Look who won an EMMY!

So happy for two of our good friends, Bryan Cranston and Jean Smart - both of whom earned Emmys last night. Bryan won Outstanding Lead Actor for "Breaking Bad" and Jean won Outstanding Supporting Actress for "Samantha Who", which I cast her in. Very pleased about that.

Bryan Cranston is a talented actor - who has really gotten an opportunity to stretch with this cool role in "Breaking Bad"... so many people know him from "Malcolm in the Middle", but this is totally different. He also happens to be a neighbor and friend. You can hear what Bryan has to say about star quality and being an actor in Hollywood on the AreUaStar.com site.

Ok - let's talk about the Emmys. Other than a nice shot of Ron Leavitt in the memorial section, I thought the evening was a disaster. The writing was awful, the use of the 5 reality hosts fell flat. Were those first 8 minutes not the most painful you have ever witnessed in television?

If I were a viewer with no stake in the TV biz, I would never tune in to that show again. But happy with the wins for our peeps. On a down side, came into my office this am to find that someone had broken in and stolen our video cameras. What a drag. As you can imagine, video cameras are a necessity in running a casting office. So, we'll just have to make sure we don't leave any of those kind of things at the office anymore.... or get better insurance.

Have an emmylicious week. Congrats Bryan and Jean!!

The Emmys - Casting Directors win awards!

Congrats go out to the Emmy winning Casting Directors who received their awards at this past weekend's Creative Arts ceremony. This is the evening where they honor those awards that are deemed not important enough to be part of the televised ceremony. The exception to that is Best Guest Actor/Actress - and those people are usually brought out to present at the televised portion which airs this upcoming weekend.

In the category of Comedy Series, the Emmy went to Jennifer McNamara Shroff for "30 Rock". Drama Series went to "Damages" (Julie Tucker, Ross Meyerson & Avy Kaufman) and the winning Casting for Miniseries, Movie or Special went to Kathleen Chopin, Nina Gold and Tracy Kilpatrick for "John Adams".

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for their great work. And good luck to all our nominated friends for this upcoming weekend, especially Christina Applegate, Jean Smart and Arlene Sanford!

Emmy nomination day

This is always an exciting day for those of us who work in television. Today, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominations for the 2008 Emmys. I'm going to post the Casting nominations below.... and no, we were not nominated for our work on "Samantha Who" this year - however congratulations to CHRISTINA APPLEGATE and JEAN SMART from the show, who were nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

Also, congratulations go out to our talented colleagues in the casting world for their great work of this past season. And the nominees are....

Outstanding Casting For A Comedy Series

30 Rock
Jennifer McNamara Shroff

Californication
Felicia Fasano, C.S.A., Casting By
Pat McCorkle, C.S.A., Original New York Casting

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Allison Jones, Casting Director

Pushing Daisies
Camille Patton, C.S.A.,
Meg Liberman, C.S.A.,
Jennifer Lare, C.S.A.,

Ugly Betty
Jeff Greenberg, C.S.A.
Mark Scott, C.S.A.

Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series

Brothers & Sisters
Jeanie Bacharach, C.S.A., Casting Director
Gillian O'Neill, C.S.A., Casting Director

Damages
Julie Tucker, C.S.A., Co-Casting Director
Ross Meyerson, Co-Casting Director
Avy Kaufman, Casting Director - Pilot

Friday Night Lights
Linda Lowy
John Brace
Beth Sepko, Texas Casting Director

Mad Men
Kim Miscia, Casting Director (Pilot)
Beth Bowling, Casting Director (Pilot)
Laura Schiff, Casting Director (Series)
Carrie Audino, Casting Director (Series)

The Tudors
Nuala Moiselle
Frank Moiselle
Mary Jo Slater, C.S.A., US Casting
Steve Brooksbank, C.S.A., US Casting
Stephanie Gorin, C.S.A., C.D.C., Canadian Casting

Outstanding Casting For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

Cranford (Masterpiece Theatre)
Maggie Lunn, Casting Director

John Adams
Kathleen Chopin, C.S.A., Casting Director
Nina Gold, C.D.G., Casting Director
Tracy Kilpatrick, Casting Director

Recount
David Rubin, C.S.A., Casting Director
Richard Hicks, C.S.A., Casting Director
Lori S. Wyman, C.S.A., Florida Casting Director
Kathleen Chopin, C.S.A., New York Casting Director
Julie Schubert, New York Casting Director

The Bronx Is Burning
Billy Hopkins
Paul Schnee
Hopkins, Smith & Barden Casting

The Company
Denise Chamian, C.S.A.
Scout Masterson
Diane Kerbel, Canada Casting
Priscilla John, UK Casting
Zsolt Csutak, Hungary Casting

The initials C.S.A. after most of the American CD's names indicate membership in the Casting Society of America. I'd like to give a personal shout out to my friends nominated this year including: David Rubin and Richard Hicks, Meg Liberman and Cammi Patton and Jeff Greenberg.

for more information and the rest of the nominations, you can visit www.emmy.tv