Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ellen's Triple Crowning. And Other Emmy Tales

The first batch of Emmy winners in creative / technical awards and "guest" acting were announced. It's the stuff they can't fit on the air because they have more categories than you could possibly keep track of, but still not so many as the Grammys.

Curiously the cancelled Pushing Daisies, which couldn't ever manage a "best comedy series" nomination beat EMMY's "best drama series" Mad Men in three of their four shared categories (Art Direction, Costume Design, Make-Up) and lost to Mad Men only once (Hairstyling). The lack of technical trophies for Mad Men makes me worried for their chances in the big categories next Sunday night. Not that there's ever a point in "worrying" about who might win EMMYs. It always feels so random.

I was amused to see True Blood taking the "casting" award. Wasn't the process of selecting all the frequently unclothed eye-candy reward enough for those casting directors? The guest spot acting winners were Justin Timberlake and Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live) for comedy and Michael J Fox (Rescue Me) for drama.

After years without a new "Triple Crowner" we got two in 2009:
Geoffrey Rush joined their ranks in June and Ellen in September.

And then there's Ellen Burstyn who joined the esteemed company of the Triple Crowners (Oscar + TONY + Emmy) with a winged trophy for her guest starring work on Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit. Burstyn's girded steel mantleplace has more than paid for itself by now. Add one Emmy to her haul which also includes an Oscar, a TONY, a BAFTA, a Globe, an Indie Spirit, a Satellite, a Genie and numerous critics, film festival and theater honors. As someone who loves the cinema and is none to fond of watching our great actresses vanish or spend their sunset years in procedurals like Law & Order, I'd like to congratulate the wonderful Burstyn but also slap Martin Scorsese. Why can't he (or Darren Aronofsky or William Friedkin for that matter) find another plum role for her? I don't want to say that Scorsese "owes" her for what she did for him in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) but certainly he's been exceedingly generous with other stars [oh, you know who] who didn't give half as much as Ellen in their collaborations. Why didn't he ever work with her again? Attention all filmmakers: She's 76 years old. Time is a wasting. Hand her something incredible soon.

for the complete list of Emmy winners
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21 comments:

jess said...

Because Scorsese is Italian and therefore a macho ?

Because he doesn't care for mature women, having one in his bed all the time ?

Paul Outlaw said...

That casting Emmy is a head-scratcher. They let Rutina Wesley (Tara) get through and she is so bad that she almost cancels the great casting on the show out (Nelsan Ellis, Alexander Skarsgård and Kristin Bauer).

Univarn said...

It's amusing to me why every year the major networks struggle to figure out why they don't win many emmys. It's rather obvious, they put so much into making the same show over and over again (we have what 3 new network hospital shows this year?), because they're guaranteed they cancel anything that doesn't hold 10m+ viewers.... unless they're just stupid, like ABC, and keep Scrubs (which I'm a huge huge fan of) even though it's been very mediocre the last 2 years.

Andrew K. said...

Good point about Scorsese not re-using Ellen. Maybe he figures there's only downhill from there...I don't think Ellen can top ALICE DOESN'T LIVE THERE ANYMORE. That was good stuff.

Rebecca said...

Hmmm, all those losses in the technical category for 'Generation Kill' don't bode well for it's chances for best miniseries. I thought it would be a shoo-in.

jimmy said...

ellen.....too old for august: osage county?

Cengiz said...

Joss Whedon finally got an Emmy for his awesome Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog!

Karen said...

Congrats to Ellen Burstyn and all the other winners! Like you said, I hope someone gives Burstyn another amazing role, she's a great actress.

www.reelartsy.com

Wayne B said...

Congratulations to Ellen Burstyn! the fact that she didn't win her second Oscar back in 2001 still bothers me.

Mike said...

I'm so happy to see Ellen Burstyn thrice-crowned! She's an amazing actress, and absolutely deserving of the distinction.

Michael B. said...

The reason I don't get "worried" about Mad Men's chances, even though it lost most of it's technical nominations, is because the way the Emmy's work. The voters pick which categories they would like to watch the tapes for and that's how the DVDs get sent to their houses.

They also have a rule that you can't vote for Comedy/Drama series three years in a row. You can only vote twice in three years.

old old person said...

Because I am old I remember reading about the making of Alice Doesn't Live There Anymore when it was happening. There were a number of strong-willed women in the cast (Burstyn, Ladd) who kept wanting to make the movie authentic to real women's experience. They kept challenging Scorcese to make it more real, and the talk at the time was that he swore never to make another movie with actresses who weren't malleable to his vision, that he couldn't control. Rumours, maybe, born out of the conflict during shooting.

Billy D said...

She NEEDS more work. And while SVU was certainly beneath her, she was truly amazing in that episode. She elevated every line to another plane of brilliance and rawness. She would be great in a Tarantino movie.

Bernardo said...

I definitely agree with Jimmy.

Ellen Burstyn should be Violet Weston. She can pass for 65.

John D. said...

We could have two more Triple Crowners next Sunday: Marcia Gay Harden and Kevin Kline.

Glenn said...

Bless Ellen. And, yay for the triple crown!

Michael B. said...

Marty did accept Burstyn's Oscar...Does anyone know where we can find the video? I'd love to see it.

Anonymous said...

was that a diss at Leo? Other than Gangs of New York he has been pretty stellar in Scorcese movies.

Bella said...

It's kind of vile that Justin "bringin' SexyBack" Timberlake beat out Jon Hamm, Steve Martin, Beau Bridges, and Alad Alda for an acting award. I need my faith in humanity restored! But at least Tina Fey won, and I'm always happy for Ellen Burstyn getting recognized for her talents. I was kind of rooting for Ernest Borgnine in guest actor. Michael J. Fox was doing so much "GIVE ME THE EMMY!" acting in his episode, it was hard for me to root for him.

Arkaan said...

Nathaniel, I wouldn't worry too much. There really is no correlation between tech wins and primetime wins.

mcnellie said...

Hey Nathaniel, how come you always capitalize "TONY"? I don't see anybody else do that but maybe you have a story there.

I think Rutina Wesley's all right. And I think Justin Timberlake is pretty genius whenever he does SNL.