Emmy Watch: Best Actor in a Comedy

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

The "what will be nominated at the Emmys?" conversation continues. Today: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.  Looking at last year’s nominees, this field may not be all that different apart from the top. Only one nominee, two-time defending champion Bill Hader won’t be back. Barry hasn’t yet announced its season three premiere date. On the other hand though there’s every reason to expect that the two departing contenders, Ted Danson (The Good Place) and Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek), will return for their show’s swan songs. Those two shows seem to have the largest fanbases among TFE readers so we assume you're rooting for them.

Another nominee from last year, Don Cheadle (Black Monday), is a toss-up. But given that he earned four consecutive nominations in this category earlier this decade as pretty much the only representation from House of Lies, scoring yet another solo bid doesn’t feel far-fetched. Anthony Anderson (Black-ish) has been nominated five times in a row, and he survived his show being ousted from the Best Comedy Series race last year, so he may be able to do it again. Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method) is a good bet to return, but his show’s snub in the top race last year makes his chances less secure than they should be…

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La Pfeiffer Set Photos + Superhero Fever Running Amok

by Nathaniel R

we're pretending this is a script Pfeiffer is about to sign on to -- may the RePfeiffal continue!

Michelle has been spotted filming what appear to be 80s flashbacks on the set of Marvel's Ant Man and the Wasp (July 6th, 2018). We had assumed her role was meant to be a sudden reveal that she's still alive but perhaps it's only retro scenes? Michael Douglas was also on set. They're wearing strange dots on their faces (which are hard to tell in these images) but which indicate that they'll be de-aged later via CGI (like Robert Downey Jr in that Avengers Ultron hologram scene).

Michelle doesn't need any computer help to look unfathomably gorgeous or younger than her years (the woman turns 60 (!) in April. I mean...) but she'd have to be 1980s young for these scenes, hence computer help...

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"Nicky got too close to the flame...

.

...Nicky liked it."

Great Moments in Screen Come-Ons #96
Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992) 

La Pfeiffer Gets Waspy

No, not WASPy though perhaps she is that, too. As you've undoubtedly heard by now -- especially if you eagerly listened to the latest podcast -- Michelle Pfeiffer will co-star with Michael Douglas in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). While Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly are playing the title characters, so are Douglas and Pfeiffer in a way since their characters Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne were the original heroes that went by those names. Douglas was introduced in the first movie if you'll recall and we were supposed to believe that Janet was dead.

Whether this means CGI-youngered flashbacks or merely exposition scenes with famous faces we won't know for some time but it's a nice treat for pfans and Pfeiffer's first superhero movie since her legendary work in Batman Returns (1992). If we have to hear about superhero movies every minute of every day now, it goes down so much easier if actresses we love are in the mix. See also Cate Blanchett being delicious in every single trailer released thus far from Thor: Ragnarok. 

So in case you've fallen behind on The RePfeiffal, here are your important dates to know

Photograph by Mikael Jansson for Interview Magazine, 2017

The RePfeiffal Calendar
Save the Dates

• July 29th, 2017 Our Pfeiffer series Pfandom returns after a long accidental hiatus. Catch up!
• Sept 15th, 2017 Darren Aronofsky Directs Michelle Pfeiffer opens in theaters (working title: mother!)
• Sept 17th, 2017 EMMY AWARDS. Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband David E Kelley are both nominated. (Wizard of Lies marks Pfeiffer's pfirst nomination. The script for Big Little Lies is Kelley's 29th nomination - 10 of which he won)
• November 10th, 2017 Murder on the Orient Express Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Some Other People opens in theaters
• Jan 7th, 2018 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS. Cross your fingers that she'll be nominated / attend whether due to her movies or to Wizard of Lies.
• April 29th, 2018 Pfeiffer's 60th birthday
• March 4th, 2018 THE OSCARS. Cross your fingers that she'll be nominated or presenting.
• July 6th, 2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp (feat. Pfeiffer) opens in theaters 

Still no word on a release for Where is Kyra? though.

TCMFF Day 3: Michael Douglas and the power of protest

Though the theme of the TCM Classic Film Festival this year is comedy, that hasn't stopped political themes from emerging during discussions with special guests. Yesterday morning's screening of The China Syndrome with Michael Douglas in attendance was just such an example. Douglas and host Ben Mankiewicz started out talking about the aesthetic and casting choices of the nuclear meltdown film, produced by Douglas and starring Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda. However, as with the release of the movie - which happened to be released days before the Three Mile Island accident in early 1979 - the timing of the Q&A between the TCM host and the veteran actor/producer meant that conversation soon turned to themes of destruction, education, and protest.

It turns out that Michael Douglas makes a very charming protestor. Douglas explained that while he hadn't cared much about nuclear dangers or disarmament before producing The China Syndrome, when the script was handed to him by a documentarian, his interest and irateness was piqued...

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