Game of Thrones: Cersei

by Murtada

Game of Thrones returns this Sunday. We are ready for it and can’t wait to see what happens, now that Cersei Lannister rules the iron throne. She has always been my favorite character because she brings the drama. Always. Yes she’s evil. Of course she makes stupid mistakes. And eww she sleeps with her twin brother. But she’s also complex and sort of a feminist. Her biggest motivation is the limitation that her gender imposes on her potential. She knows that she’s better than most of the men in her orbit, yet they have more power than her. That pisses her off big time...

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Break me off a link of that

Vulture Amy Landecker is Julia Roberts' voice double. This is amazing. Especially if you love the movie Duplicity
Geek Tyrant yummy yummy fandom pies
Coming Soon backwards told and trippy actually is commercial Strange Dr new the

Variety Robert De Niro's The Comedian will be getting an Oscar qualifying run. I guess Cinelou really wants to make these Oscar Qualifying runs their thing (see also Cake). Sigh. 
Women & Hollywood Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci will star in the adaptation of Ian McEwan's bestseller "The Children Act" to be directed by Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal) -- ooh, sign us up. 
Awards Daily Oscar hopeful Loving about the famous right to marry case from the 1960s has released interracial and same sex emojis
Tracking Board Wolverine 3 gets a title, Logan, and a spirit of the beehive poster moment 
The Guardian another report on Hollywood whitewashing of Asian stories and characters. I love Billy Magnussen but am sad that he's now involved in this too. Apparently the Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon has been saddled with a white character as lead, sidelining Bruce Lee in his own story What the actual fuck?
Variety Ian McKellen is getting the documentary treatment in McKellen: Playing the Part  

Today's Video
Kristin Chenoweth sings the Game of Thrones theme song

Finally...
Winter is Coming looks at the top paid actors per TV episode via Variety. These are so weird to look at. The numbers rarely align with what you think of as pop cultural worth. Though if you're on a phenomenal success like Game of Thrones the two sometimes line up. One assumes the numbers have a lot to do with how long a show's been running and whether actors have been able to renegotiate. And also network pays more than streaming which pays more than cable, etcetera. For instance... how weird is it that Taraji P Henson as the key figure on one of TV's biggest smashes (Empire) makes the same figure per episode as Michelle Monaghan a less famous star on a show people don't talk about (The Path).

Emmy Nomination Hangover: Snubs & Perplexities

Now that we've had 24 hours to think those Emmy nominations over (comedy & drama), Team Experience is sounding off on what most wounded them. Normally we are a positive bunch here at TFE but sometimes you gotta air out the grievances. Two questions this afternoon.

1. Which nomination most perplexes you?
2. Which snub makes you the most crazy? 

Answers from the team after the jump. And do share your own after reading!

WHICH NOMINATION MOST PERPLEXES YOU?

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Emmy Noms 2016: Drama / MiniSeries, First Impressions

Emmy Awards will be held on Sept 20th this yearPreviously: The Comedy Nominations
Related: Snubs & Perplexities

On the Outs: The big news emerging from this Emmy nomination morning is that Orange is the New Black's 3rd season did not go over well with Emmy voters falling from all the major categories but it did receive a casting nomination. The Good Wife also didn't get a particularly warm nomination send off in its final season with only a handful of minor nominations.

Suddenly In: After years of pressuring the Academy, television critics finally got their beloved "The Americans" in the running in most of the big categories. Perhaps it was the title? Everything "American" did well... "The Americans", "American Crime", American Crime Story" etcetera.

Still In: Most everything they previously loved but particularly Game of Thrones which I believe is now the most nominated show in the history of the Emmys with 106 nominations from its six seasons. It's won 26 Emmys already. 

Still Out: The Leftovers was snubbed again. Two brilliant, challenging, original, and very different seasons and not a single nomination even in technical categories in either year. For shame, Emmy voters, for shame.

The nominees with brief commentary... 

DRAMA

Outstanding Drama Series
"Americans" (1st nomination. 4th season)
"Better Call Saul" (2nd season. 2nd nomination)
"Downton Abbey" (6th season. 6th nomination... though the first was in another category)
"Game of Thrones" (6th season. 6th nomination)
"Homeland" (5th season. 4th nomination)
"House of Cards" (4th season. 4th nomination)
"Mr Robot" (1st season. 1st nomination)

Similarity to Last Year: 5/7 They had to make one change with Mad Men gone so in goes Mr Robot, the most buzzed about freshman series. But the other change was voluntary: they dumped Orange is the New Black (3rd season) for The Americans (4th season). It's wonderful to see The Americans finally get its due but why couldn't it have dumped one of the long in the tooth shows that really don't deserve automatic placement each year?

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Links

Guardian the kids of the controversial Oscar nominated documentary Jesus Camp 10 years later - how are they doing and how do they remember their evangelical childhoods?
ESPN's Bodies issue is out. Check out the gallery. The human body is really so beautiful. But I realize we're not supposed to acknowledge that because people are so angry about the profile at...
Vanity Fair on Margot Robbie. Which is... Honestly I can't see anything wrong with it. Almost every good celebrity profile talks about what the star looks like, and what their big screen appeal is. It's not especially salacious as these things go. I'm stunned that it offended so many people. But me...
Nathaniel... I don't want to live in a world where we cant celebrate movie star beauty
Playbill Kristin Chenoweth doing a reading of proposed Best Little Whorehouse in Texas for the stage? Oh god oh god let this Broadway musical happen. Amen.
Dear Cast & Crew Dear Harry Nilsson -- (great letter re: A Bigger Splash)
EW Five Nights in Maine poster and trailer. Apparently this premiered at TIFF last year. I don't remember reading about it but Dianne Wiest, Rosie Perez, and David Oyelowo are all in it!
Vanity Fair Hive A.I. isn't just all the rage in movies and on television. It's an investor obsession, too.
Twitter Apparently some dumb people launched a petition to have Jesse Williams fired from Grey's Anatomy due to his BET Humanitarian Awards speech 

Look at This!

Production has begun on Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool which stars Annette Bening as Oscar winner Gloria Grahame in her final days. Jamie Bell is The Bening's leading man. We hope The Bening is making one last sustained run at winning that Best Actress trophy that's eluded her. Momentum counts for a lot in Oscar races so if it doesn't happen this year for 20th Century Women, maybe it'll happen next year for this biopic of sorts? Though actors win Oscars all the time for playing real life people, the only star who has won an Oscar for playing an Oscar winner is Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004).

Random Emmy Thought
By now you've probably heard that the 7th/8th Game of Thrones season will start shooting later than usual due to weather issues. Different websites have different wording on this news. Sometimes it sounds like just the slightest delay and not worth reporting but for the clickbait traffic. Other articles suggest that this will delay the premiere until late Summer instead of GoT's traditional late spring early summer airing. If the latter take is true that means we'll actually have an Emmy free year of Game of Thrones in 2017. That would be a welcome relief for those of us who hate to see the same shows dominating year after year. Unfortunately they're also splitting GoT into two more super short seasons with only 13 or so more episodes left before the series finale. It worked for Breaking Bad and Mad Men in terms of Emmy statuettes though it was bad for interrupting the natural flow of storytelling arcs (at least with Mad Men - I can't speak to how it affected Breaking Bad). At any rate I stand by my proclamation that these split final seasons are anti-audience and nothing more than a cynical cash grab for advertising dollars, extended media attention, and double the awards that a show should be eligible to receive. It's gross. I wish Emmys would rule against 6 or 7 episodes counting as a full season. There really ought to be some standards and "season" by its very name suggests a few months of time. Six episodes is not a few months of story -- it's barely more than one!