Notch another one for Slumdog Millionaire.
The runaway hit cemented its status as Oscar frontrunner with another key precursor win, this time for helmer Danny Boyle at the Directors Guild of America Awards. Boyle was singled out for outstanding directorial achievement in a feature film, besting David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) and Gus Van Sant (Milk).
He'll go toe-to-toe with all of them except for Nolan at the Academy Awards again (The Reader's Stephen Daldry is the other Oscar nominee). Boyle's win bodes well for Oscar glory as the DGAs have only mismatched with Oscar winners six times in 60 years. The last time was six years ago when The Pianist's Roman Polanski won the Oscar over the DGAs' choice of Rob Marshall (Chicago).
On the TV side ...
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New releases announced today, September 4:Get Smart - The Complete Series (1965) will be coming out December 9 Deadwood - The Complete Series will be coming out December 9 The Wire - The Complete Series will be coming out December 9 Visit TVShowsOnDVD.com for the complete stories on these and other news items.
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Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, who played a killer on HBO's critically acclaimed The Wire, was arrested on minor drug charges on Wednesday.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pearson was charged after police went to her home – where they found two cigars filled with suspected marijuana – in Northeast Baltimore to pick her up for refusing to cooperate as a witness in the Sept. 16 murder trial of Steven Lashley. Police said Pearson "witnessed Lashley stab three men, killing one, during an argument in 2005."Considering The Wire was known for its brutally realistic portrayal of drug and gang activities in Baltimore, for this actress, the truth may actually be stranger than fiction.Though police have the right to detain her until Lashey’s trial, she has only been charged with one count of drug possession. – Erin FoxRelated• Casting News about The Wire's David Simon's New Show
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David Simon, the mastermind behind The Wire — which some critics and a small-but-loyal band of fans consider among the best TV shows ever — has recruited a few familiar faces to his new HBO pilot, Treme.Khandi Alexander (medical examiner Alexx Woods on CSI: Miami) is in "final negotiations" to play a mother of two on the drama about life in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Alexander may return to CSI:Miami as a guest star in the future.Treme — whose title comes from the name of a Big Easy neighborhood famous for its music and musicians — will also star Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters, both of whom played detectives on The Wire. Pierce's Treme character, Antoine Batiste, is a jazz trombonist struggling to find work — while still pining after Alexander's Ladonna, his former wife. — Nina Hämmerling Smith
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In case you hadn’t heard, AMC’s Mad Men is not only a hit with the Emmy voters (the most nominated drama this year, with 16) but it’s a bona fide critics’ darling, walking away with three Television Critics Association Awards over the weekend at the 24th annual ceremony in Beverly Hills. Mad Men won for new program, outstanding achievement in drama and program of the year, prompting Emmy-nominated co-star John Slattery to quip (during one of the show’s several acceptance speeches), “How glad I am that the message of smoking, drinking and whoring Mad Men puts across has registered with the TCAs.”Jon Hamm, also an Emmy nominee, thanked reality shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Flavor of Love, Rock of Love (all three seasons) and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader “for pushing the envelope so far that way that there was a place kind of on this side for us to sneak in.”HBO’s epic John Adams miniseries won two awards, for Paul ...
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