MTV MOVIE AWARDS: PRECISION LANDING

Bruno, replete with angel wings, pulled off a perfect aerial 69…on a none too pleased Eminem.

Got to be the most “shocking” awards show appearance in recent memory: Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno swooping in angel wings above the audience at the MTV Movie Awards and landing, exposed package side up, on Eminem. After a flurry of expletives deleted, the rehabbed rap star promptly high-tailed it out of the auditorium with beefy bodyguards in tow. Staged? Looks that way…and yes,  Em later admitted he was in on the game.

The stunt overshadowed the rest of the telecast, hosted by SNL’s out of the box Andy Samberg. “Twilight” swept the Golden Popcorn trophies, with statuettes going to the hit vampire movie and stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Cam Gigandet. The late Heath Ledger was awarded Best Villain and Amy Poehler won “Best WTF Moment” (would love to see this category at the Oscars—ha!)  for peeing in the sink in “Baby Mama.” Disney darlings Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron also went home with trophies.

UPFRONT WITH THE NEW FALL SCHEDULES

Glee girls give a surprise NY street performance for participants in Fox’s upfront presentation

Take a little Kiefer Sutherland contrition mixed with some Jimmy Kimmel truth and you got some of the big stories coming out of TV upfront week in New York, the time when the networks sell most of their advertising inventory after showing off their new fall wares. Yes, even though the nets are cutting their commercial prices, they’re still expected to rake in nearly $8 billion, although that’s down about 15% from last year. As it was TAR’s first experience at the dog and pony shows, we enjoyed (most of) the presentations and getting a sneak peek at probable hits like Fox’s “Glee” and “Vampire Diaries” on the CW.  

Guests at Fox’s bash at Central Park’s Wollman Rink: Kiefer said he’d meet them at the bar

With the recession taking a big bite out of revenues, senses of humor also took a nosedive. Sutherland got scorched for telling advertisers “I’ll see you at the bar,“ referring to Fox’s afterparty in Central Park, although the joke went over big with the audience.  Kimmel got crushed for making these comments: “Everything you’re going to hear this week is bullshit. These new fall shows? We’re going to cancel about 90% of them. Every year we lie to you and every year you come back for more. You don’t need an upfront. You need therapy”—all after stating the obvious, that ABC would rather have had Jay Leno in his time slot. And speaking of—we loved Jay’s last Tonight Show—a classy capper to his 17 year-gig.

TV TALK
Leno @ 10: He suggests “Jay’s Anatomy” or “Dirty Sexy Leno” 
as titles for his new M-F show

No folks, this isn’t the end of network TV as we know it, despite what all the Chicken Littles in the biz are saying. Did television die when the number of scripted drama and comedies was outweighed by the glut of competition/reality shows? Well, maybe a little.

Is NBC going under because it will feature Jay Leno at 10 p.m. (thus losing five hours of other prime-time programming per week) and combining its production studio with its network operations? Don’t think so. Is ABC pissed it didn’t bring Jay over? How will Conan fare on Tonight? Prediction: someone (Bill Carter?) will write a very good book about all this drama.

60^th EMMY AWARDS: REALITY BITES

With the writers strike a closed chapter months ago, you wondered why a few WGA scribes couldn’t script a couple of words for the five-pack of Emmy reality hosts to open the 60^th edition of the awards show. Heidi Klum being dropped, and bruised? Painful, in more ways than one. Where were Ellen, Jon, Chris or Jimmy (Fallon or Kimmel) when you needed their hosting abilities? Ry-guy solo, or Russell Brand, even? A concept that just did not work, reflected in the embarrassingly meager ratings for the ABC telecast.

The lame hosting quintup-set were in sharp contrast to the quality crop of candidates who took home the statuettes.

Tina Fey, queen of the 2008 Emmys

Fresh off her boffo turn as Sarah Palin on last week’s SNL, (“I can see Russia from my house!”) the night belonged to Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and the cast and crew of NBC’s 30 Rock, which rocked the prize for best comedy series and accounted for three of the peacock net’s 6 wins, second only to HBO’s take-home trophy count of 12—many of which went to the miniseries John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.

On the drama front, critical fave Mad Men got the nod for its first season, becoming the first basic cable series to win that prize. Class act Glenn Close added to her awards mantle and surprise winner Bryan Cranston snatched the top acting prize from a field of tough competition that included Hugh Laurie, Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall, Gabriel Byrne and multiple Emmy winner James Spader. And hurray for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart supplementing its already bulging trophy case.

BREAKING BAD’S BREAKOUT STAR: BRYAN CRANSTON

He plays a down on his luck science teacher-turned-drug dealer on AMC’s Breaking Bad (the network’s “other” drama--aside from Mad Men--that has a small and obviously influential audience), but Bryan Cranston sure looks cool with his new shaved head thing going on.  Now, he’s got an Emmy for his troubles—and some insight into his very un-Malcolm-like character.

“If you cut him open, he’s like an apple. I often feel he’s gone to seed, a man for 25 years living a silent depressed life, filled with regret on missed opportunities--which starts to wear on you and break you down. So I wanted his physicality to be soft and a little pudgy and invisible to the world and himself. I drew that little moustache that made me feel impotent,” he says.

“The glasses were a cover, a mask, he’s invisible to society. The clothes palette is beige, sand, cream, pale yellow-- everything that blends into the walls. He could have painted himself as Navajo white. He felt unimportant, but all of a sudden the cancer created conditions that spawned new life, very ironic because of his imminent death.”

Hey, they can’t kill him off too soon—the show’s just beginning to gain traction!

Some select comments from those who took home the trophies:

Tina Fey, on her character Liz Lemon in the Emmy-winning comedy 30 Rock:

“Liz is sort of close to me, a truthful portrayal of a woman in her 30s in a male workplace. She’s the antithesis of those Sex and the City ladies, not having a lot of sex and not wearing fabulous clothes. She’s more regular. She’s a person whose only successes in life have been in the realm of work so she’s a little stunted in her personal endeavors. She’s like me, obedient and cautious, with a real jealous streak that needs to be tamed. I like trying to use her uglier qualities as a jumping off point for stories.” 

Robert Duvall, on his turn as Print Ritter in Broken Trail:

“I really feel like what you need for a Western is a good hat and a good horse.  On Open Range with Costner I broke some ribs.  I wanted to make sure I was ready with a horse that was bomb-proof.   I wanted to develop a good seat, and practice drawing a weapon.  I only ride when I have an objective.”

Thomas Haden Church on his role as Tom Harte in Broken Trail:

“Before I reported to Alberta, I had to tighten up in the saddle and grow a moustache. It was not negotiable. If you want to have credibility in a Western, you have to have a moustache. Why? Razors were few and far between and mirrors even scarcer. They actually called them nose and chin whiskers. It was the first time I ever grew a moustache.  My mom thought it was fake.” 

Church was reportedly the first one at the Governors Ball catered by Patina and vino from Napa’s BV and then it was off into the night for the other fetes. 

The Godiva chocolate bar at the scrumptious ET/People Magazine bash at Walt Disney Hall, where Duran Duran rocked the house that Gehry built

The fourth annual Entertainment Tonight Emmy party sponsored by People left its longtime home at the Mondrian for the culturally loftier climes of downtown’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, yet retained the fun indoor/outdoor vibe, with Dave Koz and bandmates setting the mood outside. Guests lined up for a Patina-created buffet featuring mini-scallop burgers, planked salmon and a mashed potato bar with truffle butter, Rocquefort crumbles, apple wood smoked bacon and more to swirl on top. Kodak took keepsake pix and Maybelline New York and Garnier Fructis handed out goodies before the big excitement of the evening: Duran Duran’s performance.

At the HBO party, designer Billy Butchkavitz outdid himself with an ornate purple and gold Thai theme, complete with a massive Buddha blessing the proceedings on the terrace of the PDC. But it was James Gandolfini and The Sopranos crew that stole the spotlight, just as they did on the telecast and for the seven memorable seasons before they went to black. Kanye West—man, was he busy that night, playing with Justin Timberlake and John Legend at two other venues—grabbed a second helping of the tasty Thai cuisine. Makeup artists from Laura Mercier got the beauty on partygoers as the dance floor filled with revelers. Network executives out from New York, quite pleased with the proceedings, were among the last to leave.

Across a closed San Vicente, DirecTV went all out in throwing its first-ever Emmy night bash, to celebrate the upcoming launch of 100 HD channels. Erected on a softball field, well, if you build it they will come. The dome featured video projections inside and out and stole the night’s top prize for high-tech innovation. Creating a hip, club-like atmosphere, the party attracted a black-clad crowd, with DJs AM and Brent Bolthouse spinning the tunes. Bolthouse Productions & SBE did their usual stunning job with attention to detail, down to the oversized, thick bronze silk napkins and gorge flower arrangements. 

TV Guide’s party at Les Deux was a lot about the music, as it always is. It wasn’t just West’s surprise appearance with John Legend, who had been billed as the headliner, but Teri Hatcher jumped on stage to perform with Band From TV, featuring DH co-star James Denton, Hugh Laurie, Bob Guiney, Bonnie Somerville and Greg Grunberg.

Things got a little hazy—in a good way—inside the specially constructed dome for the DirecTV bash set up on a softball field across from the PDC 

The night before, NBC/Uni threw a refreshingly red carpet and paparazzi-free hot-ticket party, now in its fourth year. Guests crammed into Spago, cruising and schmoozing with Ben Silverman, Lorne Michaels, Larry David, Tony Bennett, Tina Fey, Heidi Klum and Seal, Debra Messing and Patricia Arquette—and the Deal or No Deal ladies. As usual, the raw bar—piled with lobster, crab, shrimp and oysters was a big hit, but the newly launched Absolut 100 (proof) was a little scary if a breathalyzer test was in one’s near future.