The awards are coming. The awards are coming!

Here’s a look at who the (striking) Writer’s Guild of America nominated for its annual awards (just the TV nominees):

Dramatic series:
Dexter, written by Scott Buck, Daniel Cerone, Drew Z. Greenberg, Lauren Gussis, Kevin Maynard, Clyde Phillips, Melissa Rosenberg, Tim Schlattman; Showtime
Friday Night Lights, written by Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Carter Harris, Elizabeth Heldens, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Andy Miller, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, John Zinman; NBC
Mad Men, written by Lisa Albert, Bridget Bedard, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Tom Palmer, Chris Provenzano, Robin Veith, Matthew Weiner; AMC
The Sopranos, written by David Chase, Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider, Matthew Weiner, Terence Winter; HBO
The Wire, written by Ed Burns, Chris Collins, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon, William F. Zorzi; HBO

What is the true nature of evil? I mean, the real nature of evil?

When I was a child, the nuns used to tell us that all evil had its roots in selfishness, which I suppose is a good general way of looking at it. But I think in modern times, evil specifically is the disproportionate rage at rejection.

Read between the lines of TV’s recent sad coverage of the shooters at the Omaha mall and Virginia Tech, then go back and look at the biographies of everyone from Adolf Hitler to Lee Harvey Oswald — who haunts a Jan. 14 exploration of John F. Kennedy’s assassination on PBS’ “American Experience” —to Osama bin Laden even, and you’ll see a pattern emerge. These men experienced some kind of rebuff in life — failure to get into a chosen profession, dismissal by a girlfriend, coldness on the part of the father or a daddy figure — and instead of chalking that up to life experience, they chose to visit a world of hurt on others, turning disappointment into devastation.

This has always been a great theme in the arts, and I’m sure someday some clever college professor is going to create a whole course on “the literature of rejection,” including Achilles in Homer’s “The Iliad”; Iago in Shakespeare’s “Othello”; Lucifer in Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” the pathetic monster in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” to name a few.

To these we can add Det. Charlie Crews on NBC’s “Life,” who on the last first-run episode of the year (the series returns in January) came dangerously close to going over the edge in his quest to right the brutal wrong that was done to him. Indeed, part of what kept you transfixed for the hour — I could barely breathe, let alone move — was watching star Damian Lewis and the writers (ah, writers!) dance on that ledge. When Charlie went after Kyle Hollis — the man who actually committed the murders for which he was sent to prison — you feared that Charlie might exact his pound of flesh by burying him alive. The level of ice-cold threat in Lewis’ performance was so riveting at the point that it was like watching in horror as someone you loved revealed a monstrous side you had never seen before. In that moment, I almost found Charlie hateful.

Of course, it all turned out to be a ruse on Charlie’s part to extract a confession from Hollis — a confession that in reality would be inadmissible in court since it was coerced. (Therefore, the other cops clapping for Charlie as the worked-over Hollis was brought into the police station seemed more than a little unrealistic.)

As fascinating as the whole episode was, with some great images — Charlie throwing the Zen tape out the window before his single-minded pursuit of Hollis; the snake with the gun inside it; Charlie cradling the long-lost Rachel (you knew it was her!) “Pietà”-style; Charlie in the car, upside-down after the accident, taking a cool-eyed shot at some bad guys — the single most important scene was the one in which Charlie met with his ex-wife and asked for her forgiveness.

In a way, it was an odd moment: She abandoned him, not vice versa. She loved him but not enough.

But forgiveness is not about the person who’s being forgiven. It’s about the person extending the forgiveness. At that moment, with Hollis in the trunk of his car, Charlie thought he might do something that would send him back to the slammer and so, decided to get right with the ex at least.

It turned out to be a step in the right direction. Another was retrieving the Zen tape from the highway. Charlie has a long road ahead. But when I think of him, I think of those lines from William Wordsworth’s “Imitations of Immortality”:

“Shades of the prison-house begin to close

“Upon the growing Boy,

“But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,

“He sees it in his joy.”

Because it’s awards season, the International Press Academy (who? I dunno, either) announced its nominees for the 2007 Satellite Awards (never heard of them, either, but this is apparently the 12th annual ceremony, to be held Dec. 16). Awards will be given in 49 categories, in television, film, DVD and “new media.”

Here’s a link to the official list of all the nominees and past nominees and winners, too). Variety also reported that Mad Men won a special achievement award for best ensemble cast, but I couldn’t find that on the official list.

Miniseries:
Jane Eyre, BBC/WGBH
The Starter Wife, USA Network
The Company, TNT
Five Days, HBO
The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, BBC/Kudos Productions

Motion picture made for television (otherwise known as the made-for-TV movie, or, now, MPMFT):
The Wind And The Willows, Masterpiece Theater, PBS/BBC
Mitch Albom’s For One More Day, ABC
Longford, HBO/Channel 4
Life Support, HBO
The Trial Of Tony Blair, Channel 4
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, HBO

I’m still trying to figure out why some critics say Charlie Crews is much more interesting than the cases he investigates on NBC’s “Life.” Like “The Simpsons” — another well-written though vastly different show — each quirky episode of “Life” starts out being about one thing and ends up being about another. (Sort of like Life, without the quotation marks.)

Last night’s tremendous installment — which featured all kinds of creepy, controlling daddy figures — began with the story of a murdered teenage girl and ended with a teenage boy, called Nate, who befriended her. Turns out he had been kidnapped years ago by a guy who was obviously a pedophile and who kept his “son” a psychological prisoner. This, of course, immediately spoke to Charlie (Damian Lewis), who knows that the bars people place on their souls can be as powerful as the ones they put on cells. And it led to an understated but no-less-haunting finale, in which Charlie — hinting at the sexual abuse he undoubtedly endured in prison — reached out to the boy, suggesting by his very presence that while Nate would always be an individual set apart because of his traumatic experience, there was nonetheless a way through it.

I’m of two minds about “Life’s” treatment of the prison rape Charlie must’ve endured. (I say must’ve, because I don’t think it would be possible for such a man — a good-looking cop — not to be assaulted in prison, even if he were ultimately placed in solitary confinement. As one of the characters in Spike Lee’s disturbing “25th Hour” says of the handsome drug dealer brilliantly embodied by Edward Norton, he doesn’t have the face for prison.) On the one hand, I think “Life” should acknowledge the 800-pound-gorilla in the room and address the issue psychologically. On the other hand, with all the exploitative sex and violence on the tube, the series’ restraint and ironic distance might be the best approach.)

In any event, scenes like last night’s closer have clearly given NBC the confidence to order a full complement of episodes of “Life” for this season and to begin to showcase the program with a two-parter airing at 10 p.m. Monday and Wednesday (on Channel 4 locally). This does not, however, bode well for “Journeyman,” which currently occupies the 10 p.m. Monday time slot and has not received the same vote of confidence from the Peacock Network. While I like “Journeyman” and think it’s getting stronger, it’s not as compelling as “Life” and may wind up losing its time slot to the better show. Survival of the fittest. Such is life.

Now a word about Damian Lewis’ performance as Charlie, which looks all the more remarkable when you have the pleasure of contrasting it — as I did over Thanksgiving weekend — with his turn as Soames Forsyte on WNET-Channel 13’s marathon airing of “The Forsyte Saga,” part II.

Soames Forsyte — the constricted, possessive scion of a wealthy British family at the dawn of the 20th century — would so hate the free-wheeling Charlie Crews, even though they have more in common than meets the eye. (Watch Charlie interrogate a suspect. Like Soames, he has a killer instinct.)

Soames’ dark secret — the thing he can scarcely bring himself to discuss, he’s so ashamed — lies with the cruelty he visited on the wife who betrayed him. Yet such is the genius of Lewis’ performance that he makes the sometimes villainous Soames totally intelligible. Indeed, it’s worth watching the entire series on DVD to revel in the stiff way Lewis’ Soames comports himself — speech clipped, shoulders hunched, arms close to the body.

His Charlie has a whole different verbal and kinetic rhythm — looser but still edgy. Like an Olivier, Lewis can create a character from the outside in. But like a good Method actor, he can also express the internal, as in that scene with that lost boy, in which he says and does little and yet conveys so much compassion.

Did you catch Charles Schulz’s bio on “American Masters” last night? It was absolutely haunting, from the opening scenes using the finale of “Citizen Kane” to the cartoon characters fading against the landscape at the end.

The documentary really demonstrated to what extent character is destiny. I couldn’t help but think about this over the weekend as NBC’s telecast of “Skate America” featured rising ice-skating star, 14-year-old American Caroline Zhang. This girl has it all, including the musicality and fluidity of a real dancer. After her performance to Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” one of the commentators said she was reminiscent of Michelle Kwan. I always adored Kwan, but the comparison was like a stab to the heart. In three tries, she failed to win Olympic gold, despite being a golden girl herself.

At 9 p.m. Monday on PBS (WNET/Channel 13 locally), “American Masters” will present “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz,” about the life and work of the “Peanuts” paterfamilias.

I haven’t seen the program yet, but it couldn’t be more timely, not only because of the recent publication of the controversial Schulz biography by David Michaelis but because of what that controversy says about the way we perceive art and human nature.

It will be very interesting to see what tact the documentary takes. Apparently, the book, written in cooperation with the Schulz family, portrays the creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, et al. as something of the proverbial tortured artiste. (I just loved the cartoon that ran in The New York Times’ Oct. 14 “Week in Review” section, depicting Charlie Brown as Vincent van Gogh in the self-portrait he created after he cut off part of his ear. He, too, never seemed to win a ballgame.)

Once the Schulz book hit the fan, so did the criticism, with son Monte calling the bio “preposterous.” First of all, you will always get as many impressions of a subject as their are people looking at it. We are multifaceted creatures, shimmering prisms as we rotate in this world. It’s possible Monte Schulz and David Michaelis each caught different facets of Schulz as he spun on his axis.

In many ways, Ken Burns’ “The War” is as different from his masterpiece “The Civil War” as World War II was from the War Between the States.

The seven-part, 15-hour series, which airs on PBS (Channel-13 locally) at 8 p.m. Sunday-Sept. 26 and Sept. 30-Oct. 2, has all the elements of Burns’ signature style — the use of archival images and period music; letters and news accounts read by familiar voices; talking heads offering sage perspectives. This time, however, the experts are not historians and pundits but the men and women who served on the front-lines and the home-front. Few are recognizable faces.

The images of these faces are not just still black-and-white photographs but motion pictures, often in color. They’re accompanied by jazz-flavored standards, coupled with Wynton Marsalis’ original score, that are sometimes a bit too insistent, unlike the well-integrated folk songs of “The Civil War.”

If “The War” lacks the elegiac tone of that landmark work that may be less a flaw in the filmmaking than the effect of time itself. To paraphrase the play “The History Boys,” there’s nothing deader than the recent past.

That said, “The War” plumbs a number of fascinating ironies by concentrating on four American towns beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and ending with the defeat of the Axis in the spring and summer of 1945. The towns — Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala; Luverne, Minn.; and Sacramento, Calif. — cut a wide swath geographically, though not wide enough for some. Hispanic critics have charged Burns with ignoring their contributions. But to be fair to him and them, why stop there? Why not tell the story of the Navajo code-breakers? Or the war efforts of, say, Franco-Americans?

The truth is that World War II is an amorphous topic, and it is Burns’ gift to us that he conveys its virtually unfathomable enormity by narrowcasting. He makes us understand that for the gunner in the belly of a bomber; the African-American who had to use the “colored only” drinking fountain on the way to his job in the shipyard; the Japanese-Americans playing ball in an Arizona internment camp; the starving American child lying on a mattress in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines; the war was an entirely claustrophobic experience. Particularly for the men who fought it, the war was the comrade in front of you, the buddies on the right and left, the guys bringing up the rear and the enemy always over the ridge. Stay with those perimeters, and maybe, just maybe, you would live another day.

As Burns turns a laser-like focus on his subjects, he paints the broader canvas of America’s hasty development from agricultural backwater to military/industrial juggernaut. It’s not just that we were an insular and (thanks to the disaster that was World War I) gun-shy nation with an army the size of Romania. It’s that we were totally unfit for war — no modern uniforms and weapons and little in the way of reliable intelligence, effective strategy and Alexandrian leadership. (Even the vaunted Gen. Douglas MacArthur comes off as someone who cared more about saving his family and staff in the Philippines than he did for his men.) As depicted in “The War,” we were bush-leaguers suddenly called up to The Show, with even the Brits wondering if we’d ever get our game on.

But we did, quickly and superbly but not without great cost. Burns uses the country’s geopolitical transformation as a mirror of its seismic psychic change. Scores of choirboys had to abandon the Judeo-Christian notion that killing is wrong and discovered, unnervingly, that that was not as difficult a shift as they thought. One such soldier was Daniel Inouye (yes, the senator from Hawaii and one of the few “celebrities” in the documentary). He was a Sunday School teacher, of Japanese descent, who chafed at the treatment he and other loyal Americans received, because they shared an ancestry with the enemy. Eventually, he became part of one of two elite Japanese-American units dispatched to Europe. When he killed his first German, he was pleased with himself, and his men — he was a sargeant — applauded.

Then he tells the story of finding a German soldier hiding in a barn, his arms raised in surrender. The soldier reaches for something in his pocket, and Inouye hits him with the butt of his rifle. But all the soldier wanted to do, Inouye says, was show him pictures of his family. At that moment, Inouye pauses. The stoic restraint of “the Greatest Generation” makes their stories all the more poignant.

But this isn’t Tom Brokaw’s “The Greatest Generation.” “The War” debunks the mystique of the war, and in so doing — and this may be its greatest irony — enlarges the event and those who chose the side of the angels.

In the series, you’ll meet Glenn Frazier, sort of an ornery cuss from Mobile, Ala. And a good thing, too, for he survived the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and all kinds of horrors in Japanese slave-labor camps. At one point, a Japanese soldier put his bayonet through his knee, and in order to stave off the possibility of amputation, for Frazier says he would rather have died, the American doctor in the camp had to keep opening the wound and pouring iodine into it.

I watched this with my own knee throbbing with pain and thought, If he could take that, what do I have to complain about?

That’s the beauty of history, its comforting lesson that others have suffered and made it. You can too.

“The War” is a testament to the American youth of that time and to humanity’s wondrous, terrifying, heartbreaking will to endure.

Viewer’s note: As a prelude to “The War,” Channel 13 is airing two documentaries featuring those from our area who served at home and abroad. The two-part “New York Goes To War” (9:30 tonight and 8 p.m. Sept. 27) features the letters of Phil Wood, raised in Hastings-on-Hudson. He was in his first year of Yale Law School when he enlisted in the Marines. His letters speak of his pride in the Marines, the rigor of their training and how combat transformed his life.

Sadly, he was killed in the Pacific. But Mort Simmons of Yonkers is still with us. In “New York War Stories” (9 p.m. Saturday), Simmons recalls how he was too young to fight, and his parents refused to let him. But after four months, his brothers, already overseas, wrote to their folks: “If he wants to go, let him go, but tell him to join the Navy. At least if he goes into battle, he’ll have a dry bed and a hot meal…providing the ship didn’t get sunk!”

Even in dire circumstances, it helps to keep your sense of humor.

Do you have a war story to share? Feel free to tell it on this blog. And thanks in advance for the gift of conversation.

As the mother of two wee ones, one of whom loooooves Elmo (I think there must be some subliminal message during Elmo’s World that gets into the psyche of all 2- to 3-year-olds) and the other of whom is doomed to loooooove Elmo, this one caught my eye on TV Squad:

Each week, Sesame Street will turn out a five-minute podcast that includes clips from old and new episodes. The episodes will each have a theme and will extend Sesame Street’s focus this season on vocabulary and literacy.

Just like the Oscars, the Emmys have a pre-ceremony awards ceremony for all the technical awards that would make the main ceremony last forever (because it doesn’t already, of course) but actually give credit to the people who manage to get the TV shows and movies and the like to the small screen.

They were last night, and HBO and NBC were the big winners — HBO with 15 Emmys and NBC leading the broadcast networks with 12.

My favorite wins?
1) Battlestar Galactica. Should have been nominated for a whole lot more and won for anything it’s been nominated for. One of the best shows on TV today.
2) The Justin Timberlake/SNL original song, “D**k in a Box.” When I saw this skit on SNL in a rerun this summer, I was almost speechless. And laughing hysterically. Go find it on YouTube. I’m sure it’s there.
3) South Park for its World of Warcraft episode. If you know anyone who plays WOW and don’t find South Park too offensive to watch, you’ve gotta see this one. I promise, your time won’t be wasted.

My least-favorite win? Why do the Oscars ever win anything at the Emmys? OK, maybe they do a really good job, but giving an award to an awards show just seems stupid to me. It’s like saying, “Hey! You did a great job giving those awards to those other people. Here’s an award for that.” Or in this case, two.

Oh, and the Tony awards also got a nod, for “Outstanding Special Class Program.” What’s that about? “Hey! You did a really nice job giving those awards to those other people, but not as nice a job as the Academy Awards, so we’ll give you this condolence prize. But it’s still an Emmy, so good job!”

And then those Grammy Awards had really nice lighting. And the Emmy to prove it.

Oddest win to me? The 10 — count ‘em, TEN — awards for individual achievement in animation. OK, so you can’t decide on just one winner. That’s fine. Even not just two winners. OK, could happen. But 10? Why not just hand ‘em out as party favors?

‘Nuff said. Here’s a look at who won what:

OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
NBC, Friday Night Lights:
Linda Lowy, Casting
John Brace, Casting
Beth Sepko, Location Casting

OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
AMC: Broken Trail:
Wendy Weidman, C.S.A., Casting
Coreen Mayrs, C.S.A., Canadian Casting
Heike Brandstatter, C.S.A., Canadian Casting
Jackie Lind, C.S.A., Calgary Casting
Fiorentino/Mangieri/Weidman Casting, Casting

OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
ABC, Ugly Betty:
Libby Goldstein, Casting
Junie Lowry Johnson, C.S.A., Casting

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
NBC, 30 Rock:
Elaine Stritch as Colleen Donaghy

OUTSTANDING COSTUMES FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
PBS, Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre), Part I:
Andrea Galer, Costume Designer PBS
Sally Crees, Assistant Costume Designer

OUTSTANDING COSTUMES FOR A SERIES
Showtime, The Tudors, Episode 103:
Joan Bergin, Costume Designer
Ger Scully, Costume Supervisor
Jessica O’Leary, Costume Supervisor

OUTSTANDING COSTUMES FOR A VARIETY/MUSIC PROGRAM OR A SPECIAL
(Juried award: Possibility of one, more than one or no award). This is a juried award determined by a panel of judges from the Costumes peer group. Recommendation(s) from the jury are brought to the Board of Governors for ratification. This award was previously announced.
NBC, Tony Bennett: An American Classic:
Colleen Atwood, Costume Designer
Kendall Errair, Wardrobe Supervisor

OUTSTANDING PROSTHETIC MAKEUP FOR A SERIES, MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
Fox, House, Que Sera Sera:
Dalia Dokter, Department Head Prosthetic Makeup Artist
Jamie Kelman, Prosthetic Makeup Artist
Ed French, Prosthetic Makeup Artist

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL (NON-PROSTHETIC)
HBO, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:
Gail Kennedy, Department Head Makeup Artist
Rochelle Pomerleau, Key Makeup Artist
Joanne Preece, Key Makeup Artist

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP FOR A SERIES (NON-PROSTHETIC)
HBO, Deadwood, I Am Not The Fine Man You Take Me For:
John Rizzo, Department Head Makeup Artist
Ron Snyder, Assistant Department Head Makeup Artist
Bob Scribner, Key Makeup Artist
Jim Scribner, Additional Makeup Artist

OUTSTANDING HAIRSTYLING FOR A SERIES
HBO, Rome, De Patre Vostro (About Your Father):
Aldo Signoretti, Department Head Hairstylist
Stefano Ceccarelli, Key Hairstylist
Claudia Catini, Additional Hairstylist
Michele Vigliotta, Additional Hairstylist

OUTSTANDING HAIRSTYLING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
PBS: Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre):
Anne Oldham, Department Head Hairstylist
Fay de Bremaeker, Key Hairstylist

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
HBO, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts:
Sam Pollard, Supervising Editor
Geeta Gandbhir, Editor
Nancy Novack, Editor

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR REALITY PROGRAMMING
CBS, The Amazing Race, I Know Phil, Little Ol’ Gorgeous Thing:
Jon Bachmann, Editor
Steven Escobar, Editor
Eric Goldfarb, Editor
Julian Gomez, Editor
Andy Kozar, Editor
Paul Nielsen, Editor
Jacob Parsons, Editor

OUTSTANDING MAIN TITLE DESIGN
Showtime, Dexter:
Eric Anderson, Creative Director
Josh Bodnar, Editor
Lindsay Daniels, Designer
Colin Davis, Main Title Producer

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC
Showtime, The Tudors, Episode 5:
Trevor Morris

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION FOR VARIETY, MUSIC OR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
ABC, 79th Annual Academy Awards:
J. Michael Riva, Production Designer
Gregory Richman, Art Director
Tamlyn Wright, Art Director
AND
NBC: Tony Bennett: An American Classic:
John Myhre, Production Designer
Tomas Voth, Art Director
Barbara Cassel, Set Decorator

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES
CBS, How I Met Your Mother, Aldrin Justice, Something Borrowed, Something Blue:
Steve Olson, Production Designer
Susan Eschelbach, Set Decorator

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
PBS, Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre):
Renville Horner, Production Designer
Patrick Rolfe, Art Director
Clare Andrade, Set Decorator

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES
HBO, Rome, Heroes of the Republic, Philippi, Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus:
Joseph Bennett, Production Designer
Anthony Pratt, Production Designer
Carlo Serafini, Art Director
Cristina Onori, Set Decorator

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
NBC, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
Leslie Caron as Lorraine Delmas

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
NBC, The Office, The Job:
David Rogers, Editor
Dean Holland, Editor

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Showtime, Dexter, Dexter:
Elena Maganini, Editor

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE
HBO, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:
Michael Ornstein, A.C.E, Editor
Michael Brown, A.C.E., Editor
AND
ABC, The Path to 9/11, Night 2:
Geoffrey Rowland, A.C.E., Editor
Eric Sears, A.C.E., Editor
Bryan Horne, Editor
David Handman, A.C.E., Editor
Mitchell Danton, Editor

OUTSTANDING MULTI-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A SERIES
CBS, Two and a Half Men, Release the Dogs:
Joe Bella, Editor

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR A SPECIAL (SINGLE OR MULTI- CAMERA)
Bravo, Cirque Du Soleil: Corteo:
Sylvain Lebel, Editor

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
Fox, So You Think You Can Dance, Ramalama (Bang Bang):
Wade Robson, Choreographer
AND
Fox, So You Think You Can Dance, Calling You:
Mia Michaels, Choreographer
AND
NBC, Tony Bennett: An American Classic:
Rob Marshall, Choreographer
John Deluca, Choreographer

OUTSTANDING MUSIC DIRECTION
ABC, 79th Annual Academy Awards:
William Ross, Music Director

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL MUSIC AND LYRICS
NBC, Saturday Night Live, Host: Justin Timberlake, Song title: “Dick In A Box”:
Justin Timberlake, Composer & Lyricist
Jorma Taccone, Composer & Lyricist
Katreese Barnes, Composer
Asa Taccone, Composer
Akiva Schaffer, Lyricist
Andy Samberg, Lyricist

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)
Discovery Channel, Planet Earth, Pole to Pole:
George Fenton, Composer

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)
TNT, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, Battleground
Jeff Beal, Composer

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED PROGRAM (FOR PROGRAMMING ONE HOUR OR MORE)
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
Cartoon Network, Where’s Lazlo? (Camp Lazlo):
Joe Murray, Executive Producer/Story by/Writer/Director
Brian A. Miller, Executive Producer
Mark O’Hare, Supervising Producer/Story by/Writer/Director
Jennifer Pelphrey, Supervising Producer
Janet Dimon, Producer
Brian Sheesley, Supervising Director/Director
Won Dong Kun, Animation Director
Merriwether Williams, Story by
Russell Calabrese, Timer
Phil Cummings, Timer
Lindsey Pollard, Timer
Swinton O. Scott III, Timer

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED PROGRAM (FOR PROGRAMMING LESS THAN ONE HOUR)
Comedy Central, South Park, Make Love, Not Warcraft:
Trey Parker, Executive Producer/Director/Writer
Matt Stone, Executive Producer
Anne Garefino, Executive Producer
Frank C. Agnone II, Supervising Producer
Kyle McCullouch, Producer
Eric Stough, Director of Animation

ENGINEERING PLAQUE TO TM SYSTEMS QC STATION (TM SYSTEMS, LLC)
(This award was previously announced.)

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATION
(Juried award: Possibility of one, more than one or no award.) This is a juried award determined by a panel of judges from the Animation peer group. Recommendation(s) from the jury are brought to the Board of Governors for ratification. This award was previously announced.
Nickelodeon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Lake Logai
Sang-Jin Kim, Animator
AND
Cartoon Network, Moral Orel, The Lord’s Prayer:
Sihanouk Mariona, Animator
AND
Cartoon Network, Robot Chicken, Lust for Puppets
Thomas Smith, Animator
AND
Cartoon Network, Camp Lazlo, Squirrel Secrets
Sue Mondt, Art Director
AND
Cartoon Network, Good Wilt Hunting (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends)
Dave Dunnet, Background Key Designer
AND
Cartoon Network, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey, The Big Field Trip:
Narina Sokolova, Background Painter
AND
Cartoon Network, Class of 3000, Eddie’s Money,
David Colman, Character Designer
AND
Cartoon Network, Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy):
Phil Rynda, Character Designer
AND
Starz Kids and Family, Eloise, Me, Eloise:
James McDermott, Character Designer
AND
Fox, Family Guy, No Chris Left Behind:
Steve Fonti, Storyboard Artist

GOVERNORS AWARD
HBO: The Addiction Project
Fox: American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back”

OUTSTANDING STUNT COORDINATION
CBS, CSI: Miami, Rush
Jim Vickers, Stunt Coordinator

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS FOR A SERIES
Sci-Fi Channel, Battlestar Galactica, Exodus, Part 2:
Gary Hutzel, Visual Effects Supervisor
Michael Gibson, Senior VFX Coordinator
Doug Drexler, CG Supervisor
Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz, CGI Sequence Designer
Jeremy Hoey, Lead Matte Painter
Tom Archer, Lead Compositor
Andrew Karr, CGI Supervisor
Alec McClymont, Lead CGI Artist/Animator
Brenda Campbell, Lead Compositor

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
TNT, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, Battleground:
Sam Nicholson, Visual Effects Supervisor
Eric Grenaudier, Visual Effects Supervisor
Mark Spatny, Visual Effects Producer
Adalberto Lopez, CGI Supervisor
Michael Cook, Lead CGI Model Maker
Daniel Kumiega, Lead CGI Animator
Megan Omi, Lead Visual Effects Compositor
Ryan Wieber, Lead Visual Effects Compositor
Marc Van Buuren, Visual Effects Producer

ENGINEERING CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT TO VARICAP VARIABLE VOLTAGE CAPACITATOR (SYCOM)
(This award was previously announced.)

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR)
CBS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Living Doll:
Mick Fowler, Production Mixer
Yuri Reese, Re-Recording Mixer
Bill Smith, Re-Recording Mixer

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE
HBO, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:
George Tarrant, Production Mixer
Rick Ash, Re-Recording Mixer
Edward C. Carr III, Re-Recording Mixer

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF HOUR) AND ANIMATION
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority, no award.)
HBO: Entourage, One Day in the Valley:
Steve Morantz, C.A.S., Production Mixer
Dennis Kirk, Re-Recording Mixer
Mark Fleming, Re-Recording Mixer
AND
NBC, Scrubs, My Musical:
Joe Foglia, Production Mixer
John W. Cook II, Re-Recording Mixer
Peter J. Nusbaum, Re-Recording Mixer

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A VARIETY OR MUSIC SERIES OR SPECIAL
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
NBC, Tony Bennett: An American Classic:
Dae Bennett, Recorded & Mixed By
Sue Pelino, Re-Recording Mixer
Christopher Koch, Additional Audio Post Mixer

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING (SINGLE OR MULTI-CAMERA)
PBS, American Masters, Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built:
Ed Campbell, Re-Recording Mixer

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A SERIES
Fox, 24, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
William Dotson, Supervising Sound Editor
Catherine Speakman, Supervising ADR Editor
Jeffrey R. Whitcher, Sound Effects Editor
Pembrook Andrews, Sound Editor
Shawn Kennelly, Sound Editor
Rick Polanco, Sound Editor
Vic Radulich, M.P.S.E., Sound Editor
Jeffrey Charbonneau, Music Editor
Laura Macias, Foley Artist
Vince Nicastro, Foley Artist

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING (SINGLE OR MULTI-CAMERA)
Discovery Channel, Planet Earth, Pole to Pole
Kate Hopkins, Sound Editor

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
HBO, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:
Stephen Flick, Supervising Sound Editor
Avram Gold, Supervising Sound Editor
Steffan Falestich, Dialogue Editor
Eric Hertsgaard, Dialogue Editor
Patricio Libenson, Dialogue Editor
Denise Horta, Dialogue Editor
Adam Johnston, Sound Effects Editor
Paul Berolzheimer, M.P.S.E., Sound Effects Editor
Dean Beville, Sound Effects Editor
Jeff Sawyer, Sound Effects Editor
Kenneth Young, Sound Effects Editor
Mike Flicker, Music Editor
David Lee Fein, Foley Artist
Hilda Hodges, Foley Artist

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES
CBS, Two and a Half Men, Release The Dogs:
Steven Silver, Director of Photography

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES
HBO, Rome, Passover:
Alik Sakharov, A.S.C., Director of Photography

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
HBO, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:
David Franco, Director of Photography

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
Discovery Channel, Planet Earth, Pole to Pole:
Doug Allan, Cinematographer
Martyn Colbeck, Cinematographer
Paul Stewart, Cinematographer
Simon King, Cinematographer
Michael Kelem, Cinematographer
Wade Fairley, Cinematographer

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR REALITY PROGRAMMING
CBS, The Amazing Race, I Know Phil, Little Ol’ Gorgeous Thing:
Per Larsson, Director of Photography
John Armstrong, Camera
Sylvester Campe, Camera
Petr Cikhart, Camera
Tom Cunningham, Camera
Chip Goebert, Camera
Bob Good, Camera
Peter Rieveschl, Camera
Dave Ross, Camera
Uri Sharon, Camera
Alan Weeks, Camera

ENGINEERING PLAQUE TO TERANEX VIDEO COMPUTER (SILICON OPTIX, TERANEX DIVISION)
(This award was previously announced.)

ENGINEERING PLAQUE TO DVNR IMAGE PROCESSING HARDWARE-DVO IMAGE PROCESS SOFTWARE (DIGITAL VISION)
(This award was previously announced.)

OUTSTANDING CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
ABC Family, The Fallen
The Fallen Alternate Reality Game, ABCFAMILY.com, Double Twenty, Xenophile Media

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
NBC, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
John Goodman as Judge Robert Bebe NBC

OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL DIRECTION, CAMERAWORK, VIDEO FOR A
SERIES
NBC, Saturday Night Live,Host: Alec Baldwin and Musical Guest: Christina Aguilera
Steven Cimino, Technical Director
John Pinto, Camera
Richard B. Fox, Camera
Brian Phraner, Camera
Barry Frischer, Camera
Eric A. Eisenstein, Camera
Susan Noll, Senior Video
Frank Grisanti, Senior Video

OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL DIRECTION, CAMERAWORK, VIDEO FOR A
MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL
Fox, American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back”:
John Pritchett, Technical Director
Damien Tuffereau, Camera
Suzanne Ebner, Camera
John Repczynski, Camera
George Prince, Camera
Easter Xua, Camera
Alex Hernandez, Camera
Dave Eastwood, Camera
Bobby Highton, Camera
Ray Gonzales, Camera
Vince Singletary, Camera
Bert Atkinson, Camera
Brian Reason, Camera
Ed Horton, Camera
Rick Edwards, Camera
Richard Strock, Camera
Rob Vuona, Camera
Mike Tribble, Camera
Hector Ramirez, Camera
Brad Zerbst, Camera
Garrett Hurt, Camera
Danny Bonilla, Camera
Dave Hilmer, Camera
Marc Hunter, Camera
Mark Sanford, Video Control

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DIRECTION (ELECTRONIC, MULTI-CAMERA) FOR VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAMMING
CBS, 49th Annual Grammy Awards
Robert A. Dickinson, Lighting Designer
Matt Firestone, Lighting Director
Andy O’Reilly, Lighting Director

ENGINEERING PLAQUE TO OSRAM HMI METAL HALIDE LAMP TECHNOLOGY (OSRAM SYLVANIA PRODUCTS, INC.)
(This award was previously announced.)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
HBO, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
Spike Lee, Director

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
PBS, American Masters, Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film:
James Sanders, Writer
Ric Burns, Writer

OUTSTANDING NONFICTION SPECIAL
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
HBO, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib:
Rory Kennedy, Producer
Liz Garbus, Producer
Jack Youngelson, Producer
Diana Barrett, Executive Producer
Sheila Nevins, Executive Producer
Nancy Abraham, Senior Producer

OUTSTANDING NONFICTION SERIES
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
Discovery Channel, Planet Earth:
Maureen Lemire, Executive Producer
Alastair Fothergil, Series Producer
Mark Linfield, Producer

EXCEPTIONAL MERIT IN NONFICTION FILMMAKING
(Juried award: Possibility of one, more than one or no award.)
PBS, A Lion in the House (Independent Lens):
Steven Bognar, Producer
Julia Reichert, Producer
Sally Jo Fifer, Executive Producer
Lois Vossen, Series Producer
AND
HBO, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
Sam Pollard, Producer
Spike Lee, Producer
Sheila Nevins, Executive Producer
Jacqueline Glover, Supervising Producer

OUTSTANDING CHILDREN’S PROGRAM
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
Nickelodeon, Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, Private Worlds: Kids and Autism:
Rolfe Tessem, Executive Producer
Mark Lyons, Producer
Martin Toub, Producer
Kara Pothier, Producer
Wally Berger, Supervising Producer

OUTSTANDING COMMERCIAL
American Express — Animals
Hungry Man, Production Company
Ogilvy & Mather, Ad Agency

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL CLASS PROGRAM
(Area Award: Possibility of one, more than one or, if none has a majority approval, no award.)
CBS, The 60th Annual Tony Awards
Ricky Kirshner, Executive Producer
Glenn Weiss, Executive Producer

OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
Bravo, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List:
Marcia Mule, Executive Producer
Bryan Scott, Executive Producer
Lisa M. Tucker, Executive Producer
Kathy Griffin, Executive Producer
Lenid Rolov, Supervising Producer
Beth Wichterich, Supervising Producer
Kelly Luegenbiehl, Supervising Producer
Cori Abraham, Executive Producer
Frances Berwick, Executive Producer
Amy Introcaso-Davis, Executive Producer

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
USA, Monk:
Stanley Tucci as David Ruskin

Whenever I think of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev — whose early years in Russia are the subject of a PBS’ “Great Performances” profile at 9 p.m. tomorrow (WNET-Channel 13 locally) — I think of that St. Patrick’s Day many years ago when it took me two hours to cross the parade route at Fifth Avenue. Honestly, it was like that “Seinfeld” episode about the Puerto Rican Day Parade — complete traffic standstill.

Download:

One of my greatest pleasures is having coffee at a local bookstore on the weekend and thumbing through the tabloid magazines. I feel no guilt in reading oodles of magazines I don’t plan to buy, because I have logged enough hours and dollars in one chain in particular to be on the board of directors.

As my fellow tabloid-thumpers can attest, it was impossible this past weekend to escape images of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, or as they’re known collectively, Zanessa.

Then on the way to PBS’ “Mystery!” last night, my aunt and I paused at Fox’s “Teen Choice Awards.” There they were, holding court in the front row like Brangelina at the Oscars.

For the uninitiated, Efron and Hudgens are the stars of the Disney Channel’s “High School Musical 2,” which is not to be confused with the popular “High School Musical” or the soon-to-be feature-film blockbuster “High School Musical 3.”

“High School Musical 2” is the highest-rated basic-cable program EVER! (This kind of news tends to inspire capital letters and exclamation points in the tabloids.) Plus, Zanessa, sweeties in the film, are said to be a case of life imitating art. She, I had never heard of — although upon reading that she has lots of shoes, I must say I’m already a fan. He, I had seen in the short-lived summer-replacement series “Summerland” — another guilty pleasure — in which he played the most adorable boy in high school,who could have any girl and yet chose the brainy one who wanted to be a writer. This seems to be his part, and for one so luscious-looking — think Bobby Sherman in the ‘60s or Jared Leto in “My So-Called Life” — he does it convincingly, no mean task. For it is a conceit of Hollywood that the cool guy wants the bluestocking. I mean, in real life, Hugh Hefner didn’t marry Gloria Steinem, did he?

Anyway, “High School Musical 2” is a Teen Choice Award-winning, ratings hit; and Efron, who also made a splash in “Hairspray,” its breakout star. The anointing of a new teen idol or leading man represents a seismic cultural shift, as when a “Titanic” Leonardo DiCaprio ushered in a brief era of Apollonian beauty in the late ‘90s, which was succeeded by the Herculean delights of Russell “Gladiator” Crowe at the turn of the millennium.

So the question is: Why Zac and why now? The answer lies, as always, in ourselves. Summer is the season of promise but also promise that can turn rank. This has been the summer of our discontent. I’m not just talking about Lindsay, Paris, Britney and Nicole. They’re just the superficial disenchantment signaling a deeply wounded psyche. The Michael Vick dog killings; the gang-style murder of those students in Newark, who never had a chance to bloom; the presumed death of the Utah miners; the other miners who died trying to rescue them; the firefighters killed at the festering Deutsche Bank building; the continuing war in Iraq — need I go on? We are heart-sore. The idea of Zanessa, and of Efron in particular, is that they are the balm of a more innocent time, which may exist only in the mind anyway.

Can they hold on to the innocence? Only Peter Pan is young forever.

More important for Hollywood, can Efron transcend teen-idolatry? The jury is still out. But that doesn’t mean that he and his costars can’t build successful careers in the arts by looking to their elders for what they should — and shouldn’t — do.

A few words of advice: Try to get a college education while working in the movies. Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster did it.

Also, build a home life that allows for plenty of down time in which to think, dream, share with family and friends and recharge.

After 25 years in the arts, I can say that a boring private life is key to an exciting artistic one.

Every summer there is one Shakespearean comedy that becomes the It Comedy of the season. Some years, it’s “Twelfth Night,” or “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” or (my favorite) “Much Ado About Nothing.” (I just love those sparring lovebirds Beatrice and Benedict, or as I like to call them, Bea and Benny.)

This year, we have “As You Like It,” which is apparently how everyone likes it. There’s the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s cowboy “As You Like It,” currently playing at historic Boscobel in Garrison. (The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival often seems to be doing western-themed Shakespeare. Since turnabout is always fair play, I’m looking forward to the day when the troupe performs a Shakespearean “Brokeback Mountain.”)

There was the YMCA of Tarrytown’s psychedelic “As You Like It” earlier this summer, and this weekend, the Port Chester Council for the Arts presents a contemporary version, with original music, in Lyon Park.

In the meantime, you can amuse yourself at 9 tonight with HBO’s “As You Like It”:http://hbo.com, the latest Bard adaptation from Kenneth Branagh, set in 19th-century Japan.

I’m of two minds about Shakespeare productions that don’t have a vaguely Renaissance-y feel. On the one hand, Shakespeare is universal. Who cares if the plays are set on the moon?

On the other hand, manipulating time and place means that you’re left wondering why there would be an Arden Forest in Japan.

But since Branagh says Arden Forest in meant to be a magical place — one where love, lust, treachery, mistaken identity, forgiveness and redemption all bloom — well, then, I suppose it doesn’t matter where it is. And the sumo wrestlers, kabuki players, fans and screens add a piquant touch.

So do the players. Apparently, Branagh has scaled back the Rosalind role, a blow to all of us fans of Harold Bloom’s juicy tome “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human” (Riverhead Books). There Rosalind is considered one of the Bard’s finest creations — after Falstaff, Hamlet and Cleopatra — a spirited woman who proves herself an even better one and wins the man she loves all while pretending to be a man. (I know, I know, just go with it.)

I think Armonk’s Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron’s daughter) — so eerie in “Lady in the Water” — is up to the challenge. Totally earthbound here, her Rosalind, like Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice,” insists that a woman can be brainy and beautiful, too. Romola Garai, splendid as the vapid beauty who pays a dear price for her materialism in PBS’ “Daniel Deronda,” is just right as Rosalind’s devoted cousin Celia. Garrison’s Kevin Kline is a most world-weary Jacques, the philosopher who reminds us that “all the world’s a stage.”

Indeed.

With the release of the second and final season of “Rome” on DVD today, I thought it was as good a time as any to plumb the “House”-ing of the networks’ fall lineups, which could have a great effect on “Rome’s” stars.

The success of Brit actor Hugh Laurie as everyone’s favorite cranky Yank doc on Fox’s “House”:http://fox.com has paved the way for a number of his countrymen (and women) to get their shot at prime time on this side of the pond:

Kevin McKidd, so moving as the emotionally constricted Lucius Vorenus on “Rome,” stars as time-traveling reporter Dan Vasser on NBC’s “Journeyman”:http://nbc.com.

Ray Stevenson — every bit his match as his good-hearted sidekick, Titus Pullo — is a Long Island detective who tangles with the living dead on “Babylon Fields,” which has been picked up by “CBS”:http://cbs.com.

The character who comes closest to curmudgeonly House, though, is borderline nutcase Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis), a Los Angeles cop wrongfully imprisoned for murder on NBC’s “Life.”

“Life” is one of those “Count of Monte Cristo”-style revenge fantasies, in which Crews winds up not only with his freedom and his old job but a huge settlement and a multimillion-dollar home, thereby illustrating what I’ve long suspected: That while money can’t buy happiness, it can sure make misery comfortable.

It would be unfair to pass judgment on preview tapes of “Journeyman” or “Life.” (I haven’t seen frame one of “Babylon Fields.”) But I would nonetheless like to make a case for Stevenson, McKidd and Lewis as American TV stars. All three have the necessary acting chops, looks and charisma. And yet all three are quite different.
Stevenson is capable of marrying machismo to tenderness. McKidd, who could be Daniel Craig’s brother, riffs on tormented hubby Vorenus in “Journeyman,” playing a guy caught between reclaiming the fiancée he lost and holding on to his increasingly baffled wife.

Lewis, a titian-haired beauty, is harder to pin down, which may be why stardom has eluded him. He should’ve become a big star on these shores after playing Maj. Richard D. Winters, the quintessential American hero, in HBO’s “Band of Brothers.” That performance would’ve been the highlight of many careers, but he followed it up with a poignant performance as the cold, abusive Soames Forsyte in PBS’ “The Forsyte Saga” — a turn so brilliant that it totally reinterpreted the story. You have to be a very good actor indeed to do that.

I don’t want to let this topic go, however, without remembering the ladies. While the men of “Rome” have snagged series’ leads, Polly Walker, the bewitching Atia, has a supporting role on CBS’ Cuban-American drama, “Cane,” a throwback to “Dallas” and “Dynasty.”

Anyone who’s followed the voluptuous Walker’s career — she turned up recently as a tigress of a mother on PBS’ “Miss Marple” — knows she deserves better than the fourth female lead. On “Cane,” she at least plays one of her trademark temptresses, with a Southern accent.

Here’s hoping she gets to unleash both her inner Vivien Leigh and Joan Collins.

The delightful new romantic comedy “Becoming Jane” — which treats Jane Austen’s life as if it were one of her novels — is just the latest example of the Austen revival we’ve been in for the last 12 years. Indeed, you can mark the renaissance from the moment in the superlative miniseries “Pride and Prejudice” when Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy emerged from a copper tub — all hot, wet and bothered — to spy Jennifer Uhle’s Elizabeth Bennet playing fetch outside his window with a rather large dog. Down, boy.

Since then we’ve had the Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”; “Persuasion” (perhaps the darkest and best of the adaptations); “Emma” (kudos, composer Rachel Portman); “Clueless,” “Emma’s” contemporary counterpart; the Brontë-esque “P & P,” with Keira Knightley as Lizzy; scores of novelistic prequels, sequels, hommages….The list is inexhaustible.

Nor is “PBS”:http://pbs.org immune to the Austen bug. In January, its “Masterpiece Theatre” will launch “The Complete Jane Austen,” with adaptations of her six novels, including four new productions, as well as the bio drama “Miss Austen Regrets,” about the men that got away.

“Becoming Jane”:http://miramax.com — with a winning Anne Hathaway in the title role and a thoroughly engaging James McAvoy as her own Mr. Darcy — is also about love and loss. More on that in a bit.

But first, why Jane? Dickens certainly has had his moments. (The recent “Bleak House” was easily the equivalent of the Colin Firth “P and P,” probably because it was adapted by the same screenwriter, Andrew Davies.) And there are other authors who are more, well, titanic. For sheer novelistic sweep, it’s hard to top Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”

But Austen seems to be the poster girl for modern times. Much has already been written about Austenian excellence triumphing over our meritocracy of mediocrity, about the rippling pleasure of Austenian decorum in our age of exposure.

Yes to all that. But there’s more to it. I think Austen’s seeming ubiquitousness has something to do not only with what Austen says about man and manners but the way she says it. It’s her tone — arch, knowing, omniscient really; watching the goings-on that she, after all, has set in motion, from a compassionate distance. It’s the voice of an ironic god, a novelist’s voice and a post-modern one at that.

The second point I want to make has less to do with style than with substance in our post-feminist age, which is still obsessed with women’s looks, youth, boyfriends — in other words, their marriageability. No one understood better than Austen just how high the marriage stakes were (and are). At the turn of the 19th century, there were two kinds of women — married and pitiable. And married only meant well-married, to a man like Darcy or his friend, Mr. Bingley, with an income of several thousand pounds a year.

In “Becoming Jane,” extrapolated from the events of Austen’s life, our heroine finds herself faced with the choice of a rich suitor she does not love and a suitor she loves who will never be rich if he marries her. But “Becoming Jane” is not really about love or money. It’s about the way love and money can each, in its own way, offer impediments to the creative freedom that is the blood of art.
Spoiler alert: Stop reading if you don’t want to know any more about Austen’s life. Or not. Realistically, you can give away a fictional plot but you can’t give away history or biography. They’ve already happened.

Critics like to say that Austen gave her persistent heroines the marital bliss that was denied her. But watching the sometimes poignant “Becoming Jane,” I couldn’t help but wonder if she denied her heroines the creative life she had. (Notice none of Austen’s female characters are artists.) Had she married, she would’ve been pregnant year after year and quite possibly dead from childbirth in her 20s. (As it is, she died at age 41.) Had she married and become a mother, there might not have been one novel let alone six.

No, life denied Austen her Mr. Darcy — the perfect female fantasy of a man the way James Bond is the perfect male fantasy of a man — so that we could have him forever. And she accepted that bargain with perfect Austenian grace.
Why do we love Jane? Why do I love her? Because she understood the heart of art.

If she had to die, then it’s fitting that Beverly Sills passed away two days before the Fourth of July. She was one of those rare performers who put America on the operatic map and one of the last opera stars to have been embraced across America.

There have been many well-written tributes this week about her voice, coloratura facility and dramatic ability. I’d like, however, to say something about Beverly Sills, TV star.

That Beverly Sills is also on display in “Beverly Sills: Made in America,” a superb documentary from PBS’ “Great Performances” that WNET/Channel 13 is rebroadcasting at 9 p.m. tomorrow.

Sills’ radiance, eloquence, candor and self-deprecating humor made her the perfect ambassador for the arts, not only on PBS’ “Live From Lincoln Center” but on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” which she occasionally hosted. Not for her the image of hoity-toity fatuousness with which the arts are often saddled.

A true star, though, is always in the right place at the right time. Sills became famous in the ‘70s — the age of disco but also of Baryshnikov. It was the last decade in which the fine arts mattered in mainstream American culture. For this reason alone, we probably won’t see her like again.

Still, we have her recordings, performances and interviews, in which she was as skilled a questioner as she was a subject.

And one more thing besides: We have her example. Sills was a lifelong overnight sensation, who endured personal tragedy as well as professional hardships.

Despite this, and maybe because of it, she performed brilliantly while also living up to her nickname, Bubbles.

In the age of the quick, prescriptive fix, she offered a philosophy that should be our mantra: “I have often said I’ve never considered myself a happy woman….But I’m a cheerful woman. Work keeps me going.”

Did you hear about Paul Potts winning the “Britain’s Got Talent” competition the other night, singing “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot”? Of course, you did. It was all over the news on this side of the pond.

First off, I couldn’t be more delighted for this struggling cellphone salesman-turned-Pavarotti. What a wonderful thing it is when people finally get to see you the way you’ve always seen yourself. It’s like the last moments of the ballet “Cinderella,” when Prokofiev’s love theme swells and the prince realizes the scullery maid is really the jewel at the ball. Or that moment in “Shakespeare in Love” when the stutterer delivers the prologue of “Romeo and Juliet” without missing a beat.

How moving.

But I can’t help but wonder if Potts will now go on to an actual operatic career or will remain the novelty that the arts have become on the networks. Let’s face it: Unless a violinist is killed at the Metropolitan Opera (which sadly, actually happened) or a Munch is stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo (ditto), the arts are considered not ready for prime-time on the nets.

For that matter, how many of those who professed to get goose bumps listening to Potts — that means you, “Today” show’s Lester Holt — bothered to watch the delightful Puccini triple bill the other night on PBS’ “Great Performances”:http://pbs.org? I feel a bit guilty here, because I didn’t get an advance DVD, as I often do, and didn’t blog on it beforehand. But I watched the program and sobbed my eyes out at the end of “Suor Angelica,” with Barbara Frittoli magnificent as the fallen woman who finds redemption in suffering and loss.

I must confess that I wept a bit, too, for the state of the arts on TV. In part you have to blame the decline in arts education in this country over the last 40 or so years. But the media are also at fault.

Time was when they informed public taste in this country. Now the media wait for the public to inform their taste.

The irony in all this is that when people who have never really been exposed to the arts sample them, they’re often hooked. Why? Because the arts are really expressions of the truth in human nature. I’m willing to bet that the people who were touched by Potts’ singing weren’t responding merely to his voice. They were responding to Puccini and the emotion of an aria about a man who is willing to risk all for the cold-hearted woman he loves.

Paul Potts is a winner. But when it comes to the arts on the tube, we’re all losers.

Simon Schama — a professor of history and art history at Columbia University and a Briarcliff Manor resident — has a smart, slightly sarcastic manner that suggests the knowing characters Daniel Craig often plays when he isn’t busy being James Bond.
That arched, omniscient tone — a novelist’s voice, really — serves him well in the thrillingly visceral “Simon Schama’s Power of Art”:http://thirteen.org, bowing 9 p.m. Monday on PBS (WNET/Channel 13 locally).

Art series have been good for PBS. There have been Kenneth Clark’s landmark “Civilisation,” Robert Hughes’ “The Shock of the New” and, most recently, Nigel Spivey’s “How Art Made The World.” But not for Schama Clark’s gentlemanly survey, Hughes’ curmudgeonly provocations, Spivey’s sleek travelogue. Strolling in shirt sleeves through a wheat field in the blinding sun of Provence or taking in a bullfight on a Madrid night, Schama wants us to feel art’s passionate quest for what is real in human nature. And so, he gives us eight masters and their masterpieces, made at moments of crisis, in a way that takes us inside each crisis. This isn’t art for the weak of stomach. Indeed, animal lovers may want to skip the Picasso installment (that bullfight). On the other hand, “Sopranos” fans mourning the loss of fresh episodes will enjoy the program on Caravaggio, who was as handy with a knife as he was with a paintbrush.

Schama starts us off easy, though, portraying two painters and paintings with whom even novices will be at home — Vincent van Gogh and his “Wheatfield With Crows” at 9 p.m. Monday, followed by Pablo Picasso and “Guernica” at 10.
The series continues at 10 p.m. Mondays through July 30 with Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and his “David With the Head of Goliath” (June 25); Gian Lorenzo Bernini and “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa” (July 2); Rembrandt van Rijn and “The Conspiracy of the Batavians Under Claudius Civilis” (July 9); Jacques-Louis David and “The Death of Marat” (July 16); J.M.W. Turner and “Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On” (July 23); and Mark Rothko and the Seagram Murals (July 30).

While all of the crises depicted are intensely personal, their sources are varied — psychological (Vincent, of course); political (Picasso); legal and moral (Caravaggio); and romantic and professional (Bernini), just to name a few.

Yet Schama isn’t interested in the stereotype of the misunderstood, tormented “artiste.” The cultivated, teetotaling golden boy Bernini doesn’t appear to have been especially anguished — or at least he wasn’t until he slashed the face of his two-timing mistress and his career started to go south. (He gets off with a slap on the wrist from the pope, a fact that will be bitterly appreciated by those following the perils of Paris Hilton.) It’s hard to imagine that a man who could give us the sensuous rapture of “St. Theresa” could do that to a woman.

But that’s precisely what fascinates Schama. He sees human nature as all of a piece, with light and shadow giving it form in equal measure. In his “Power of Art,” you can’t have “St. Theresa” without the disfigured mistress, Vincent’s wheat field without the earlobe in the package, “Guernica” without the bullfights of Picasso’s youth, Caravaggio’s carnal genius without the rough-trade murderer he was.

Director Schama melds taut reenactments, a twitchy camera style and absolutely crystalline images of the masterpieces to evoke the creative struggle that gives birth to a self-contained art that does not betray its feverish origins.

Writer Schama has an ear for the sound-bite — dubbing “Guernica” “Cubism with a conscience” — a gift for anecdote and the courage of his difficult convictions.
Of Van Gogh, he observes, “Behind the scabrous face and moth-eaten coat, Vincent lived the life of the mind.”

That life is a wondrous, mysterious, heartbreaking thing: The mind can give us the pathos of the beheaded John the Baptist — or behead the man himself.

It isn’t pretty. But then, true art never is.

If you missed the first installment of the repeat of PBS’ magnificent “Bleak House” last Sunday, do not let that deter you from tuning to the programm when it repeats later this month (check local PBS listings for times). I put this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale of possession and dispossession right up there with “Brideshead Revisited,” “Lonesome Dove” and “Pride and Prejudice” (the Colin Firth one).

Writer Andrew Davies did that “P & P” and he’s at the top of his game again in this story of an inheritance trial that has gone on longer than the Baldwin-Bassinger custody case, threatening to destroy the family at its heart. This being Dickens, there are all kinds of ironic twists that double back on themselves as everyone turns out to be related in some way to everyone else. But the author is only partly interested in the way life comes full circle. Having suffered much deprivation in his youth, he’s really concerned with money — and the lack thereof and how desperate poverty can make you. At the same time, he’s not blind to the way great money, even the mere promise of big money, can delude you.
The entire cast of Dickensian oddballs is outstanding, but special kudos must go to Gillian Anderson as a woman who lets fear, particularly the fear of not being thought a great lady, ruin her life. Her final moment in the series, a kind of reverse “Pietà,” is unforgettable.

My only quibble is with an ending that seems more Jane Austen than Dickens. But that is a mere quibble. Far be it from me to deny Dickens his happiness, even if it can only be found on the page and screen.

Musician-songwriter Loreena McKennitt — well-known for the reedy ballads that blend her Celtic roots with Middle Eastern influences — has described herself as being on “not only a musical journey but also a journey of self-discovery.”

Recently, that journey took her to one of the world’s greatest sites for her first concert special. I’m talking about The Alhambra, a 13th-century Moorish palace in Granada, Spain whose soaring honeycomb vaults, delicate arcades and refreshing fountains have long enchanted artists. (Among them was Tarrytown writer-diplomat Washington Irving, whose sojourn at the fabled fortress in the early part of the 19th century led to the whimsical “Tales From The Alhambra.”)

McKennitt’s “Nights From The Alhambra” — airing at 10 p.m. tomorrow on WNET-Channel 13 as part of PBS’ “Great Performances”:http://thirteen.org — is breathtaking to look at. And for the most part, it’s breathtaking to listen to, although after a while there is a sameness to this music.

Fortunately, The Alhambra never grows tiring.

In a local bank one day, I heard a banker observe that Macy’s had taken out a full-page ad in a newspaper announcing a big sale. To which another banker replied that the store should take out an ad when it ISN’T having a sale.

I feel that way about Pledge Month on “PBS”: http://pbs.org. Traditionally, this is the time of year when public television engages in its own little brand of March Madness. But honestly, it seems as if every month/week/day is Pledge Month/Week/Day.
It doesn’t help that it’s hard to tape programs during the pledge gabfest, which reeks of desperation. (Remember the time “Channel 13”:http://thirteen.org drastically cut “It’s A Wonderful Life” to fit it in, then had to rerun the film in its entirety with apologies after 3,000 irate viewers called in?)

Then, too, flagship station Thirteen sometimes promises what it doesn’t deliver. After a rerun of the splendid “Inspector Lewis,” featuring the former sidekick to the late, great Inspector Morse, Thirteen advertised an “Inspector Morse” rerun for next Sunday. Instead, we got a documentary on the Marines. No offense to our brave Marines, who deserve more than a documentary. But when you’re in the mood to match wits with crotchety Inspector Morse, it does disappoint.

Nor does it help that the quality of the programming, always PBS’ ace, is sometimes less than top-flight. What is up with the cheesy “American Ballroom Challenge”? Not even figure skating in its French and Russian-judge-conspiring, Tonya-Harding-bullying, Michelle-Kwan-faltering days would stoop to this provincial vulgarity. (With “The Best of Masterpiece Theatre,” counting down the top 12 viewer favorites, airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on WNET-Channel 13, all may be forgiven.)

You can’t blame PBS and Thirteen for playing the Pledge card early and often. We have become an acultural society, for which political types can blame both the liberals and the conservatives. In the 1960s, the liberals threw the artistic baby out with the bath water, reasoning that if minority artists were being neglected than all the dead white male luminaries must be no good. As a result, students today think Homer is a character on “The Simpsons” (a notion that was hilariously satirized on an episode of the show, one of the few network series with any cultural breadth).

In the ‘80s, the conservatives also falsely reasoned that since art was elitist and worse, sexual, it was OK to slash and burn the National Endowment for the Arts and thus, arts education. As a result, we now have several generations who have never been to the ballet or opera. Is it any wonder they won’t watch it on TV?

Yes, Pledge can put you on edge. But then, we’re only reaping what we’ve sown.