Issue Date: September 16, 2001
A new TV season, laden with "reality" shows, begins this week. First, however, the TV academy takes a self-congratulatory look back at last season with Sunday night's 53rd annual Emmy Awards (RESCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7). Here, our expert, Tom O'Neil -- author of Variety's The Emmys and founder of GoldDerby.com, a site for insider scoop on all show-biz awards -- shares his calls in six top categories.
BEST COMEDY SERIES ACTOR
Frasier's Kelsey Grammer will win a fourth Emmy for the episode in which Frasier, on the eve of a career tribute, tells his college mentor, "I feel empty!"
BEST COMEDY SERIES ACTRESS
Jane Kaczmarek, bossy mom of Malcolm in the Middle and wife of The West Wing's Bradley Whitford, should win for a flashback story in which we saw the wacky ways she gave birth to her boys.
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Winners are selected with eight episodes, so this is trickier to call, but look
for Malcolm in the Middle to prevail. Last year, it won for best comedy writing and directing when it was not up for this top award.
It should clobber the competition.
BEST DRAMA SERIES ACTOR
Martin Sheen of The West Wing was so amazing in the season finale that he'll surely win. His bravura tirade in which he chewed out God (in Latin!) will be his Emmy salvation.
BEST DRAMA SERIES ACTRESS
Lorraine Bracco of The Sopranos should rub out all Emmy rivals -- including co-star Edie Falco -- with her amazing rape episode, which left viewers stunned and devastated.
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Expect another election landslide for the White House gang. Last year, The West Wing set a record for most Emmy victories in a single year (nine). The only question this year is whether it can pull off an even bigger sweep.
Ellen DeGeneres
hosts this Sunday's Emmy show, a signal that the actress, who once vowed to leave Hollywood with ex-love Anne Heche, is back in a
big way. In addition, DeGeneres, 43, is up for two Emmys (for an HBO stand-up special), and she has a CBS sitcom debuting Monday. "It's a whole new start for Ellen," says her mom, Betty, who'll be in the audience to cheer Ellen as well as Ellen's brother Vance, nominated for his work on The Daily Show.
In her new comedy, Ellen is a former Internet exec who returns to her hometown to start over. And yes, as in her last show, she's gay. "[Some] will say it's not gay enough, and others will say it's too gay," says Betty, who wishes people wouldn't compare. "But you can't help that."
Why do great movie actors take roles on TV (in series that so often turn out bad)? Is it the money?
Gail Thomas, Chicago
A steady paycheck is attractive. Yet many actors I've talked with over the years say a series gives them stability. That's why Marcia Gay Harden, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for "Pollock" last spring, said yes to The "Education of Max Bickford", debuting next Sunday on CBS. "Doing film is a great lifestyle, but it's a gypsy lifestyle," says Harden, 42, a married mother of one. Although she'd committed to TV before she won her Oscar, Harden, left, doesn't regret signing on to play an "irreverent, vain, funky and fun" history teacher with a crush on Richard Dreyfuss. Bickford should have a better-than-average chance of success: Dreyfuss has two Oscars himself.
Frankie Muniz, an Emmy contender for comedy actor, is great as Malcolm in Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle". He's cute, too. Does he date?
Claudia Cuevas, El Centro, Calif.
At 15, he has more than his share of adoring girls, but Muniz is too busy to date; he says he's taking his mom and his maternal grandparents to the Emmys. He worked all summer, promoting a "Malcolm" CD, judging a karaoke contest in Key West, Fla., and filming the comedy "Big Fat Liar". "I'll have plenty of time to rest when I retire," he says. In rare spare time, he works on his golf game (when we talked, he was planning an outing with 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake). Muniz revels in his fame. "I always wanted to be on the teen-ey magazines, and I am now. It's hard to believe."
I've heard this will be the last season for my favorite comedy, "Friends". Tell me it's not true.
Tara McKenzie, Tucson, Ariz.
I would if I could, but neither reps for the six stars nor the show's producers will talk beyond the here and now. We do know that their lucrative two-year contracts are up (each friend now earns $36 million) at the end of this season, the eighth, and that Lisa Kudrow (who, with Jennifer Aniston, is Emmy-nominated) said it would be the last. Kudrow's people now say nothing's definite. So, while the friends decide whether to negotiate and the rest of us speculate, I suggest you enjoy fresh episodes, beginning Thursday with Rachel (Aniston) pregnant and the father a question mark.
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BIRTHDAYS
September 16: Marc Anthony, 32;
September 17: Kyle Chandler, 36;
September 18: James Gandolfini, 40;
September 19: Trisha Yearwood, 37;
September 20: Sophia Loren, 67;
September 21: Faith Hill, 34; Bill Murray, 51;
September 22: Andrea Bocelli, 43
Contributing: Patty Rhule, Frappa Stout
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