ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY and AWARD NEWS FROM HOLLYWOOD, compiled by REBECCA KEEGAN
Monday, September 18, 2017
It's Monday, and Emmy season is over—but the age of Sean Spicer has only just begun.
Hello from Los Angeles, where we're tearing off our Handmaid's Tale bonnets to celebrate, building a Julia Louis-Dreyfus wing at the TV Academy, and trying to join Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon's book club. Here are my observations from the room where it happened; Hillary Busis and Katey Rich sum up the rest of the night below.
HULU MANIA
I sat behind the teleprompter operators at Sunday's Emmy Awards telecast, which gave me a clear view of who deviated from the script. My, what impressive ad-libs you have, Dolly Parton! I also watched as Elisabeth Moss dropped f-bombs while accepting her Emmy for The Handmaid's Tale,Sterling K. Brown tried mightily to finish his speech after winning for This Is Us, and the staffs of John Oliver'sLast Week Tonight and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert held warring pep rallies in the Microsoft Theater's upper deck. But perhaps the most dramatic moment of the night was the shift happening under our feet as Hulu took home five awards for The Handmaid's Tale, including top drama—marking the first time a streaming company has won that honor. Third among the streamers in market share, Hulu is now first in bragging rights, and the 10-year-old company's dominance Sunday night signals just how much the TV industry has shifted in a very short time, from networks to online players. "We had a hunch that it could be a contender," Hulu C.E.O. Mike Hopkins told me in July, of his company's zeitgeist-capturing drama, adapted from Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel. "But you're playing in a long-odds game." Well, the odds have surely tipped in Hulu's favor now.
By Jason LaVeris/Getty Images.
BIG LITTLE WINS
Several of the night's winners—most notably, This Is Us star Brown—were cut off by the orchestra, but none of them were Oscar winners who have been movie stars for 30 years, now were they? Nicole Kidman's Emmy win for Big Little Lies, in what Joanna Robinson points out was the night's most competitive category by far, did not disappoint; Kidman gave a poised but occasionally emotional speech that paid tribute to her daughters ("I asked to help me pursue this artistic path, and they have to sacrifice so much for it") as well as victims of domestic violence. She was back on stage moments later when the series won its own Emmy, and she and co-star and co-producer Reese Witherspoon took the mic to make impassioned pleas for more, better roles for women. Given how big a night it was not only for Big Little Lies, but The Handmaid's Tale and the Black Mirror episode "San Junipero," there's reason to be optimistic those roles are actually coming.
SPICE WORLD
The one good thing about the awkward moment when Sean Spicer made a cameo during the Emmys? It happened early in the show, so there was time to forget about it before the end. As V.F.'s Laura Bradleywrote, Spicer's brief appearance behind a fake White House podium seemed engineered to provoke a response from our tweeter-in-chief—who, as of this writing, has yet to respond. But it also left the audience a little stunned, unsure if applause or laughter was the right way to greet a recent exile from the Trump White House. Backstage, though, Spicer had at least one defender; as V.F.'s Julie Millerreported, Emmy winner Alec Baldwin found some common ground with the former press secretary: "I have done jobs that you shouldn't respect or admire me for, too . . . so we have that in common."
WHO ARE YOU WEARING?
Did you find yourself distracted during Nicole Kidman's speech by the sparkling diamonds on her gown? It's O.K.; awards shows wouldn't be awards shows without the glamour, and V.F.'s Erika Harwood had her eye on the red carpet, picking out the 22 best-dressed stars of the night. Kidman made the cut, as did several of her Big Little Lies co-stars, fellow winner Kate McKinnon, and 13-year-old Stranger Things breakout Millie Bobby Brown—who didn't win an Emmy but made her mark yet again as an emerging style star.
CAPPING IT OFF
Overall, writes V.F. critic Richard Lawson, the Emmys got things mostly right this year—provided you can overlook that tone-deaf Sean Spicer cameo. "Was this a cheeky night of skewering Trump (while celebrating television's best and brightest)," he wonders in his review, "or was it an ugly opportunity to say, Aw, shucks, you're all right, to the most prominent spokesperson for the Trump presidency in its harrowing first months?" Well, it sort of turned out to be both—though after Spicer skittered away backstage, the awards (and the night's winners) took on a more decidedly overt political, anti-Trump mood. At a show often marked by repeat winners, there were also an encouraging number of pleasant surprises taking the podium: Master of None actress-writer Lena Waithe—the first black woman to earn an Emmy for comedy series writing—was a high point, as was The Handmaid's Tale director Reed Morano becoming the first woman in 22 years to pick up a drama-directing trophy.
THE VIEW FROM 2018
That's right—it's never too early to start handicapping next year's Emmys race, especially because a Deadline report indicates that there will be a tantalizing hole in the comedy lineup. Pete Hammond writes that the final season of Veep likely will not debut in time to make the May 31, 2018 eligibility cutoff—which means that another leading comedy actress may finally have a chance to win the category that has been dominated by Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the past six years in a row. (The former Seinfeld star holds the record for the actor with the most Emmy wins for a single role, and she and Cloris Leachman both have eight acting wins total—the most of any actors in Emmys history.) No Veep will also allow another comedy—Silicon Valley? Atlanta? Watch it be Modern Family again—to snag the best-series citation that has been owned by HBO's series since 2015. New seasons of Better Call Saul—which often walks away unfortunately empty-handed from the ceremony anyway—and Game of Thrones could also miss the deadline, leaving even more room in the drama categories—though if Sunday is any indication, perhaps their teams will only be relieved that they won't have to compete with The Handmaid's Tale.
That's the news for this sunny Monday in L.A. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and Stephen Colbert's HBO Go password to Rebecca_Keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.
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