Oscar loves Gervais?

Having already slagged on last year's Oscar telecast today, let us be clear about one thing -- it wasn't Jon Stewart's fault. That guy was working his arse off.

Now that he's out of the game, at least for the upcoming February, let's just blame uber-Oscar-producer Gil Cates for the flat, montage-a-minute show. For the sake of argument, OK?

But enough with the finger pointing (not really, we'll come back to it later). We've learned that there's a new team in town, first-time Oscar shepherds Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, and we're psyched to see what they come up with.

Could that plan also involve Emmy show savior Ricky Gervais?

Hollywood Insider says it could.

We already pegged Gervais as a potential Emmy host. In fact, in the heat of the moment -- our Live Blogging Extravaganza! -- we threw out suggestions ranging from the Emmy-winning funny man to Josh Groban to Don Rickles to a house plant to take over Emmy duties next year. Any or all would be more entertaining than the leaden quintet that we and 12.3 million of you unlucky folks at home had to endure.

The idea of a Gervais-led Oscarcast is an intriguing one. That gig has proven to be a no-win proposition for anybody who isn't Billy Crystal, Steve Martin or Ellen DeGeneres. Is it worth the risk for Gervais? That might be what his camp is pondering today as they field a slew of exploratory phone calls.

 

Oscar loves new blood

Is this good news or bad news for those of us who revolted against last year's interminable, lackluster montage-crazy Oscar telecast?

We vote for optimism!

The Academy has just hired a couple of newbies (as in, haven't done a bloated three-hour-plus live TV show before) to handle the Feb. 22 event, and they're well versed in the song and dance. Maybe not so much the montage? Fingers crossed!

Producer Laurence Mark and writer-director Bill Condon have double-Oscar-winning "Dreamgirls" under their belt as a team and a lot of major awards hardware between them.

Condon was the screenwriter on six-time Golden Guy winner "Chicago," and notable indies "Kinsey" and "Gods and Monsters" (the latter snagged Condon a writing Oscar). He's working on a Richard Pryor biopic now. Mark has "Working Girl," multiple Oscar nominee/winner "As Good as it Gets," "The Lookout," and multiple Oscar nominee/winner for Cuba Gooding Jr.,  "Jerry Maguire," to his credit and he's in post-production on "Julie and Julia" based on the best-selling book.

New blood! Guys who know good material and how to bring it to life! Reason to look forward to, rather than dread, the annual kudofest? Could be.

In other Oscar developments: THR will help you navigate the complicated foreign-language race -- new rules! more inclusive! -- here. And brother blogger Steven Zeitchik sizes up some of the contenders and convinces us to see "The Class" at the first available opportunity.

Blaine and the Dive of Death

David Blaine says he feels like his head's going to explode. Us, too!

And that's not just because of his latest public stunt, which involves hanging upside down like a bat over Central Park's Wollman Rink until sometime tomorrow, 60 hours in all.

It's also due to this photo, which threatens to forever bespoil that famous "Spider-Man" inverted kiss between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. Curse you, Blaine!

Turns out that's not the only "Spider-Man" connection.

This obviously attention-starved street magician has already pulled off tricks like being encased in a block of ice for 63 hours, getting buried alive for seven days, and spending 44 days (to the tune of near-constant jeering) in a plexiglass box near the Thames. When last some of us saw him, he was holding his breath for 17 minutes, 4.4 seconds on "Oprah," breaking the world record and boosting ratings on the Emmy-backlogged afternoon chat show.

He starved himself before this latest public display, and there's a chance that he'll suffer internal injuries and/or lose his sight. Good times!

For his trouble, he's just been nominated for the first-ever Houdini Award, doled out by The Houdini Museum in Scranton (the place that holds the annual Halloween Houdini seance on the anniversary of the legendary illusionist's death). He beats out Criss Angel, David Copperfield, and Penn and Teller, who apparently aren't as willing to risk death for our amusement.

Check ABC tomorrow night for a live show -- it's premiere week! -- to see the resolution and how many vital organs Blaine ends up sacrificing for his craft.

 

TV: Gayer than ever!

Just starting to come down off our sugar high from an Emmy weekend filled with way too many micro-mini molten chocolate cupcakes. Eat enough of those things (so itty bitty cute, with powdered sugar on top!) and sleep will elude you, trust us.

But it's back to real news, we mean aside from reporting and re-reporting the record-low ratings of the Emmycast. That just never gets old.

One of the top stories today? TV is gay. No, really gay.

GLAAD has just released its annual survey of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender roles on network TV and found that there's an all-time high 16 such characters appearing regularly on prime time series. (Including cable or even just Showtime or a Big Gay Al-centric "South Park" episode would've made these number a lot bigger).

Looking at the details of the GLAAD study, we realize there's no ghetto-izing going on here. One of the characters -- Will Arnett as Jack Donaghy's nemesis on "30 Rock" -- is an Emmy nominated role. (Arnett recently lost to his fellow "30 Rock" guest star Tim Conway). But many other regular and recurring characters are found on Emmy nominated or Emmy winning shows like "The Office," "Grey's Anatomy," "House," "Ugly Betty," "The Simpsons" and "ER."

There's more LGBT characters than ever, according to GLAAD's 13 previous studies, and not just the Baldwin guy's lover on "Dirty Sexy Money."

Who's the gayest network? Fox. Gay-less? CBS.

More details here, and even more here on GLAAD's site where you can examine four-year trends in TV gayness and see that Roger the Alien (pictured) on "American Dad" is the only character described as "bisexual/non-human."

 

Emmy loves a party

Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel at the same party? Egads! Various "Mad Men" looking dapper and satisfied. Colbert kicking back. All the Pinkberry you can eat and the booze you can (responsibly) drink. It's Emmy party weekend!

How about a stream-of-consciousness recap?

Bryan Batt (the closeted Salvatore on "Mad Men") at the Entertainment Weekly party in Beverly Hills on Saturday night. Having fun on the show?

"You should smack me in the head if I say no," he said.

No punching necessary. The gracious guy obviously recognizes a good thing when he has it. (The show went on to make Emmy history by being the first basic cable series to win for best drama.)

Giant bottles of vodka and mixers as centerpieces at the L.A. Confidential gathering in Hollywood on Saturday honoring the mag's current cover girl and Emmy nominee Mary-Louise Parker. Drink up! No sign of the "Weeds" star at too-crowded Les Deux, but plenty of Ian Ziering. Ian Ziering?

Feeding frenzy of a different sort when chicks in attendance realized that Revlon (for EW's event) and Maybelline (for the "Entertainment Tonight"/People mag party last night) had set up free-for-all makeup bars. Make ours a double! Immediate cursing of itty bitty evening bags broke out among the females bellied up, along with double-fisted packing of all boyfriend/husband/date's available jacket pockets.

Nearly as hopping as the Makeup Bar? The room where Billy Idol was playing at Disney Hall. Idol launched into recognizable/serviceable versions of some hits like "Rebel Yell" and showed off his still cut torso.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, recent Emmy winners for a one-hour "South Park," summed up the edge-of-chaos Comedy Central gathering last night at STK with this pose (picture above with network publicist Tony Fox). And Kanye was there. Kanye! And T.I.! We didn't make it to the HBO shindig but first-time Emmy winner Zeljko Ivanek appears to be enjoying himself (photo at right). Belvedere sponsorship? Who cares? Bubbly time!

Didn't find a single star, Emmy nominee/winner or otherwise, unwilling to chat with nosy fans -- that would be us with any of the following: Stephen Colbert, Michael Gladis ("Mad Men"), Brian Baumgartner ("The Office"), B.J. Novak ("The Office"), Daniel Dae Kim ("Lost") and anyone else unlucky enough to cross our paths. Hey, PC commercial guy!

Almost makes up for being subjected to the Emmy telecast in its entirety. Almost.

Ken Burns on Palin: Unqualified

Everybody from our entertainers to our chiropractors are talking politics these days. Who can resist?

Not Ken Burns, whose opinion carries far more weight than your everyday (even well-informed) movie star. Here's what he thinks about Sarah Palin:

"He (McCain) selected someone who is so supremely unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency and he has turned the selection process into a high school popularity contest and an 'American Idol' competition...In the whole history of the Republic there has been no one with as thin a credential."

Burns, a multiple Emmy winner/Oscar nominee whose latest project, "The War" on PBS, recently picked up three Emmys, was speaking at a panel today at Fordham University's law school ahead of tonight's News and Documentary Emmy Awards where he'll take home a lifetime achievement award.

Read more about his candor here, and feel free to pass it along to everyone you know.

 

Emmy loves algorithms

So much number crunching lately -- our lady brain over here is about to explode -- what with the 700 kazillion bucks needed to bail out the country's money men, $4 for a half-gallon of organic milk, and a couple ducats in our paltry bank account hanging in the balance as Washington Mutual teeters on the solvency brink.

Let's talk inconsequential figures!

Last night's telecast of the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards tanked in the ratings, but there were other numbers of note -- the first time a basic cable show ever took the best drama trophy ("Mad Men"), the first (and perhaps last) time that five reality show hosts emceed the night.

More digits:

• "John Adams" from HBO: 13 wins (out of 23 nominations)

• "30 Rock," NBC: 7 wins (17 nominations)

• "Mad Men," AMC: 6 wins (16 nominations)

• Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold in "Entourage" on HBO: win #3

• "Amazing Race" on CBS: 6 consecutive wins

• "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central: ditto, 6 consecutive wins

• Trucker hats on the red carpet: 1 (atop the noggin of "30 Rock's" Judah Friedlander)

Correct Gold Rush predictions: negative 18

Minutes in gridlock because some jabroni tried to get an air rifle through an L.A.P.D. anti-terrorism-style check point: 36

Notable first-time winners: Don Rickles, HBO's "Mr Warmth: The Don Rickles Project," Zeljko Ivanek, FX's "Damages," Glynn Turman, HBO's "In Treatment," Bryan Cranston, AMC's "Breaking Bad."

Go here for more Emmy equations.

Emmy: Got viewers?

Was it as endless and painful for you as it was for us?

Apparently not, because most of you at home didn't bother to watch the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. Wise move.

Granted, you wouldn't have had to sit through the three-hour telecast perched on a folding chair so uncomfortable it could've doubled as a torture device like we did, but something must've told you to stay away. And steer clear you did. (Hey, how was the football game?)

The Emmy ratings this morning tell the story: 3.8 rating/9 share in the important adults 18-49 demo -- that's 12% below last year's record low for the program and the lowest in Nielsen's recorded People Meter history, says Live Feed.

About 12.2 million people watched, and they, no doubt, want their three hours back.

TV is lousy with awards shows these days, and even the marquee events have a tough time drawing an audience. Last night's craptacular performance won't help the cause.

Were people not interested because the most-nominated shows are niche and have a hard time drawing eyeballs themselves? Could be. Not just this town, certainly, but the whole world is celebrity saturated, so viewers can tune in anywhere, read a star rag, surf a few Interwebs sites and get their fix. No awards show needed.

Not sure what this portends about the Oscars. Time to seriously consider bringing in the populist movies? Probably, yeah.

In case you don't have time to troll around for a compendium of the bad reviews from last night's Emmys, check here. There are some doozies.

 

Emmys embrace election year

Politics crept then crashed into Sunday's Emmy telecast, with trophies going to such socially conscious fare as "John Adams" and "Recount" and plenty of zingers and pleas to vote Nov. 4. Full story

Fey's Palin countdown

Now she can stop apologizing for being an actor on "30 Rock."

That might be the upshot of Tina Fey winning the Emmy for best lead actress in a comedy tonight, she said back stage, after telling the live crowd earlier tonight that she's always felt like a writer first and wouldn't be where she is today without the foundation that career has provided.

(When she won the SAG award early this year, Fey compared herself to the hat rack that dances with Gene Kelly and, after a while, people think the hat rack is also a fairly good stepper. She hasn't considered herself much of an actress. Maybe that's over now).

Another thing Fey would like to stop doing? Playing Sarah Palin.

"I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5. So if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be great."

We'll do our part.