Emmy

Actually that's a picture of Emmy Rossum, who has nothing to do with the Emmys, nominations for which were announced today. I'm just still so excited about being able to pretty up my blog with images. And you gotta admit, pretty it up she does. So enjoy, enjoy.

Thoughts on the actual nominations:

I'm kinda surprised to see "Will & Grace" so recognized--I gave up on it around the time I realized they were going to give me another cliched romance/wedding/separation/divorce for Grace before they'd even dream of showing Will in a comitted realtionship. I say that not so much for political reasons as for artistic ones--as an audience member, I swear to you, I've seen every single variation on straight relationships imaginable on TV. I can't say that about gay ones.

I am very glad to see HBO's "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" so recognized--I watched it again on DVD recently and it still holds up, and the commentaries and deleted scenes are uncommonly informative.

24 getting a nod for best drama is great, of course. And although I don't watch the show I'm delighted to see that Kathryn Joosten, the beloved Mrs. Landingham of "The West Wing's" first two seasons, recieved a nomination for a guest star part on "Desperate Housewives".

Also in the category of pleasant surprise is Hank Azaria's recognition for "Huff", a show I recently discovered and really like (Oliver Platt and Blythe Danner got nods too, as did the excellent opening theme music). In fact Azaria's category of lead actor in a drama series turns out to be the fight in which I have the most dogs, as it were--he'll be up against James Spader for "Boston Legal" and Kiefer Sutherland for "24."

Dissapointments? Sure, but not really surprises. I did have my fingers crossed that "Gilmore Girls" or "Veronica Mars" would be recognized in some way. But given their shows ratings and demographics, I knew it was almost certainly a false hope.