Danny Boyle
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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Get Smart: The Complete Series courtesy HBO Video
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 Pearson by Bennett Raglin/WireImage.com
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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Khandi Alexander by Jean-Paul Aussenard/ WireImage.com
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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Mad Men courtesy AMC
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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Question: OK, I just had to say this. The Wire — in my opinion the greatest television series that has ever aired — has received a total (a total!) of two Emmy nominations in its history. One for writing in 2005 and one for writing this year. Meanwhile, A&E's horrific The Andromeda Strain received seven this year. Two And A Half Men: seven. Dancing With the Stars: eight! I'm going to go over to the corner and weep for a while.
Answer: Yes, that's a truly shameful statistic. It would almost be funny if it weren't so tragic. But your anger at these other nominees is slightly misplaced. None of them took away slots that would have gone to The Wire, being that they're in the easily maligned genres of comedy, reality and hokey miniseries, where the competition is much less intense (and in the case of movies and minis, almost nonexistent). More upsetting should be the seven nominations going to Boston Legal, the two going to Nip/Tuck, and so on ...
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Question: Something has been weighing on me regarding the Emmys ignoring The Wire in years past, but the most recent nominations just confirmed in my eyes. I can't help but compare the treatment of Mad Men to that of The Wire. I love Mad Men, and now that The Wire has finished its run, it's easily the best show still on TV. However, it is rather curious how it took them no time to embrace Mad Men, yet they had no trouble ignoring one of the most acclaimed shows in TV history for five years. Both shows are low-rated cable dramas that received massive critical buzz. One could even reasonably claim that The Wire had an industry advantage — it was on a network with more credibility and even had more viewers than Mad Men, as impossible as that may seem. One has to conclude that what made the academy acknowledge one show and not another is a matter of content (or at least perception of content), and when you go there, you go into territory that is considerably ugly. You have to start ...
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Dominic West,The Wire
Question: As I looked at the Emmy nominations, the title of your recent Dispatch kept running through my head: They did get our hopes up again. I'm thrilled that Mad Men got several key nominations, that Lost was nominated for best drama, that Michael Emerson most deservedly got a nod, that Desperate Housewives was limited to guest actress nods, that Kristen Chenoweth — who lights up the screen — got a nod and that Survivor didn't make the cut in reality competition (yay, Top Chef!). But I am disappointed again to no end. Friday Night Lights only gets a casting nod? Don't get me wrong, I love its casting, but what about its writing, its direction, its cinematography and, of course, its excellent acting that for some reason never gets noticed? And The Wire only gets a writing nod? Six dramas were nominated for Outstanding Drama, and Friday Night Lights and The Wire aren't among them? I guess we are lucky that there are so many excellent dramas available that some don't make the cut, ...
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Jon Hamm courtesy AMC
If you heard someone momentarily flatlining in the audience at the reading of the Emmy nominations Thursday morning, that was me. They were announcing the best drama series candidates and I was mostly on board as I checked my list in the back of the TV Academy theater. Damages. Yay! House. OK. Boston Legal. I don’t approve, but I’m no longer surprised. Lost. OMG! Dexter. OM-Freaking-G! Wait. That’s five. Surely they didn’t leave out . . . And they didn’t. AMC’s dazzling Mad Men, the last to be announced, not only made the cut, it made history. With 16, it’s the most nominated drama of the year, and with FX’s Damages (seven nominations total), represents basic cable’s first-ever breakthrough into the top tier of Emmy accolades for best series. Mad Men also has to be seen as the odds-on favorite for best drama at this point.While we’re on this category—and let’s face it, this is the golden age of TV drama, so this really is t...
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Generation Kill by Paul Schiraldi/HBO
Cheers to HBO for staying connected to The Wire's masterminds with Generation Kill. David Simon and Ed Burns' riveting Iraq War miniseries shares many of the same virtures as their peerless urban drama. It throws you into the middle of a complex, often-confusing world and demands your full attention (I had to watch the first episode twice to figure out who was who and what was going on). But for viewers willing to commit, the rewards are rich: spot-on dialogue, a stellar ensemble (including Wire alum James Ransone in a breakout turn as fast-talking Cpl. Josh Ray Person) and a fearlessness about dealing with dead-serious issues. And the good news is HBO has already picked the pilot for Simon's next series, the post-Katrina New Orleans drama Treme. • Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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