Miscellaneous

The Lawyering Emmys

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Why do people like legal tv shows so much? It's because each case, like every crime, disease, or wannabe model, has a story.

Drumroll please...here's a list of legal shows nominated for Emmys:

• Outstanding Director, Comedy: The Office, "Goodbye, Toby," Paul Feig. We know Dunder Mifflin, Inc. isn't a law firm, but Toby the HR guy has to deal with the fallout from haphazard employment practices every day! Plus Paul Feig is one of our heroes.


• Outstanding Drama: Boston Legal and Damages. Although the devotion of one Albuquerque lawyer wasn't enough to save The Practice, Boston Legal is still on the air! We have never seen Damages because of our delivery situation. (Kid: Do you have satelite? My son: No. Kid: Do you have direct TV? My son: No. Kid: Then what do you have? Me: A tv!)


• Outstanding Actor in a Drama: James Spader, Boston Legal. We have hated this evil-doer ever since he dissed Molly Ringwald's character in Pretty in Pink! But Alan Shore, though far worse and much older, is inexplicably hot.


• Outstanding Actress in a Drama: Glen Close, Damages; Mariska Hartigay, Law & Order SVU; Holly Hunter, Saving Grace; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer. So Hartigay, Hunter, and Sedgwick (who probably always wins the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game) are technically on the order side of things, but we'll include them anyway.


• Outstanding Directing, Drama: Boston Legal, "The Mighty Rogues," Arlene Sanford; Damages, "Pilot," Allan Coulter.


• Outstanding Directing, Miniseries, etc.: Tom Hooper for John Adams; Jay Roach for Recount.


• Outstanding Actor in a Drama: William "Denny Crane" Shatner; Ted Danson, Damages; Zeljko Ivanek, Damages.


• Outstanding Actress, Drama: Candice Bergen, Boston Legal. (Isn't it nice to know that Dan Quayle was wrong?)


• Outstanding Art Direction (and many, many more!) Miniseries: John Adams. We didn't see it on tv, but we lived it! Wow, the DeWitt Wallace/CW mental institution looked like it was in a snow globe! This isn't a typical legal drama, but if writing the Declaration of Independence doesn't count, what does?


• Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, etc.: Jan Archibald (no pun intended!) for John Adams. Somebody had to make all those wigs!


• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries, etc.: Paul Giamatti, John Adams; Tom Wilkinson, Recount; Kevin Spacey Recount.


• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries etc.: Laura Linney, John Adams. Abigail Adams didn't have a law degree, but if she were around today she probably would be teaching at a leading law school and/or running for office. She was smart, anti-slavery, and pro-woman. She was the first First Lady to hold a quasi-official governmental position.


• Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music: Tree Adams, Canterbury's Law. It's always fun when a cancelled mid-season replacement gets an award.


• Outstanding Makeup for a Single-camera Series (non-prosthetic): Melanie Elaine Levitt, Tom Hoerber, Matthew Mungle, and Clinton Wayne, CSI. (We think the term "non-prosthetic" excludes breast implants.)


• Outstanding Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie, etc. (prosthetic): Trefor Proud, John R. Bayless, Christopher Burgoyne, and Matthew Mungle for John Adams. Now we're sure about the definition, because as any casual Colonial Williamsburg visitor knows, the founding mothers did not have silicone breast implants.


• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie: Laura Dern as Katherine Harris in Recount.

To see the rest (and to cast an entirely inconsequential vote), visit the Washington Post's 60th Annual Emmy Awards section.

OK, now we're going to nominate ourselves for "Most Links in a Single Post."

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on July 17, 2008 (boomark / email).