According to Variety, the annual Monte Carlo TV Festival begins on Sunday in Monaco. And just like in years past, two fo the CSI series will compete for the title of most-watched TV drama, worldwide.

[Photo: Newscom]

This year, CSI: Vegas, CSI: Miami & House MD will go head to head for the title. The nominations were chosen by the Producers’ Guld of America and one of them will bring home the title this year. I’ll keep you posted.

The fest has had to develop a new identity since it abandoned its market in 2001. CEO David Tomatis said Tuesday that it now serves as a networking event for producers and talent; a platform for international productions in its six competitive sections; and an opportunity for some 350 invited journos, mostly from Europe, to meet U.S. talent.

As a fan of all three of the CSI series, I see it as a 2 out of 3 chance of winning. Those are great odds!!

[Photo: Bauer-Griffin]

It’s official, folks. CSI: NY’s Hill Harper is super-intelligent, totally handsome and he’s a great actor too. And those are just the kind of things that won him his second NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. Here’s the list of all the nominees in the category:

Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series

• Anthony Anderson – “Law & Order” (NBC)
• Blair Underwood – “In Treatment” (HBO)
• Dennis Haysbert – “The Unit” (CBS)
• Hill Harper – “CSI: NY” (CBS) - Winner
• Omar Epps – “House” (FOX)

On Tuesday, William Petersen, aka Gil Grissom was honored with his own star on the Walk of Fame. For those of you who want to see it, it’s located in front of Musso’s & Franks Restaurant in Los Angeles.

And nearly all of his fellow CSI: Vegas co-stars were there to celebrate the occasion with him. I don’t see Lauren Lee Smith, Wallace Langham, Paul Guilfoyle or Gary Dourdan, But Robert David Hall, David Berman, Liz Vassey, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Eric Szmanda, Marg Helgenberger and Archie Kao all were there.

Here are some cute photos of them at the event, including one where Petersen dusted the star for fingerprints! LOL!

[Photo: newscom.com]

[Photo: newscom.com]

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ABC has announced a very interesting pairing of actors to present an Emmy Award together. William Petersen who plays CSI: Vegas’ Gil Grissom will present alongside the show’s newest cast member, Laurence Fishburne. I like it that they will probably make a joke or two about one replacing the other or one leaving so the other will have to step in….

Be sure to watch the Primetime Emmys on Sunday, September 21 on ABC for both of them on stage together.

With the Emmy nominations out, the other day, the CSI franchise garnered three nods. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has two of them, while CSI: New York has the third.

The listings look like this:

• Outstanding Makeup For A Single-camera Series (non-prosthetic)
  • CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Dead Doll, CBS, CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television
    Melanie Elaine Levitt, Department Head Makeup Artist
    Tom Hoerber, Key Makeup Artist
    Matthew Mungle, Additional Makeup Artist
    Clinton Wayne, Additional Makeup Artist
• Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series
  • CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Cockroaches, CBS, CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television
    Mace Matiosian, Supervising Sound Editor
    Ruth Adelman, Supervising ADR Editor
    Jivan Tahmizian, Dialogue Editor
    David Van Slyke, Sound Effects Editor
    Chad Hughes, Sound Effects Editor
    Joseph Sabella, Foley Artist
    Zane Bruce, Foley Artist
    Troy Hardy, Music Editor
• Outstanding Stunt Coordination
  • CSI: NY Playing With Matches, CBS, CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television
    Norman Howell, Stunt Coordinator

That’s impressive, but did they not see how fabulous David Caruso’s sunglasses were in Going Ballistic?!?

The Genesis Awards recognize television shows that represent good examples of treatment of animals and are presented each year by The Hollywood Office of the Humane Society of the United States. This year, CSI: Vegas won a Genesis Award. Here are a couple of photos of Producers Chris Barbour, Naren Shankar and Michael Daily presenting the awards to William Peterson on behalf of the show on March 29.

Image details: 22nd Genesis Awards - Press Room served by picapp.com

Image details: 22nd Genesis Awards - Press Room served by picapp.com

CSI, cbs, CSI las vegas, tv, Television, William Petersen

Primetime Emmy Nominations –minus all CSI series. Image: Newscom.

For the first time ever, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has published a list of top ten vote-getters for Emmy categories Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series. Strangely missing –to us fans- are all three series in the popular CSI franchise. Hard to believe, ain’t it?

Here are the ten that made the list:

• Boston Legal (ABC)
• Damages (FX)
• Dexter (Showtime)
• Friday Night Lights (NBC)
• Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
• House (FOX)
• Lost (ABC)
• Mad Men (AMC)
• The Tudors (Showtime)
• The Wire (HBO)

Do you think the CSI series should have made the list? Was it just that tough?

Anthony E. Zuiker, CSI creator. Photo: Newscom.

Next weekend the creator of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and its offshoots in Miami and New York, Anthony Zuiker, will appear at the International Mystery Writers’ Festival in Kentucky. Zuiker, winner of the Ira Levin Award, will take part in panels and classes at the festival. Recently, he spoke to the Louisville Courier-Journal about his accomplishments and his involvement in the festival.

Zuiker told the C-J that he sees CSI’s strength in its human stories, stories with strong, very real characters. Unlike police dramas of the past, CSI draws the audience more deeply into the lives, passions, personal strengths and demons of the characters.

Zuiker adds plenty of ideas on how playwrights can use the strengths of their medium to incorporate the modern audience’s expectations. According to Zuiker, live mysteries would appeal to modern audiences by taking the developments from television and film, and incorporating the immediacy and power of the live experience. This would include crime and police elements such as gunshots to surprise and make the audience feel part of the mystery. Reading this, at first, made me think he was talking about the murder mystery experience that is popular in many American cities. I think the same things would apply well to the stage, just as they do in the “historic home” scenario. Zuiker explains that the immediacy of well-executed gunshots in the theater would “rivet” the audience. I’d have to agree.

About the festival, Zuiker said that he is selective about his appearance opportunities, but IMWF is an excellent cause.

Check out the entire interview with Anthony Zuiker at the Courier-Journal website.

CSI Emmy Nominations. Image: Newscom

The producers have put forward their Primetime Emmy submissions for the CSI franchise. There are plenty of proposed accolades to go around in all three hit series.

Episodes

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Dead Doll (season eight premiere)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Who and What (Without a Trace crossover)
• CSI: Miami All In
• CSI: Miami Ambush
• CSI: New York Right Next Door

Leading Men

• William Petersen (Gil Grissom) for Dead Doll
• David Caruso (Horatio Caine) for All In
• Gary Sinise (Mac Taylor) for The Thing About Heroes

Leading Women

• Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) for A Thousand Days on Earth
• Emily Procter (Calleigh Duquesne) for All In

Supporting Actor

• Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown) for For Gedda
• Paul Guilfoyle (Jim Brass) for Grissom’s Divine Comedy
• Robert David Hall (Dr Al Robbins) for The Theory of Everything
• Wallace Langham (David Hodges) for You Kill Me
• Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders) for The Theory of Everything
• George Eads (Nick Stokes) for “unlisted episode”.
• Jonathan Togo (Ryan Wolfe) for Cyber-lebrity
• Carmine Giovinazzo (Danny Messer) for Child’s Play
• AJ Buckley (Adam Ross) for Down the Rabbit Hole

Supporting Actress

• Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) for Goodbye and Good Luck

Guest actor and actress

• Dennis Christopher for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Lying Down with Dogs
• Anthony LaPaglia for CSI Who and What
• Harold Perrineau for CSI Go to Hell
• Bonnie Bedelia for CSI Grissom’s Divine Comedy
• Peter James Smith for CSI: Miami To Kill a Predator
• Elizabeth Berkley for CSI: Miami Ambush

Watch for more information, as the final nominations come out.

Who do you think will make the cut?

Source: Gold Derby Forums at LATimes.com.

Check out hunky Hill Harper posing with the Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series award for CSI: NY in the press room at the 39th NAACP Image Awards on February 14. He looks great, as always!

(click on the thumbnails for the larger images - more after the jump)
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