Breaking news! Edie Falco is an awesome actress. This reporter learned this — definitely not exclusively — when he saw a sneak peek at Falco's new half-hour Showtime dramedy (tentatively titled Nurse Jackie) on Friday. Falco plays a complicated nurse in an inner-city hospital. "What do you call a nurse with a back problem?" she asks in the preview. (Pause.) "Unemployed." As a result, the wisecracking, potty-mouthed, maybe-promiscuous Nurse Jackie also has a bit of a painkiller problem. It looks very promising.Ditto for Toni Collette, who plays a suburban mom who suffers from multiple-personality disorder on United States of Tara. Here's what makes this show interesting to me: Tara's family (including husband John Corbett) is aware of her illness, tolerates it and even knows and has relationships with each of her personalities. Weird, right? Wait until you meet them. My particular favorite is "T," and I'm guessing she'll be yours too.Neither show has a solid premiere date y...
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The secret to 30 Rock's guest-casting success? Reversing the formula employed at Saturday Night Live. "With the exception of Jerry Seinfeld, who volunteered [to guest-star] and we leapt at it, every other time we have written the part first and then [cast it]," Tina Fey tells TVGuide.com. "Then it's coming organically from the stories. Doing the reverse of SNL — where you say, 'We have this person. What can we do with them?' — has worked well for us."What sort of guest stars does the Rock have lined up for Season 2's return on April 10? "Will Arnett is back," Fey confirms, "and Dean Winters will be back.... And I hope Edie Falco will be back," as Jack Donaghy's uberliberal ex-lover. It was then that I suggested that 30 Rock pull Ashley Dupré out of hiding and engage in some stunt-casting that would put Britney-on-Mother to utter shame. "We should get her!" Fey laughed, before sharing: "Small world — one of our writers used to live in the same apartment building a...
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Showtime is really racking up the classy actresses, eh? Edie Falco is the latest Emmy bait to get her own show on the cable network, following in the prestigious, high-minded footsteps of Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) and Toni Collette (the upcoming The United States of Tara). Falco's as-yet-untitled show is described as a dark comedy about a strong-willed inner-city nurse whose competence on the job contrasts with her disastrous personal life.I'm intrigued. After The Sopranos, of course, it's difficult to imagine Falco in any role that doesn't call for a severe manicure, a pan of ziti, and a potty mouth. But she has played un-Carmela-like roles in her celebrated stage work and in small films like Judy Berlin and Sunshine State. And she demonstrated some zingy comic timing with Alec Baldwin ("I love that we both treat sex as a competition") during her too-brief guest run on 30 Rock as a whale-torture-opposed congresswoman. So I'm in. How about you? — Mickey O'Connor
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Cheers to the Screen Actors Guild Awards for paying proper respect to The Sopranos. True, it would've been exciting if SAG had chosen up-and-comers like Mad Men or Damages, but those shows will have many more years to win prizes. (Fresh blood was rewarded with Tina Fey's and Alec Baldwin's well-deserved comedy wins for 30 Rock.) By honoring James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and the entire mob ensemble, it acknowledged the importance of HBO's landmark drama for one last time. Even after The Sopranos' swan song, SAG didn't fuhgeddaboudit.Check out TVGuide.com's Screen Actors Guild Awards coverage:• Winners & Nominees• Live Blog: Show Recap, Backstage with the Winners and More• Photos of the red carpet's hottest fashions• Exclusive red-carpet videos
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I suppose I could dwell on the fact that a major Hollywood guild has once again ignored the very existence of TV's finest acting ensemble, Friday Night Lights — in favor of the mugging and posturing on Boston Legal. As they'd say on another SAG favorite, Grey's Anatomy: Seriously? Is it wrong to want to form our own picket line?Also: What's up with snubbing Pushing Daisies and its fantastical cast?And yet the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, announced Thursday morning, did shower love on my favorite new show of 2007, AMC's Mad Men, and its terrific star, Jon Hamm (who has just joined the cast of the remake of the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, which sounds appropriately robotic). So while not all may be forgiven, the wound stings a little less.My favorite part of the SAG Awards is the ensemble-cast category. Because let's face it, most great TV shows rely on cast chemistry. Even The Closer, which on face value looks like a vehi...
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