Emmy Nominations This Week. What Are You Betting On?

Every Emmy award discussion really ought to start with that familiar television montage trope "Previously On..." If you think about it the Emmy Awards really are like a longform television series with continuing plotlines... "Will Mad Men lose every acting nomination AGAIN? Will [insert underwatched critical favorite] finally win a Best Series nomination?", new character introductions, resurgent supporting characters, goodbyes to series regulars, and the like.

Homeland defends its title. But a lot of people didn't like Season 2.

So what did happen at least year's Emmys? A refresher: "Mad Men" was defending its Best Drama title in its fifth season and did not break the record (no show has ever won five consecutive drama series titles) losing to terrorist drama "Homeland" but the story was bleak for the SCDP everywhere since "Mad Men" struck out everywhere even MISSING a Best Costume Design nomination (it's never won) despite being the best costumed show in the history of ever; Jon Cryer "Two and a Half Men" won sympathy votes for putting up with Charlie Sheen all these years as Best Actor in a Comedy Series; Julia Louis-Dreyfus "Veep" won her third Emmy but what's more impressive is that she's won the prize for three different series now; Oscar Winners and frequent nominees were all the rage too with Julianne Moore, Kevin Costner, Jessica Lange, and Maggie Smith all picking up prizes; and the Emmys kept right on basically ignoring the beloved "Parks and Recreation" in major categories it's already deserved to win a few times. Seriously how has that show never managed a nomination for ANY of its supporting actors and actresses?

So where are we this year? I don't have my own predictions to share -- I don't claim to be an Emmy Awards expert but here are a few select ballots and a few things I'm curious about after the jump

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Box Office Notes: Pacific Rim & Sandra Bullock

giant fucking robots, the multi-franchise franchiseThis week's box office results are an example of why we can't have nice things. The top two films are both sequels. Audiences didn't get super worked up about the "original" opener, Guillermo del Toro's monster movie Pacific Rim. Yet the people decrying the general moviegoing public for "rejecting originality" -- a claim I keep hearing on twitter and on blogs -- have failed to admit that Pacific Rim looks JUST like Transformers Meets Godzilla in its advertisements. Which is not, you know a hallmark of the truly original, to look like a mashup of two excessively familiar things. Now, before I'm stomped by giant metallic or clawed kaiju feet, please note that though I haven't seen it I'm sure that Pacific Rim doesn't play like a Transformers sequel since one can't really mistake the filmmaking style of del Toro for Michael Bayisms. But audiences don't buy tickets based on how a movie is but how its perceived to be.

This wasn't a rejection of true originality. It was just a third place finish indicating half-interest in something that looked familiar but didn't sound familiar. Maybe they should have just called it Pacific Rim 2? Wouldn't it be awesome if some new franchise hopeful did just that, skipping the first film and testing the public's Pavlovian response to titles that end in numerals?

TOP O' THE CHARTS
01 DESPICABLE ME 2 $44.7 (cum. $229.2)
02 GROWN UPS 2 $42.5 *NEW*
03 PACIFIC RIM $38.3 *NEW*
04 THE HEAT $14 (cum. $112.3) Review
05 THE LONE RANGER $11.1 (cum. $71.1) Review

Of Note:  Fruitvale Station, which eerily opened on the weekend of the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin fiasco, opened to a big per screen averages but given the timid amount of screens it didn't make the top fifteen of the box office. If they're aggressive in expansion you'll undoubtedly see a lot of editorial attention in the media.

And Finally...
We'd just like to say "congratulations" to Sandra Bullock who has her umpteenth $100 million hit with The Heat. No, she didn't deserve an Oscar to commemorate her career but applause she does deserve in an industry that's notoriously resistant to appreciating its actresses. You have to hand it to her: she's been a draw for 20 years now and that's true staying power. Here, courtesy of box office mojo are her biggest hits (adjusted for inflation)

SANDRA'S TOP TEN
01 THE BLIND SIDE (2009) $264 
02 SPEED (1994) $230
03 A TIME TO KILL (1996) $195
04 THE PROPOSAL (2009) $174 
05 MISS CONGENIALITY (2000) $151 
06 WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING (1995) $147 
07 TWO WEEKS NOTICE (2002)  $124 
08 * new entry * THE HEAT (2013)  $112
09 DEMOLITION MAN (1993) $111 
10 HOPE FLOATS (1998) $101

What did you spend your money on this weekend?

The Greatest Help Wanted Advertisement of All Time

There's only one woman for that job!

If you aspire to be 'practically perfect in every way,' you'll be joining us on Wednesday as we celebrate Mary Poppins in Hit Me With Your Best Shot. If you're not attending, go fly a kite!

Cory Monteith (RIP)

Cory Monteith's twitter profile photoWe've lost another Young Hollywood star too soon, apparently to personal demons though the cause of death is "not immediately apparent" according to news reports. Cory Monteith, aka "Finn" from Glee, died last night in a hotel room in Canada. Our hearts go out to Lea Michele and his family and friends.

He played the befuddled singing jock well, with a sweetness of spirit and refreshing modesty. And you know how The Film Experience treasures singing actors.

I had long since stopped watching Glee which proved to be one of the smartest television decisions I ever made. When I started to hate the show during Season 3 I abruptly quit and now the only memories I really have of it are good ones. So this morning I'm replaying one of my favorite TV experiences ever, the Glee pilot. Like the rest of the world when Rachel & Finn spun around each other as "Don't Stop Believin'" kept building my heart soared and I couldn't wait to fall in love with them and the series, too. Glee was one of the great debuts of television history, full of energy, heart and promise. And that's a feeling to hold on to.

RIP Cory.

Children of the Link

EW lets you zoom in on details of Spidey's new suit from The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Cinema Blend Oscar winning cinematography Wally Pfister's directorial debut Transcendence is already courting the Chinese audience 
Pajiba "the 12 most awesome sexually confident movie lines" Ha. I couldn't pull any of these off (TMI!) but I love the list
Coming Soon You can now watch the opening and closing credit sequences of Pacific Rim online. Though honestly they look fairly generic despite the hype for the film.
Playbill Theresa Rebeck of Smash-creation fame is trying another series. She's developing a "Bleak House" adaptation for Bravo 

Variety Whoa. Hunky Bollywood superstar Hrithink Roshan recently had brain surgery. Get well soon.
Awards Daily Rising writer/director Ava DuVernay, who made the excellent Middle of Nowhere last year, is taking on Selma, a true-life drama about MLK and the Civil Rights Act
In Contention will Philomena be TWC's secret Oscar weapon this year? I don't know how secret it can be after the reception of several minutes at Cannes but yes, it could be.
Final Girl is about to trace the evolution of the entire Children of the Corn series with a marathon blogging effort on Monday. But she's already surveyed the posters.
Natasha VC a perfect one sentence commentary on Mia Farrow and Philip Roth watching Sharknado together