i09 Why were there so many giant insect movies in the 1950s? 
/Film on potential superhero crossover movies. Only when the mega-corporations are out of ideas/money 

Today's Watch
The Normal Heart trailer. Will this be yet another TV movie that we have to wonder how it would have fared at the Oscars had it been released theatrically? At the very least the doctor role would've resulted in a nomination no matter who played it. That's the part once slated for Barbra Streisand decades ago with Julia Roberts taking over for Ellen Barkin who won the Tony on Broadway (why wasn't she asked to reprise it given her connections to Ryan Murphy?) so expect Julia at least to be up for the Emmy.

Exit Question: Is it just me or does the type here inadvertently imply or perhaps subliminally predict that Matt Bomer and Taylor Kitsch will one day be Oscar nominated actors?

Women's History Month: Laura Dern as Katherine Harris

Women's History Month continues with Adam Armstrong on Laura Dern in "Recount"  

Katherine Harris and Laura Dern as Katherine Harris

Born: Katherine Harris clawed her way into this world on April 5^th, 1957 and, presumably, crawled to her mother’s boudoir to try her first crack at putting on lipstick and dabbling in the different shades of foundation. Rose to prominence as Florida’s Secretary of State during the 2000 election. 

Death (in politics): Still kicking, albeit no longer Florida’s Secretary of State. After a failed 2006 senate election run, she still combats jokes regarding her unfairly ridiculed makeup techniques during the 2000 election recount fiasco. 

In the 2008 HBO film Recount, we are introduced to Harris when she is awoken, startled, at 3:52 a.m. by a phone call on the night of the election. She groggily answers the phone while the voice on the other end heatedly asks who the winner of Florida’s Electoral College votes is. Clad in a frumpy William Shakespeare caricature illustrated t-shirt and a pleather wannabe biker jacket, perhaps from an earlier time when she envisioned Harleys and assless chaps instead of pant suits and podiums, she sprays a puff of breath freshener and walks into the midst of electoral chaos, ripe for the feast that’s to begin. [More...]

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Gravitational Link

The Hollywood Reporter Woody Allen pulls Blue Jasmine from its India release due to anti-smoking laws. Don't tell Woody how his films have to be shown. He gets riled up. See also: Manhattan's (lack of) history on television.
Vulture one of our all time favorite DPs Emmanuel Lubezki looks at scenes from 5 of his beauties: The Tree of Life, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men and Gravity
Cinema Blend Katey on SNL's 50 Shades of Grey audition skit
San Francisco Chronicle how to spot a future classic? interesting article.
The Wrap on the huge amount of documentaries that Oscar voters will have to mull over
Vulture Patton Oswalt reveals his crushes from the Whedonverse. This is so cute
Playbill NYC and Brooklyn residents take note: sing-along screening of Little Shop of Horrors coming up with Rick Moranis 

TV
Pajiba You MUST see this accidental crass move from Disney via Once Upon a Time's spinoff (ugh. one bad show spawns another that will sure attempt to out-ugly Eyesore in Wonderland)
E! Online congratulations to Dot-Marie Jones (Glee) who got engaged to her girlfriend over the weekend. At Disneyland. [Inappropriate Side-Note Given The Happy Times Congratulation: Dot-Marie Jones, like Joan Cusack on Shameless, has competed for "Guest Actress" at the Emmys in three consecutive years. These are series regular roles. Emmy's "Guest" category has, like Oscar's "Supporting" category, gone from being a great idea to a "what is this for?" prize due to the constant fraudulent nominations. Stop the madness!]

I love this photo from behind the scenes of Gravity

Gravitational Pull
The Dissolve a spoiler-laden discussion between two critics on the movie of the moment 
Slate "Gravity is going to be a camp classic"  - this post is so prophetic! 
Vulture fact-checking Gravity with an astronaut. What if you vomit in your spacesuit? 
Deadline on the film's very impressive record-breaking box office

Emmy Night Winners

I've opted not to live blog tonight since I was bombing earlier on twitter. Not my night...

what i'll be doing later when Jon Hamm loses again

But that's okay because it's the Emmys and my attention drifts in and out and I'm way behind on writing projects which I'll sneak in on the side when things get dull in the middle.

Here are the acting and series winners... (refresh for updates)

LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Her fourth win so she joins the top ten actresses of all time for Emmy comedy (only 10 women have 4 or more) The speech was priceless with a meta-Veep moment with Tony Hale standing behind her, giving cues.
LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
His third win for this role
SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY Tony Hale, Veep
A minor surprise that also doubles as a tip of the hat to Arrested Development. Buster!
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY Merrit Wever, Nurse Jackie 
The most adorable acceptance speech. Wever is amazing on that show and a true original but given that Emmy seems to be over Nurse Jackie it was a surprise. Jane Krakowski must have murdered someone in Hollywood to go totally Emmyless for one of TV's all time funniest characters on a multi-Emmyed show (30 Rock) but what can you do? 

LEAD ACTRESS, MINISERIES The Lovely Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter
So Elisabeth Moss lost which is a mystery as complex as the one she was investigating in Top of the Lake. But clearly the cast of Mad Men will collectively never win any Emmys. Someone has voodoo dolls.
LEAD ACTOR, MINISERIES Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra 
And yes he asked Matt Damon if he wanted to the top or the bottom of the statue. 
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, MINISERIES/MOVIE Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals
SUPPORTING ACTOR, MINISERIES/MOVIE James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA Bobby Cannavale, Boardwalk Empire
LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA Claire Danes, Homeland
Her second win despite that awkward awkward moment early on when Diahann Carroll demanded a win for Kerry Washington 
LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA Jeff Daniels, Newsroom

MINISERIES / MOVIE Behind the Candelabra
Oy. Listen I liked Behind the Candelabra a lot but the fact that it won all these things and Top of the Lake went home empty-handed is kind of embarrassing. 
DRAMA SERIES Breaking Bad
Apparently it's only the third series to ever win for the first time on its fifth season
COMEDY SERIES Modern Family
four consecutive wins seems crazy but what can you do. It's Emmys. It's tough for them to break character. The only show with five consecutive wins is Frasier so we'll see if Modern Family can do it next year, too. 

Now to attempt to scrub out the horrific memory of Carrie Underwood covering the Beatles.

Peace out.