So where did the idea to do the show come from?

I'm a not-so-closeted reality TV fan, a traitor to my own. I think I've watched probably every Survivor and Amazing Race—I'm a weird reality fanatic, I guess. During the strike I was watching my usual shows because I couldn't work, and at some point I was like, "What the crap! I should just go on The Amazing Race." I actually just made a video, I didn't try to pull any strings, I just made a video with somebody besides my dad and sent it in.

Who?

I was gonna go with this screenwriter that I met on Freaks & Geeks, this guy Jon Kasdan. Our little sorta reducible idea was "neurotic screenwriters who never leave the house." And it turned out that he really was too neurotic to leave the house. We got to the semifinals of the prior season, Season 13, and he had sort of a meltdown at the Hilton at LAX and was like, "I can't do this!"

So how did your dad get involved?

We had gotten pretty far along and you know, it's a relationship show and they want to show the most interesting relationships, so they encouraged me to go with someone in my family [father Mel White, the founder of the gay rights group Soulforce].

You know, it's an interesting trajectory: so many reality stars want to make it in Hollywood, and you're sort of doing the reverse. Were you concerned about becoming known for reality instead of writing, directing, acting?

[laughs] Honestly, I just can't give a flip about that. For me, the show's about to start airing, and it really is less about that than being able to go do it. Like, the idea of just traveling and partying and having this crazy experience was reason to do it, and let the chips fall where they may. I think I started off by thinking, "How can I be in the race but not of the race?" but after about ten minutes, I was just like, "I've gotta be of the race to do this right."

So how was the idea of doing it different than actually doing it?

It was actually way more fun doing it. You're in a circus! You're running through airports with a camera crew and there's like, dwarves and giant Amazonian women's basketball players and everyone's in matching outfits and it's so fun. You know, when you're in LA, you're always like, "Maybe there's something more fun going on somewhere else," but for that period of time where you're on the race, there's definitely nowhere else you'd rather be than there.

So when you're on that starting line with Phil, and the race is about to begin, what should we know was going through your head?

The whole time, I was just like, I wanna get to LAX! [The race starts in Los Angeles.] I didn't think we had many advantages past the point of getting to the airport. I didn't want to be in the back of the train—I was like, "All the times I've dropped friends off at LAX needs to come into play now!" But you'll see, it doesn't exactly end up the way that I expected.

Have you seen the first episode yet?

I haven't seen any of them. I've seen the promos.

How do you think you'll be portrayed? Like, what elements of your story do you think are the ones they're highlighting?

Honestly, I did read a review of the first episode, and the reviewer said I'm perpetually grinning. [laughs] If that's all they have me as, the "laughing fool," then that's fine with me. That's how I was on the race. For the first 24 hours, I literally could not stop smiling. I felt like Jason Bourne and his old gay dad, driving this Mercedes to the airport trying to outrun these musclebound mofos. It was literally the time of my life.

Did any of the other contestants recognize you?

A couple, not many. I mean, I'm the king of "you look vaguely familiar." I think some people scratched their heads. It didn't necessarily endear me to anyone, like they were trying to suck up to me because I'm from Hollywood or whatever.

Had you done anything to prepare for it beforehand? Like, a lot of map reading?

We did have enough time for my dad to go insane with the idea of matching outfits. His long-dormant dream of walking around in matching outfits finally came to the fore! They encourage you to wear a color scheme just to identify the teams, and ours was royal blue. So my dad was like, "Oh, we've got to get matching outfits!" and I was like, "Dad, we don't have to wear, like, the exact same clothes. Wearing things with a similar color is enough." And he got so frustrated! And so he went into my closet and saw the stuff that I had pulled out for the race, and went out and bought the exact same clothes! And so I was like, "I guess I'm gonna be that guy, wearing the same thing as his gay dad on national TV."

What was the industry reaction when it was announced that you were on the show?

I think there's two separate people. Half of the people are like, "That is the coolest thing you could ever do," and they're jealous, and half of the people are like, "Why the hell would you ever want to do that?" Especially some of the more Hollywood A-lister types, they're like, "Did you have to fly economy?" [laughs]

You say in the CBS bio that you wanted to pattern yourself after former contestants Charla and Mirna. Mike, I don't know if you know this, but Mirna is crazy!

Well, yeah! But what I like about them is that they had no discernible advantages at all, no physical advantage, no intellectual advantage, and yet they just had the will to succeed. I wanted to channel them. A little crazy doesn't hurt in the circumstances they throw you into.

Have you met them?

No, I want to!

I'm sure you will now that you're all on the reality alumni circuit.

I'll go do a college speaking tour with them. [laughs]

Obtained by TMZ and recorded, they say, for insurance purposes, it starts off with a bang—a threat launched at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut to "kick your fucking ass. I want you off the set you prick!"—and then continues for several solid minutes of shouted and profanity-laced invective, mockery, more pledges of physical violence, interspersed occasionally with Hurlbut's muted apologies and meek entreaties from the crew for the Dark Knight star to possibly cool down and stop threatening to injure them. (One response from Hurlbut in particular displeases him so much, you can literally hear Bale charging at him.)

We're trying to think of another example that even comes close, and failing. This makes the legendary David O. Russell/Lily Tomlin I Heart Huckabees flareups seem like yoga class, and generally makes us rethink the entire Momzo the Clown affair. The only silver lining we can come up with is that Bale wasn't nominated for an Oscar. The Academy is notoriously unsympathetic towards DP-beaters.

• Bale Went Ballistic [TMZ]

"Mickey was very honored to be asked as he has the greatest respect for WWE however he will not be participating in Wrestle-Mania. He is focusing entirely on his acting career."

Crisis averted (consider those staples gingerly plucked out). Now, Rourke is free to get back to his most pressing matters: Academy Award Q&As in retirement homes, renegotiating his Iron Man 2 salary, and picking out a suitable strand of dental floss for Bai Ling to wear on the Oscar red carpet.

[Photo Credit: AP]

Previously: Could Mickey Rourke's New 'Wrestlemania' Gig Cost Him An Oscar?

The previous record for single-year Oscar futility is shared by 1977's The Turning Point and 1985's The Color Purple, both of which went 0-for-11. More recently, Miramax failed to capitalize on a single one of Gangs of New York's 10 nominations in 2002 — an accomplishment hinting that the Academy can willingly defy even the most art-directed, costume-designed, massive-budget prestige exercises of their respective years. Be afraid, Paramount, and here's why:

· Best Picture and Director: If the Slumdog juggernaut were stoppable, Button would be the likeliest candidate to step on its spry urchin heels at the Oscar-night finish line. It's a hit, after all, and an Academy with any populist conscience after last year's glum-indie orgy would at least give it Picture. Where's the harm? Except in recent instances where that's happened — most notoriously with Crash's win in 2005 — the Picture bone-throw has favored indies. So maybe David Fincher gets Director? Probably not; Danny Boyle's got his own momentum from critics associations, guilds and Globes behind him. If the DGA nods Fincher's way on Jan. 31, then it may be a race. If it doesn't, forget it. 0-for-2

· Actor: We know we were among those steering the Brad Pitt bandwagon back in those early, glimmering autumn days before the Oscar Turnpike froze over with Rourke/Penn hype and our man went skidding into an uncool embankment. That's no reason to choose to burn to death in the ensuing fire. We're out, Brad — help is on the way. Next year. 0-for-3

· Best Supporting Actress: This is Penelope Cruz's award to lose, and anyway, Taraji P. Henson swears she was asleep when the nominations were announced. Oscar is not impressed. 0-for-4

· Best Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth already won this one for the same film 14 years ago. The writers branch loves him, but it loves John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) and Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) — in that order — far more. Even David Hare (The Reader) would probably trump Roth on the lone basis of adapting a short book to a film under two hours. 0-for-5

· Best Cinematography and Editing: There's a faction among technicians who cream over the potential of what Fincher and shooter Claudio Miranda accomplished digitally both in camera and with the aid of their visual effects crew. The problem is that The Dark Knight's Wally Pfister and editor Lee Smith did more fitfully revolutionary work with IMAX, and TDK eventually has to win something, so... 0-for-7

· Best Score: It's nominated alongside WALL-E, for which the score essentially is vast swaths of the film and for which voters who were passionate enough to nominate it will be passionate enough to nudge it to a win. 0-for-8

· Best Visual Effects and Makeup: Button's likeliest and probably most deserving shots at wins, it still must contend with not only TDK's admittedly inferior technical achievements but the more formidable politics of snub-backlash. The bottom line is it's more of a coin toss than anyone probably wants to believe, and this late, any when-in-doubt scenario would seem to automatically favor The Dark Knight. 0-for 10

· Best Art Direction and Costume Design: As mentioned above, Gangs of New York proves that no craft category shall be taken for granted as a token for losses incurred elsewhere — especially not opposite an actual, accomplished period drama like The Duchess. 0-for-12

· Best Sound Mixing: At this point Button's already got the record, but why not go all the way with it — 0-for-13, sort of the Detroit Lions of the Oscars. Should Fincher's quartet win, here's hoping the technicians refuse their statuettes in a gutsy act of loser solidarity with their taskmaster director. It's the least they could do for history's sake, and that lone "Academy Award Winner - Best Sound Editing" sticker on the DVD would look stupid anyway.

Today he's at Sundance, showing off the David Foster Wallace adaptation he wrote and directed with the late author's blessing. And it's actually pretty strong, densely packed with an Altmanesque ensemble comprising Timothy Hutton, Chris Meloni, Will Arnett, Dominic Cooper, Bobby Cannavale (as a sexy amputee!) and at least a half-dozen others, all sharing their insights and inadequacies on tape with recently jilted college professor Sarah (Julianne Nicholson). It's a sprawling, gender-reversed sex, lies, and videotape, as much a postfeminist time capsule as a sort of date movie for sadists.

Krasinski is fine with whatever you want to call it, if his comments following this morning's screening are to be believed; he's just happy to a) have made it and b) have anyone talking about it at all. The book changed his life during college, where he said a staged reading inspired him to take up acting. And it remained with him during his lean early years, when a lack of jobs didn't keep him from pestering Wallace for the opportunity to someday film his book.

"I just couldn't live in a world where more people didn't know about him," Krasinski said, despite the slightly minor technicalities that awaited him. "I didn't know all this stuff about rights back then. My manager said, 'We probably ought to get the rights.' I was like, 'What? That's a bummer.' And being 23 and waiting tables isn't the most enticing resume to have when you're trying to get the rights to a book. But I basically promised his agent that there would be no car crashes, no explosions, and no gratuitous sex scenes. And she said, 'Oh. So you basically understand the book.' "

Krasinski went on, explaining his aversion to a literal take on Wallace's work; he didn't want 17 guys talking to the camera, but any time he felt the urge to get "more creative" in his adaptation, he checked himself: "This isn't the book." Nicholson's lead absorbs the confessionals with blank-faced reticence, reflecting both the wonder and horror of her subjects' candor. Only with ex-lover Krasinski — identified simply as Subject #20 — do her motivations leak out, and even then just partially.

Which may or may not have something to do with Krasinski's awkward, climactic ultimatum, a broadside lifted almost verbatim from the book, and not so naturally or convincingly. But he has an excuse!

"I wasn't supposed to be in the film, actually," he said. "Then we had an actor fall out late in the process — very late — and, like a true indie film, didn't have the budget or the time to go around casting people. My producer said, 'Well, you've read this book 700 times; you might as well do it.' So I jumped in and did it, and I'm glad I did. It was a fantastic experience. But I have to say: It was the most nervous I had ever been in a performance. I'd just spent three weeks directing some of the best performances I had ever seen."

Fair enough. Next time, though? Stick with the sexy amputee. If Wallace's prose here taught us anything, it's that no one can stay mad at an amputee.

This year's vintage features another barrel of celebrities with equally little margin for error, some less endangered than others. For your handy trajectory-watching reference, we've narrowed their ranks to 10 of the most interesting:

1. Ashton Kutcher: The festival itself describes Kutcher's gigolo farce Spread as "such a perfectly tuned, contemporary depiction of the trials and tribulations of sleeping your way to wealth and success that, guilty pleasure or not, it's irresistible." Either the responsible programmer's tongue is so far in his cheek it'll leave a bruise, or we must forge on with the faith that Kutcher is up to credibly depicting those fraught "trials and tribulations." He's a producer on this as well, upping the skeevy self-casting factor proportionately with the stakes that accompany putting this on the Sundance market. THREAT LEVEL: Severe

2. Rachel Dratch: As co-writer and co-star of the Midnight section highlight Spring Breakdown, Dratch is nominally on the hook for delivering a sort of inverted Sex and the City: Three terminally unsophisticated women (played by Dratch, Amy Poehler and Parker Posey) entrusted to chaperone a teenager to spring break wind up cavorting with the savage youth. Laffs, empowerment and, hopefully for Dratch, a cult following ensue, exhuming this film from the shallow grave where it has languished for months and on to video shelves where it's likely to make its next stop. THREAT LEVEL: Elevated

3. Pierce Brosnan: A man for whom being the most tone-deaf cast member in history's biggest musical is his primary film accomplishment of the last five years, Brosnan needs his grieving-dad weepie The Greatest to find legs during its Saturday premiere — and not those of critics and buyers fleeing the Racquet Club in terror. Like Kutcher and about a million other actors to travel here with movies over the years, he's got a producer credit, which means he needs a sale, which means to needs to be on his game. For once. Whatever that might be. THREAT LEVEL: Dire

4. John Krasinski: He'll be on hand presenting his writing-directing debut Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, an adaptation of the novel by David Foster Wallace. It's a double-jeopardy scenario risking both his own artistic humiliation and the ultimate torpedoing of his recently deceased source. That said, he's John Krasinski — how bad can it really be? Wait, don't answer that. THREAT LEVEL: Moderate

5. Jim Carrey: One month removed from a lukewarm success with Yes Man, Carrey isn't traveling to Sundance to reinvent himself as an indie influence-peddler. But he still has to convince distributors and a game if cynical-by-default press corps that I Love You Phillip Morris is anchored in anything other than the Carrey-on-McGregor romance gimmick. As mentioned here yesterday, this has as much potential to be this year's What Just Happened as it does to be its Little Miss Sunshine; don't look for it to be much in between. THREAT LEVEL: Critical

6 - 10. Billy Bob Thornton's co-stars: The man whose one-time castmates have occasional trouble staying alive arrives with two wildly disparate films — the LA excess potboiler The Informers and the crap-salesman dramedy Manure — featuring two wildly disparate ensembles including Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Kyle MacLachlan, Winona Ryder, Tea Leoni and others. Everyone make sure you have your affairs in order before coming to Park City. THREAT LEVEL: Imminent

11:02: And we're out! Where's the Bollywood dance number? The least the Globes could do is have a poop-covered Christine Lahti emerge from the bathroom to claim Tom Cruise's autograph!

10:59: And the winner of Best Motion Picture Drama is Slumdog MillionZZZZ. The only thing unpredictable about the win is how bedazzled the producing team's tuxedos are.

10:53: Rourke's plastic surgery-correcting plastic surgery has really settled nicely. Wait, our screen just blanked out as Rourke called Darren Aronofsky "one tough mother—" We'll just assume he did a near-fatal (yet triumphant!) Ram Jam.

10:52: "Mickey Rourke, Mickey Rourke! Whose wallet chain are you wearing?"

10:49: Every gay at this party is tangentially connected to someone on-screen. Someone's parents are friends with Nicole Kidman's mother! The boy we're dating is the second cousin of Joan from Mad Men! The dude in the kitchen personally applied the sequins to Best Actor winner Mickey Rourke's scarf! It never ends (much like this ceremony).

10:43: Rainn Wilson introduced himself self-effacingly as a "TV actor." Now. Mad Men wins TV Drama. Oooh, Elisabeth Moss is there! Can't wait for the inevitable Page Six story on her weepy backstage confrontation with former Speed-the-Plow costar Jeremy Piven.

10:38: Mark Wahlberg Talks (Shit About Gabriel Byrne) to Cameron Diaz! The Best Actress Globe goes to Kate Winslet. Now, when we make jokes about her pair of Golden Globes, we'll be forced to be more specific.

10:31: Sacha Baron Cohen is introduced as the star of Bruno, and we can barely believe the HFPA didn't use the Defamer-appended subtitle. The Comedy winner? Vicky Cristina Barcelona! Drew Barrymore approves. The Globe is accepted by, uh, a sparkly Donna Pescow?

10:30: Salma Hayek faces a cavalier crowd willing to natter on through her awards show patter. Talk in rapid, authoritative Spanish, Salma!

10:22 Colin Farrell wins a Globe for In Bruges! Free hummus and pita bread for everybody!

10:21: Sandra Bullock breaks her "Flemish" hymen on air, an act that earns the ceremony an abrupt MA rating.

10:15: Scalpings, Parte Tres: Emma Thompson has absconded with Glenn Close's Damages lace-front. Best Director? Danny Boyle, for Slumdog Millionaire.

10:14: Oh, these He's Just Not That Into You commercials! "He Myspaced me!" "Don't cyber-stalk him!" Can we have some Geocities jokes? God, isn't it a pain when you want to email your distant fiancee but AOL keeps giving you a busy modem signal?

10:04: At the podium now, Spielberg comments on the superfluous Golden Globe award redesign (kind of like those CG'd-to-death E.T. reissue clips that played during the montage).

10:02: Joan Crawford gets more face time in this Spielberg montage then either The Terminal or The Lost World.

9:57: Seriously? One more hour? The ceremony sacrifices its breakneck speed to give an honorary award to severely undervalued auteur Steven Spielberg.

9:47: David Duchovny and Jane Krakowski display uncomfortable sparks as Krakowski gives a Golden Globe to Tina Fey, who calls out internet commenters for their hatin'. We're sorry, Tina!

9:45: Kate Beckinsale (or Sally Hawkins? We're not sure!) is terrified of Sean Combs.

9:43: "When I used to listen to ABBA as a wee, hairy-chested eight-year-old," Pierce Brosnan overshares, "I had no idea I would one day star in a movie that desecrates those songs. Who knew that was even possible?"

9:36: Tracy Morgan starts a feud with Cate Blanchett while accepting 30 Rock's Best TV Comedy Golden Globe. He's in fine, big-breasted company.

9:32: A disheveled, mutton-chopped Paul Giamatti wins Best TV Actor for John Adams and calls out Tom Wilkinson as a Camel Lights pusher. He then goes back to his hunch-shouldered work sending the Russians into space.

9:30: Renée Zellweger, dressed in a funereal straitjacket, delivers the most pissed-off introduction to The Reader possible. Thanks a lot, Entertainment Weekly!

9:22: Ledger-hating presenter Amy Poehler hands an award to Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock, who displays his comedy prowess by telling a Rumer Willis non-joke that the confused audience decides they should probably laugh at anyway.

9:21: Simon Beaufoy wins Best Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire! We weren't aware this award was given to first halves of screenplays.

9:19: The whittled-down Seth Rogen is in serious danger of resembling his stick figure stand-in on the Zack and Miri poster.

9:12: Best Actress in a TV Drama or Miniseries winner Laura Linney should really be thanking HD rather than HBO. Them cheeks are luminous!

9:10: The scalpings continue: Shirley MacLaine has stolen Clay Aiken's hair.

9:07: Colin Farrell makes a family-friendly reference to his past, sex tape-enabling cocaine use before presenting an award to Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folman.

9:05: Tom Brokaw, sounding more like Barbara Walters every year.

8:57: Amy Poehler: Not that big a fan of Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger!

8:55: Proud mother Demi Moore gives a shout-out to Miss Golden Globe, her daughter Rumer. Mother/daughter knee lifts at Dr. Lipshitz's this Tuesday!

8:54: Drew Barrymore has scalped Angie Dickinson. That is all.

8:50: Three degrees of Jake Gyllenhaal! One of this viewing party's gays (don't you have some at yours?) reveals that his husband tutored the on-screen Jake Gyllenhaal in math at age 17.

8:47: Sally: Rebecca Hall and Kate Beckinsale called. They want their face and dramatic brunette updo back.

8:45: Sally Hawkins wins Best Actress in a Comedy for Happy-Go-Lucky! It seems like an impressive achievement until you realize she was competing against Meryl Streep not for Doubt but for Mamma Mia.

8:44: Who was that text-messaging next to America Ferrera? We hope not Blake Lively!

8:41: Haha, Wall-E director Andrew Stanton is virtually out of his seat and at the podium before they actually announce that he's won the Animated Film award.

8:39: Ricky Gervais (drink in hand!) continues his awards show trek, despite being a noted Oscar-eschewer. Awards ceremonies, he's just not that into you. (Sorry, the pervasive commercials have finally demolished our defenses. Who wants to make an appletini date at the Arclight?).

8:35: Zachary Quinto just surged past Zac Efron in the night's Skinny Tie Sweepstakes. Gentlemen, it's not too late to rock a bolo! Anna Paquin wins the presented prize, for Best Profanity-Laden Reaction to Finding Out That Your Second Love Interest Can Lick His Own Balls.

8:33: Best Actor in a TV Drama goes to Gabriel Byrne over Michael C. Hall. How many sisters does a guy have to fuck for a Golden Globe in this town?

8:29: Eva Mendes (who's clearly been buying turquoise necklaces from Tuba City jewelry shop owner Whoopi Goldberg) brings out HFPA president Jorge Camara, who is introduced to weirdly specific Cuban music. All right then.

8:27: Don Cheadle gets the introduction he's worked his whole life for: "And now, the star of upcoming film Hotel for Dogs!"

8:15: A hearty, hale Jeremy Piven loses the supporting actor TV prize to Tom Wilkinson for John Adams. Golden Globe producers celebrate the moment by cutting to the 30 Rock table, where a blond to the right of Alec Baldwin chooses the perfect moment to solicit lip gloss from Tina Fey.

8:07: Is that hirsute mountain man Jason Priestly presenting Best Song? No, it's Sting, somehow! Miley Cyrus greets the announcement of her nomination with a Gaston-soliciting tongue extension before Bruce Springsteen is handed the prize.

8:03: "Mama's talking," complains ignored presenter Jennifer Lopez. She presents Best Supporting Actress in a Film to Kate Winslet, for The Reader. That sound you hear is Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein unfiring two assistants.

8:00: It's starting! As always, the Globes have chosen a terribly Zeitgeisty pop song to intro us in (in this case, from the Pussycat Dolls). Where are the revised, Globe-specific lyrics, though? Either go full-shame or go home, HFPA!

7:45: In Bruges costars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are being interviewed. "Who's the fat guy?" asks a friend. "Some eccentric gay billionaire who bought Colin Farrell?"

7:30: Nancy O'Dell and her minions have assembled some seemingly random celebrity pairs to interview during the pre-show: Sigourney Weaver and Beyonce! Aaron Eckhart and Rachel Griffiths! Sadly, O'Dell doesn't ask Griffiths how it feels to pass the sibling-fucking torch to her former Six Feet Under costar Michael C. Hall.

7:20: Forgive us for our late start, as we've been busy assembling a cone of silence that involves not visiting the front page of Yahoo, the IMDb, or Facebook, lest we stumble upon a spoiler crumb dropped by our more fortunate East Coast brethren. We couldn't bear it if we knew ahead of time just how that nail-biting Supporting Actor race would turn out (we've heard Heath Ledger is a dark horse!).

Publisher Andrew Breitbart had promised BH for a while, with a few early posts teasing us since Sunday. But now, with editor John Nolte's official welcome and a (literal) raft of vaguely movie-centric contributions from his like-minded associates, we have a better idea of what to expect. In short, this is your grandfather's Defamer.

We've scoured pretty much the whole site to date and recommend a sort of five-course, welcome-to-the-neighborhood meal for your own first visit:

· Hors D'oeuvre: "Hollywood Loves Higher Taxes," by Melanie Graham
Tasting Notes: Flaky, with sharp, bitter aftertaste. Goes down easy in 59 words, but eat too many (e.g. "It’s the hypocritical secret here - the lefty actors and writers all incorporate themselves to avoid higher taxes but expect everyone in Rube State America to pony up"), and you'll be full before you know it.

· Appetizer: "Big Hollywood Loves the Arts," by John Nolte
Tasting Notes: Tender, if slightly greasy: "[W]e believe the arts must improve, but know that’s an impossibility until the discussion includes the ideas and ideals of everyone."

· Salad: "Does Hollywood Love Christians Now?" by Dallas Jenkins
Tasting Notes: Salty, not too heavy, with unusual and intrepid flavor pairings: "When Sony released Brokeback Mountain, they didn’t shy away from a few explicit gay sex scenes, as that would have been compromising; one wonders if they would extend the same treatment to explicit prayer or churchy scenes in a faith-based film that had a budget above $5 million."

· Entree: "'C-List' Casting Call: Will Hollywood Conservatives Come Out to Play?" by Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI)
Tasting Notes: Robust and buttery. A bit overcooked but likely satisfying to discriminating palates:

Republican oriented artists, however, have been involuntarily subjected to Big Hollywood’s new version of the old “blacklist’: the “C-List” of conservatives who are marked for censorship and career ruin for deviating from Left-wing orthodoxy. Nonetheless, though our specific struggles differ, we are equally embattled and immutably bonded, because we suffer for our love of America.

· Dessert: "Where Are All the Cinema Heroes Today?" by Orson Bean
Tasting Notes: Sweet, soft, falls apart when you cut into it: "[T]he movies represented a lot more than escape to me. They represented moral guidance. What I learned at home was despair and hopelessness. What I learned at the pictures was don’t give up the ship, we have only begun to fight, it’s always darkest before the dawn."

Bon appetit!

• Big Hollywood

· Reports on Saturday revealed that Jett, 16, suffered a seizure at the Bahamian vacation home of his parents John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Travolta himself applied CPR until medics arrived; the EMT crew chief told Radar that Jett had a hematoma, suggesting a head blow, later confirmed by Travolta's lawyer and family friend Michael McDermott. There was "a minimum amount of blood," and Jett had no pulse. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. An autopsy is underway as of this writing.

· The day after it broke the story, TMZ followed up with word of a police investigation and pointing out conflicts between the Travoltas and investigators in the timeline preceding Jett's death. The Travoltas' nannies say Jett went to sleep at 6 p.m. on Jan. 1, and was discovered when one of the caretakers, Jeff Kathrein, awoke the next morning to find the teen unconscious on the bathroom floor. The police say Jett was last seen entering the bathroom at 11:30 p.m. — meaning he was undiscovered for up to 10 hours following his seizure. Naturally the Travolta camp went on the offensive, arguing that it was likely a second trip to the bathroom — after the caretakers were asleep — during which Jett collapsed.

· But who is Jeff Kathrein, anyway? Is he, as our East Coast cousin declaimed, "Travolta's rumored gay lover"? Or, as the LAT points out, an aspiring celebrity photographer who nannies to pay the bills? Shocker: The Travolta camp isn't commenting. But Kathrein will shoot your nuptials if you're in the market for a wedding photographer.

· Meanwhile, Scientology's enemies latched on to the opportunity to eviscerate its proponents, with Mark Ebner digging up a 2007 interview in which the father of an autistic girl alll but alleged child abuse in the Travoltas' treatment of Jett, whose own severe case of autism was long-suspected by outsiders but never acknowledged by the family. Instead, Jett's non-responsive condition was attributed to Kawasaki syndrome, a rare physical ailment that excused the Travoltas from treating Jett with CO$-condemned psychiatric drugs. (He did, according to McDermott, take anti-seizure medication for a while, which soon failed and whose regimen was ended.) With the exception of brother Joey, who studied autism for a documentary and believed Jett suffered from the condition, the family maintains its diagnosis.

· And a fascinating comments thread at Anonymous's Web site describes the "handlings" and $1,000-an-hour audits the Travoltas might have in front of them as part of Scientology's mourning rituals.

· Finally, it wouldn't be a celebrity death unless someone exploited it for their cause. Autism United sent an e-mail blast this morning asking Travolta and Preston to come clean for the sake of "15,000 parents of children with autism" — to be expected, we suppose, at least moreso than this pot-smelling press release from the publication Cannazine:

Research published in an issue of Science journal published in 2003, found that receptors in the brain, which respond to naturally-occurring cannabis-like chemicals (cannabinoids) made by the body, guarded neurons from being damaged by overstimulation.

Study co-author Beat Lutz, from Germany's Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, said the group's experiments on mice followed anecdotal and clinical tests of cannabis to treat seizures.

"In my opinion, there are certain forms of epilepsy where patients may feel relief from the use of cannabis," Dr Lutz said.

Maybe. Has anyone consulted Dr. Denis Leary on the matter?

Neither the cause of death nor any other details are available, though we imagine Anonymous and other Scientology critics will drop in with their own suspicions by the time you finish reading this sentence. Jett was long rumored to be autistic, a condition that went untreated while his parents instead claimed he suffered from Kawasaki syndrome — a children's illness characterized by fever, rash, swollen lymph nodes, and potentially leading to heart disease. Developing...

UPDATE (1:21 p.m.): Reuters reports that Jett suffered a seizure at the family's vacation home. Travolta attorney Michael Ossi confirmed the details, adding that attempts were made to revive him, but he died at the scene.

[Photo: SplashNewsOnline via TMZ]

• John Travolta's Son Dies [TMZ]

When we spoke to Griffin, she had just left Los Angeles (where she'd eaten Christmas Eve dinner at Cher's house) and had flown to New York to co-host CNN's New Year's Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper. Did she see the Coop's notorious 60 Minutes interview with Michael Phelps, we asked? "Of course I did! Who didn't? Even my mom was titillated."

So Kathy, a lot has happened since Defamer last spoke to you, both for your career, and for the world.

Oh yeah! I don't know if you came to any of my Kodak shows last week, but I had the most unusual, weird, wonderful combo of people come backstage. I wasn't doing any meet-and-greets because usually it's just a bunch of agents who don't really know me, so I had a "no meet-and-greet" policy. But every night I would hear that little walkie-talkie: "Dave Grohl wants to say hi." So that was extremely exciting, I got to meet him. And then the next night was really good because we had the unusual combo of T.R. Knight and Dave Chappelle.

Did they come backstage at the same time?

Yeah, both at the same time! So that was a great moment and I wish there'd been some 360 flipcam action going on. T.R. was really sweet and I was dying to ask him about Grey's Anatomy, but Chappelle kinda cockblocked me. Chappelle had no idea who T.R. is so I'm sitting there trying to explain what Grey's Anatomy is and T.R. is very much enamored and very much a fan of Dave's. And you know, to me, a Chappelle sighting is kind of like Elvis.

You alluded to T.R. Knight's backstage drama, and I wanted to ask you about your own. What was up with the Bravo renegotiation for the next season of D-List? There were rumors that you were jumping ship, then Bravo told us they'd signed you...

They definitely said I was signed when I wasn't. It was just a bloodbath of a negotation. It was a very D-list negotiation. I'm not in this situation you hear about where people get Porsches from their networks. Can I say what Bravo got me for Christmas?

Sure.

It's an eco-friendly blanket. Yeah, it was a bloody negotiation. All I can say is, you should see the other guy.

There's also talk that the format of My Life on the D-List is going to change a little bit? How so?

Yeah, I'm excited about that. We've already actually started. You know, Bravo originally talked to me at one point about doing a talk show, and I'm not sure about that. I feel like the best way to do that is to try to learn and see what you can do well instead of jumping behind a desk, at least for me. So I said, "Well, what if we take The D-List and instead of having me do things that aren't really part of my life anymore, we keep the elements of The D-List that you love—cut to my mom with a box of wine—but this year we have it be more celebrity-oriented. So half of it is like a talk show with A-listers and the other half of it is the D-list stuff you've come to expect for me to be horrified by.

Kathy, what was up with Andy Cohen and Daniel Craig having that shirtless frolic in St. Bart's? How did that happen?

Andy Cohen who?

Andy Cohen from Bravo.

ANDY COHEN FROM BRAVO had a shirtless frolic with Daniel Craig?

You need to get yourself on the internet after this interview to look up those pictures.

That sounds like a gay photo shoot to me.

It kind of is. There's a lot of bare chests and Daniel Craig emerging from the surf in short shorts.

That makes me vomit, because all that tells me is that that's what Andy Cohen is doing instead of promoting Season 5 of My Life on the D-List. The double Emmy-winning My Life on the D-List.

We have to talk about Rosie Live. That was such a...

...such a clusterfuck backstage, is what you were going to say? [laughs] I had more fun backstage at that than at anything in my life. It was really just the most bizarre, odd combination of people sharing dressing rooms, because it was an off-Broadway theater. At one point I looked in my room and there was Jane Krakowski in like a zip-up teddy and heels and fishnets, and there's Liza in a cashmere, sparkly Halston rehearsing over and over, then Gloria Estefan is in a wool dress fanning herself because there's no air conditioning, and then Alec Baldwin walks in and he's so hot that he uses the cool setting on a blow dryer to blow his face. And then in comes Clay [Aiken]! And it doesn't get any better than that.

And he was frosty to you. I assume that was the first time you'd seen him since he came out of the closet.

Frosty, yeah. You're damn right he was. Yeah, it was the first time I'd seen him since he "came out of the closet," but then that's all relative, isn't it? [laughs]

Why do you think he picked that time to finally come out?

I guess because of the kid. My guess is that he was going to be walking around with the baby and someone would ask, "Who's the mom?" And he doesn't want to have to say, "Harold," or whoever.

While we're on the subject, gay people are very mad at Obama right now because of Rick Warren. Did he screw up on that one?

Yeah, he did. Big time. Most straights aren't thrilled, either! Rick Warren...he's bad news, this guy. I just try to ignore those guys. It's funny, I make a joke about religion and then I get in trouble, but those guys ultimately are the joke. Who listens to anything Rick Warren says after that?

A lot of people, it seems.

What, his flock of morons? Let 'em have him.

What do you make of Jennifer Aniston's current press tour to promote her nude GQ photo shoot...I mean, Marley & Me?

I am so jealous of that GQ photo shoot! I want to put on a man's tie and look 25. I loved it. I don't understand the animosity toward Jennifer Aniston, I don't know what she's done to people, and it's kind of startling to me because I didn't know she had it in her to evoke such passion in people. This is the girl who was on Friends and she does movies now and then, but people are like out to get her now and I'm a little confused by that.

Speaking of animosty, let's discuss Elisabeth Hasselbeck and The View. We've had a crazy journey with her during this political year, and we've heard that there's been a lot of backstage drama. You've co-hosted there before—can you shed any light on the subject?

You know, I have an extremely annoying voice, so I should talk, but when I hear that chipmunky high-pitched screeching of hers, I just tune out. Maybe it's just from me being there so many times, but I know that backstage, you do the hair and makeup and you have an hour off to go to your room and do whatever you want, study or read the paper or whatever. And [with Elisabeth] all that happens is that Bill Geddie, the executive producer, goes to her room and gives her the Fox talking points. Everyone who's co-hosted the show knows that. So when I hear those things coming out of her mouth, I don't even know if those are her thoughts, as deep as they must be.

Finally, Seth wanted me to thank you for introducing David Archuleta to Defamer.

That was a fun conversation. I didn't know what he was taking from it or not. I mean, he's not always "present," shall I say? But to this day, that video of the screaming girls...that is my Prozac. If I'm having a bad day, I can play that and feel just fine about the world. It's so fucking funny.

All right Kathy, thank you so much.

Are you going to watch my New Year's show with Anderson?

We'll definitely DVR it.

OK, great. And remember, Ryan Seacrest can suck it.

Anything more likely impugns the riveting, stream-of-consciousness, what-the-fuckery of the whole exercise, though the strides in Spielberg's storytelling prowess — from alien-snubbing in 1977 to ghost-detecting with Warhol a mere five years later (never mind his recent United States of Tara setback) — bear noting for you amateur biographers out there. The rest of it, though? We kind of want to see what happened in that room in the two minutes before the camera was turned on.

• Steven Spielberg [Interview Magazine via Movie City Indie]

Ironic accessory: DVDs
With the advent of on-demand programming and The Netflix Player, and Bill Gates's death sentence, DVDs are approaching gag gift status. It's only a matter of time until our homes/apartments/friend's couches are wired into a central hard drive containing all of our movies, songs, photos and adult literature, but while they are still making them, there are a few that would make decent gifts this holiday season.

Bottle Rocket: The Criterion Collection - Blu-ray Edition - Before Wes Anderson was Wes Anderson, he was shooting shorts for cheap with his buddies the Wilson brothers in Texas. Wes Anderson goes all-out for these Criterion editions, and there are deleted scenes, commentary and the original Bottle Rocket short that launched a thousand measured tracking shots. Criterion also has The Third Man and Chungking Express on Blu-ray, if you want to be reminded that life is terrible/weird or magical/awesome, respectively.

Grandparents are notoriously difficult to shop for, but since many of them are just coming around to DVD's, perusing Bubbe Klein's local PBS website is an easy way to find DVD's she might like to watch while eating soft food. From local Pittsburgh favorites like My Tale of Two Cities to national programming like the Broadway's Lost Treasures collection, your grandparents will appreciate a gift that reminds them of things they sort of remember.

Block out the rabble back in coach seating: Bose QuietComfort 3 Headphones
Nothing says "I'm prospering in a down economy" like taking these babies out of your carry-on. But these aren't just for junkets or avoiding your roommate. We borrowed a piar of these from a friend and they will ruin you for other headphones. Sorry, Game Boy earbuds, but these make you feel like you are actually at that Hold Steady concert but without all the annoying (well, more annoying than you) hipsters screaming the lyrics to "Navy Sheets".

Paying it forward: 24 Hour Fitness membership
If you're worried about keeping that trim waistline in an economic downturn, this is one solution. Costco is selling two-year memberships to 24 Hour Fitness for $299. We will grant that the Arclight Hollywood 24 Hour Fitness location is not as great for cruising as, say, the Gold's Gym on Cole, but times are tough, and you can make up for any downturn in sauna hook-ups by visiting Pershing Square more often, or putting up a grammar-indifferent Craigslist ad [NSFW]. We're not sure if they try to charge you fees (membership initiation, DNA-free towels) on top of that $299, but it seems like this would be a good way to put a timer on your career plans ("If I haven't booked a series in two years, maybe it's time to to move back to Akron" or "Two years to get those crotch-shot body double parts I keep losing.")

Or cut some holes in a blanket: The Snuggie
If you watch TV any time in the 2-10 AM range, you have probably seen the infomercial for this intuitively designed, why-didn't-I-think-of-this-when-I-was-high invention. At worst, this is a giant bib, but at best, it's a way to keep warm in your apartment or on a plane and also unnerve everyone around you. Available in royal blue, sage green and burgundy, this is the missing piece of your Eyes Wide Shut fantasy and it keeps you warm to boot.

1. Yes Man - $18.16 million
It's rarer and rarer that we can call Jim Carrey the Biggest Star in the World, so let's savor this moment—granted a $10 million-lighter moment than we had predicted—and consider it a step in the right direction. Two years ago at this time, another forgettable Carrey comedy, Fun with Dick and Jane, opened to $4 million less, eventually earning $110.3 million domestically. With a little luck, this plucky little audience-pleaser could outdo even that, and before long Carrey will be rechristened Hollywood's Set-Terrorizing Jester King, urinating on child co-stars in improvised fits of actorly inspiration.

2. Seven Pounds - $16 million
As we had feared, Seven Pounds's challenging subject matter, and major newspaper reviews calling it the most "transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made," ultimately made it a hard sell. Still, some movies are just decades ahead of their time; something tells us that once society catches up to this rare Will Smith misfire, we'll realize just how in the dark ages Hollywood once was when it came to its big screen depictions of Jellyfish-Americans.

3. The Tale of Despereaux - $10.507 million
The CGI-shlock-making industry held its collective breath on the heels of Delgo's historic, Turds-font-popularizing box office flameout. But unlike that family film, audiences did not treat Despereaux screenings as if they were highly infectious, flesh-eating-contagion chambers, sparing this rodent fairy tale a place in the box office bed-shitting record books.

4. The Day the Earth Stood Still - $10.15 million
Plummeting 67% was this remake, largely accredited to poor word of mouth, as audiences who had hoped they'd be in store for some epic-scale sci-fi destruction instead wound up with two hours of Keanu Reeves on roller skates, sliding up to confused pedestrians and doing his best WALL-E impression.

5. Four Christmases - $7.745 million
This was it! The fourth Christmas. We pack this in the box now with the rest of those weird-smelling ornaments we made in the late '70s from that home-made dough recipe in the Zoom newsletter (are we dating ourselves?), and forget about it 'til next year.

• December 19–21, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]

No, Australians are up in arms because Kidman played the didgeridoo on some wacky German talk show, which women are forbidden to do in many parts of the country (apparently, souvenir shops have special exemptions). Truly, though, this clip of Kidman and Hugh Jackman on Wetten, dass..? is both an amazing extension of Kidman's Awkwardness '08 talk show tour and a surreal masterpiece that can rival the stateside display of our nation's vice president-elect stoning and drowning TV's Elaine Benes under the stewardship of a famous lesbian. Watch as Kidman sits there, having no idea what the hell anyone is saying, eventually realizing that they want her to humiliate herself on-screen. What follows, we imagine, is something akin to how David Lynch might interpret the wedding night between Kidman and Tom Cruise: lots of giggling, tentative blowing, and an uncomfortable man in a three-piece suit dancing on one foot. [The Age]

Pellicano, 64, was convicted last May of 78 counts of wiretapping, wire fraud, racketeering and conspiracy that ensnared eventual trial witnesses Chris Rock, Michael Ovitz, Brad Grey, Bert Fields and former LA Times journalist Anita Busch, the latter of whose searing testimony earlier this year was recalled in one final scold today before sentencing. The term was decidedly longer than the five-year, 10-month sentence originally recommended by the Probation Department; Pellicano and two of his co-defendants will also be responsible for paying $2 million in fines and restitution. That should keep his wife and daughters busy for a while; good luck to them, and good riddance to the Pelican.

• Pellicano sentenced to 15 years [Variety]

• Pellicano gets 15 years in wiretapping case [LAT]

Rather, they chose perhaps our most safely logical candidate: Hugh Jackman—whose larger-than-life talent has already proven itself capable of carrying musclebearish mutant adventures, flashy Broadway bio-musicals, and sweeping historical romances with equal facility.

But is he ready to tackle the toughest gig in the 'biz? Oscar hosting once famously turned David Letterman into a babbling, vowel-sounding incoherent, and led Chris Rock to inadvertently incite a sound mixer/sound editor turf war that resulted in several completely inaudible seat-filler shootings.

The Academy seems to think he is, but Jackman wants to be reassured he won't have to deliver any Russell Crowe fat jokes shoved into his hands by Bruce Vilanch moments before he takes the stage. Deadline Hollywood Daily reports:

The people around Jackman want to know exactly what would be expected of him, especially when it comes to opening the Oscar broadcast. One segment of the show which reps for Jackman are objecting to specifically is the joke-telling monologue. "I don't want that for him," an insider told me. "He is an actor with big movies behind him and one coming this summer. He didn't work the last 20 years to suddenly be a stand-up comedian.

Not that there's anything wrong with stand-up comics, mind you—but, you know. They're by and large unsavory types who douse themselves in L'eau de desperation before pushing up their blazer sleeves and hitting the spotlit stool. That's not Jackman, and befits not the Sexiest Man Alive.

We leave you now with his legendary performance at the 2004 Tonys.

• OSCARS WANT HUGH JACKMAN TO HOST: He'll Accept If Academy Show "Different" [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

The good news: Slumptastic Revolutionary Road finally got some awards season recognition! The bad news: It came at Milk's expense. And in the TV categories, In Treatment's five nods surpassed Mad Men, 30 Rock and Entourage, each with three nominations. A full list of nominees follows the jump. We'll have a closer read through the nominees later this morning after we properly suit up for another journey into Awards Hell, but for now we ask: James Franco as Best Actor for Pineapple Express? And: Between the four nominations apiece for Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Reader, how about those Weinsteins?

FILM CATEGORIES

BEST PICTURE: DRAMA
· The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
· Frost/Nixon
· The Reader
· Revolutionary Road
· Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
· Burn After Reading
· Happy-go-lucky
· In Bruges
· Mamma Mia
· Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST DIRECTOR
· Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
· Stephen Daldry, The Reader
· David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
· Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
· Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road

BEST ACTOR: DRAMA
· Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
· Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
· Sean Penn, Milk
· Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
· Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS: DRAMA
· Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
· Angelina Jolie, Changeling
· Meryl Streep, Doubt
· Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long
· Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST ACTRESS: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
· Rebecca Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
· Sally Hawkins, Happy-go-lucky
· Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading
· Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia
· Emma Thompson, Last Chance Harvey

BEST ACTOR: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
· Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
· Colin Farrell, In Bruges
· James Franco, Pineapple Express
· Brendan Gleeseon, In Bruges
· Dustin Hoffman, Last Chance Harvey

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
· Amy Adams, Doubt
· Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barecelona
· Viola Davis, Doubt
· Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
· Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
· Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder
· Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
· Ralph Fiennes, The Duchess
· Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
· Heath Ledger,The Dark Knight

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
· The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
· Everlasting Moments (Sweden/Denmark)
· Gomorrah (Italy)
· I've Loved You So Long (France)
· Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
· Bolt
· Kung Fu Panda
· Wall-E

BEST SCREENPLAY
· Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
· David Hare, The Reader
· Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
· Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
· John Patrick Shanley, Doubt

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
· Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
· Clint Eastwood, Changeling
· James Newton Howard, Defiance
· A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
· Hans Zimmer, Frost/Nixon

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

BEST DRAMATIC TV SERIES
· Dexter
· House M.D.
· In Treatment
· Mad Men
· True Blood

BEST ACTOR, TV DRAMA
· Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
· Michael C. Hall, Dexter
· Jon Hamm,Mad Men
· Hugh Laurie, House M.D.
· Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors

BEST ACTRESS, TV DRAMA
· Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
· Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
· January Jones, Mad Men
· Anna Paquin, True Blood
· Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

BEST TV SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
· Californication
· Entourage
· The Office
· 30 Rock
· Weeds

BEST ACTOR, TV MUSICAL OR COMEDY
· Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
· Steve Carell, The Office
· Kevin Connolly, Entourage
· David Duchovny, Californication
· Tony Shalhoub, Monk

BEST ACTRESS, TV MUSICAL OR COMEDY
· Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
· America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
· Tina Fey, 30 Rock
· Debra Messing, The Starter Wife
· Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
· Cranford
· Bernard & Doris
· John Adams
· A Raisin in the Sun
· Recount

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
· Judi Dench, Cranford
· Laura Linney, John Adams
· Catherine Keener, An American Crime
· Shirley MacLaine, Coco Chanel
· Susan Sarandon, Bernard & Doris

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
· Ralph Fiennes, Bernard and Doris
· Paul Giammatti, John Adams
· Kevin Spacey, Recount
· Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Redemption
· Tom Wilkinson, Recount

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
· Eileen Atkins, Cranford
· Laura Dern, Recount
· Melissa George, In Treatment
· Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
· Dianne Wiest, In Treatment

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
· Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
· Denis Leary, Recount
· Jeremy Piven, Entourage
· Blair Underwood, In Treatment
· Tom Wilkinson, John Adams