The main course of the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards won't be served until this Sunday, but over the weekend, appetizers were handed out in the form of the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. This batch of Emmys honors technical achievements such as makeup, casting, editing, music, costuming, and more, as well as guest appearances by actors and animated programs.
HBO was the big winner of the evening, taking home 15 awards in total, three more than second-place NBC. Reps for the pay-cable network walked to the podium for programs such as Rome, Deadwood, When the Levees Broke, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee won the most awards of any program with five, followed by BBC/Discovery Channel's Planet Earth and NBC's Tony Bennett: An American Classic with four apiece.
Guest acting awards--divided by gender and genre--went to Leslie Caron for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, John Goodman for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Elaine Stritch for 30 Rock, and Stanley Tucci for Monk.
The hotly debated Outstanding Animated Program in the half-hour or less category went to Comedy Central's South Park (sorry, Avatar fans) for the episode "Make Love Not Warcraft," Trey Parker and Matt Stone's take on online PC gaming. This is the second Emmy for the show; Cartman and company won for the episode "Best Friends Forever" in 2005.
Though it isn't much of a reprieve, a handful of shows many thought were snubbed in major categories took home some Creative Emmy statues. Showtime's Dexter and The Tudors each grabbed a pair, even though actors Michael C. Hall and Jonathan Rhys Meyers won't be in the running this Sunday. Friday Night Lights, the critically lauded but barely watched drama from NBC, won the Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. And finally, TV.com favorite Battlestar Galactica won the award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a series.
Just because the show wasn't live--like the East Coast feed of the Primetime Emmys will be this Sunday--doesn't mean the show was without off-the-cuff controversy. Kathy Griffin, winner of the Outstanding Reality Program for Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, angered the Catholic League, an antidefamation organization protecting its namesake religion, in her acceptance speech when she made some remarks the group decried as "blasphemous."
"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award," said Griffin, according to the Associated Press. "I want you to know that no one had less to with this award than Jesus." She continued, "Suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now!"
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is calling for Griffin to apologize for her comment, saying in a statement, "The ball is now in Griffin's court. The self-described 'complete militant atheist' needs to make a swift and unequivocal apology to Christians. If she does, she will get this issue behind her. If she does not, she will be remembered as a foul-mouthed bigot for the rest of her life."
The Creative Arts Emmys show will be broadcast this Saturday on the E! network. Griffin's acceptance speech will be censored, according to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. For the entire list of winners and nominees, head over to the official Emmys Web site.
Comments (46)
It never fails to amaze me how people can't understand how she was just parodying people who do that rather than trying to be offensive...
What people should be angry is that someone thinks he can speak for all the Catholics. Religion must be apart from persons. If you say that she increased her fame by telling these things you should also notice that Catholic League president is the person that gave that fame to her.
oh my god wake up it's called freedom of speach if she wants to thank the deval let her if she dose not belive in jesus then why thank him atleast she is honest about it unlike some STARS.
Kathy Griffin is a s*** for sex.COngrats to South Park
Spanish director Fernando Trueba said on the stand he "didn't believe in God, only in Billy Wilder". Nobody complained. Then again, he was European and we weren't in the middle of a fundamentalist crusade.
Say whatever you want Kathy Griffin. Why are they allowed to say whatever they want about other religions and tell you that if you don't believe in Jesus you're wrong?? If they're gunna dish it out then they can learn to get some back. Whingers.
and besides Kathy is already known as a foul mouth biget(whatever a biget is.)
omg drama drama drama , she wasnt actually makeing fun of jesus , she was makeing fun of the celerbritys that come up there and thank Jesus for voteing for them , its just a joke.
Since when is making fun of God funny? This woman would not be where she is if it was not for Him!! I think it's extremely stupid and low-class of her if she needs to make fun of God to make people laugh....
Tolerance, do people really want to be tolorated? can they not just be accepted and not judged by their ethnicity or culture? a person may be gay or black or muslim, so what? that doesn't necessarily impact their personality. no one can just be ACCEPTED for who they are, we must be TOLORANT because we can't exterminate all who seem to be inferior to us because its considered immoral within society and Hitler along with many others have already attempted to do so and failed...
Tolorance is a negative issue and shouldn't be taught. Acceptance is what really needs to be taught and through acceptance, we can begin to learn and move past the constant racism that is overwhelmingly advertised in US media and so apparent within the school system.
My conclusion, move to switzerland! lolmoreless
As a Christian, I am extremely disappointed in the response of the Catholic League. They have apparently forgotten (or worse, they <i>never knew</i>) that Jesus taught His disciples to turn the other cheek and to forgive others “seventy times sevenâ€. Nor does the Catholic League seem to care that the Word of God teaches us <b>love is patient and kind. <u>Love does not insist on its own way: it is not irritable or resentful; Love does not hold grudges and will hardly notice when others do it wrong.</u> Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.</b>(emphasis mine)<br><br>I’d love to ask Bill Donohue which part of his ultimatum he thinks fits in with the above-mentioned biblical mandates. I wonder which part of his reactionary rant does he think demonstrates the love and forgiveness of Christ. Sadly, all I can see is that Bill Donohue has given unbelievers one more reason to reject Christianity. And frankly, if I thought that Christianity was defined at all by the views of the Catholic League and Bill Donohue, I would probably reject it as well.moreless
Yes. Muslims need to get a frakkin' sense of humor too. I think it's only the Jews and atheists who know how to laugh at themselvees.
What's funny is reading all these posts - not KG.
SoylentYellow: they were Danish cartoons, not Dutch. The Dutch live in The Netherlands (or Holland, if you want), the Danes are from Denmark. As for people yelling she's a bigot, please just grow the *** up. She wasn't bashing Christianity, she was pointing out the hypocrisy of thanking God for an award. How self-centered can you be to think that God (if (s)he's really out there) would involve himself with making sure that you get a meaningless award? Does God really spend his time on that? Or does he just like you better than the other nominees? Give me a break..
If there's freedom of speech, she can say this. There's no freedom to not be ridiculed in the constitution, so get over it. They can always sue her and see what the courts have to say. This is being blown out of proportion by a bunch of pansies who have no trouble protecting abusive priests (even the current Pope was in on that), telling millions of potential HIV/AIDS victims that they shouldn't use protection and trying to keep gay people from getting equal rights. It's all about priorities, eh? There are a lot more things to be outraged about, really.moreless
It is troubling when it's OK to say something potentially offensive to one group and is laughed off - and those potentially offended are told to 'find a sense of humor'.
Dare we tell Muslims deeply offended by potentially blasphemous depictions of the Prophet Mohammed "find a sense of humor"?
And I thought we were supposed to be a tolerant, loving society. Clearly, there is a bias going on. I think anyone who is offended has a right to express their feelings when they believe a line is crossed. 'Suck it, Jesus' is vulgar, plain and simple. It has nothing to do with 'humor'. If this is what passes for 'funny' on TV today, God help us all. It should be noted that Donohue is simply calling on Griffith to apologize to Christians. He is not calling on Christians everywhere to burn effigies and protest violently in the streets.moreless
Jebus never won me no awards. He cans suck it.Bill Donahue is such a tool. I think anybody who think that that is bigotry should be forced to drink from some crap ass second-rate drinking fountain. I also love how the Catholics totally own Jesus. It's only Donahue and his ***o-squad that gets in a snit. Apparently other people understand humor.
Just another example of people whining about something that is not really important in the scheme of things.
oh please, who cares? i am so sick of celebrities getting up there and thanking jesus, at least someone finally recognized that it was her own hard work that got her up there.
Kathy Griffing certainly didn't deserve to win the "creative emmy" award. There is nothing creative about blatant bigotry. It's downright tiresome and who needs it? If she were a good comedian she wouldn't have to insult people to get a laugh.
Oh, come on. Can you get more butt-hurt? I think her comment was funny. I lol'd in fact.Like a catholic(?) said in a Family Guy episode:"Hmm. I guess I'll just have to develop a sense of humor."And South Park definitively deserved the award!
Oh come on people she's a comedian and that's what comedian's do they like to stur the pot so to speek. It like comic Daniel Tosh says from his comedy album "True Stories I Made Up". He'll throw in a really naughty joke to see if his profession is still pure. Like "What do you think of all these F(Gay slur)S getting married, I can say that I'm black!(he's white BTY)" Then he goes on to say i'm paraphrasing him here "That's how i know my job is still pure, i can say things like that. Go into your job and say that What do you think of all these F(Gay slur)S getting married, I can say that I'm black!" I'm fired then i'll see you later?" That's what being a comidian is takin shots at things that matter to people.moreless
I'm so happy that South Park won, I love that episode !
Griffin is a bad comedian, but it is quite typical that any remark about Christianity in the US leads to such an attack by such organizations.Tolerance means not trying to force your views upon others, something that extremist organizations and extremists don't seem to understand. Griffin gave her opinion in a bad joke, now Christian extremists are verbally prosecuting her for it.Oh and by the way, according to the definition of the word, almost any religious person is a bigot, so Bill Donohue is just showing his complete lack of intelligence and pure stupidity.
I certainly won't remember Griffin as a bigot. And I am disappointed that Avatar did not win.
abortionadam your names speaks volumes! You NEVER ACCEPT INTOLERANCE!!! YOU NEVER ACCEPT BIGOTRY and YOU NEVER ACCEPT what she said. Nobody should be mocked because of their religion, if this was islam she was mocking you be up in arms demanding she apologize but since it's catholics you are...oh it's just a joke! This anti-christian bigotry the american left has needs to stop! She should not only aplogize but be stripped of her award and be banned from further shows! And I am an agnostic!
Oh boohoo for Catholics with no sense of humor...
Ok, seriously, I'm not offended by what she said, but she's still an idiot for saying it. There was no call for it. If people wanted to thank Jesus, thats their business. I thought America was a land of tolerance, yet she just out and insulted Jesus for no apparent reason. She COULD just accept the award and thank everyone she wanted to, but nope, had to go for the cheap laugh.
It's not as if she said "Suck it Catholics!". I did. lol
George Carlin's going to have to add to his list of seven.
That's one of the funnier things I've heard from an awards show in the last few years, considering how terribly restrained the hosts think they need to be.People are going to say things you don't agree with, that's how the world works. Way I see it, if you choose to be a Christian, you accept the fact that people are going to ridicule you for it.
Kathy who??? Oh! I get it another 2nd or 3rd class comedian who wants a her 15 minutes of fame by slurring out at someone, sad and pityfull.
Anyway just raging glad BSG got an award
Kathy's statements just show her stupidity....perhaps she should look out for lightning bolts....
Kathy Griffin is a second rate comedian that most people never heard of. Seems to me she's looking for some publicity by profaning the name of Christ. Bashing Christianity is always accepted. She's just a silly bigot with an obnoxiously big mouth.
Kathy Griffin??? she's pathetic; worst stand-up comedian ever
I too think she was just joking because everyone seems to go up there and thank Jesus.
If she had said Mohammad instead of Jesus, there would be an uproar worse than the one about the Dutch cartoons. What she said was actually true, I doubt Jesus would be behind much of anything that comes out of her mouth.
Ah come on, I'm a catholic and I don't feel offended by Kathy. she was just being funny! Give her a break!
Are you kidding me ? The Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series should have gone to Brothers & Sisters ! I'm so pissed off, right now !
I hope Sally Fields wins on Sunday !
Wow, very happy south park won. They deserved it for their season 10 performance. I think Kathy Griffin has all the rights in the world to say what she said. We do have a freedom of religion and just because one group feels insulted because she insulted jesus, does not mean that she should be forced to apologize (especially without meaning it). Being aethiest is one of your choices under a law that grants freedom of religion. I love how the group tried to say people will think of her as a biggot for the rest of time...because its so forced and overthetop that its clearly a personal attack...they don't really have any other argument to make or words to say. Go Kathy.Interesting to see John Goodman's name popping up again.moreless
Kathy was trying to be funny, but forcing her to apologize??? Come on let's move on please.
Can I just say "Suck it, suck it, suck it, suck it, suck it Bill Donohue!"
Kathy and the Emmmy's there's gonna be controversy
You tell-em Kathy!
Man, I wonder if you have ever watched Avatar unbiased...
The Simpsons was robbed- but they won last year so its okay
South Park is a peice of *** not sure what Kathy Griffin ment but people just take stuff into to much consideration
I'm so happy South Park won, Avatar just sucks compared to it