Bottom Of The Barrel

Emm-barrassing Nomination

Welcome back to the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy® Awards and the nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie are:

Kelly Macdonald as Gina [The Girl In The Café • HBO]
Shirley Jones as Aunt Batty [Hidden Places • Hallmark]
Ellen Burstyn as Former Tarnower “Steady” [Mrs. Harris • HBO]
Cloris Leachman as Tarnower’s Sister [Mrs. Harris • HBO]
Alfre Woodard as Mrs. Brown [The Water Is Wide • CBS]

These words will be spoken from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and broadcast live on NBC on August 27 . What won't be said about the above nominations is how long each of them appeared in the miniseries or movie for which they were an "outstanding supporting actress".

I, like most people, would assume that the term supporting actress is a person who appears in the majority of the film/series but is not the main female character. One nominee, Ellen Burstyn, appeared for only 14 seconds in her movie and had a total of two lines of dialog, consisting of 38 words. Would you consider this to be a "supporting actress"? I'd call it more like a bit-part or cameo than a supporting cast member. Given the fact that all it takes is $200 for an actor/actress to be considered by the "Academy of Television Arts & Sciences" this nomination appears to be more like a popularity contest than a true evaluation of the acting.

No offense to Ms. Burstyn, who didn't nominate herself and was excellent in The Exorist, this nomination lowers the already low standards of the Emmy. Maybe the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences should take a look at how The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences produce their nominations to understand why an Oscar is so coveted and respected in the industry and the Emmy is considered a lesser award.

posted by TheWino @ 9:11 AM