Giamatti, Linney Take Home the Naked Actor.

The Screen Actors Guild Award - they both won. Boy, ya just can't keep that "John Adams" mini-series down, can ya? Let's see...that's an Emmy, Golden Globe and now a SAG Award for both actors. Hard to believe some television critics thought that mini-series dull and boring.

By the way, someone tell me why the television show "24" is included in the category of "motion picture/mini-series"? Had Kiefer Sutherland won over anyone else in that category I would have had a shit fit. I understand the premise behind the show "24" but it is neither a motion picture nor is it a mini-series in the way you typically think of a TV mini-series. How long has this been going on? Did they remove "made-for-television" so a show like "24" could be included in this category? And, if shows episodic television shows in the vain of "24" are considered "mini-series", doesn't that detract from the real mini-series programs?

Nothing against Sutherland or the show. It's just that it should be listed under TV drama, that's all.

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HBO's "John Adams" continues winning ways.

I've blogged about this exceptional mini-series several times - when I first began watching it, regarding the portrayals of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington (there's a must-see video clip in this link)- and I will continue to blog about it until every American citizen has seen it. :)

The series cleaned up again at the Golden Globes Sunday - winning four awards including Tom Wilkinson (Best Supporting Performance by an Actor In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television- Ben Franklin), Paul Giamatti (Actor) and Laura Linney (Actress). Earlier in the year, "John Adams" won 13 Emmys (same actors won the same awards.

In my opinion, one of the best television mini-series of all-time - right up there with "The Holocaust", "Band of Brothers", "Roots" and a personal favorite, "The Last Convertible". I purchased the DVD as a Christmas gift for my family (no word on whether they've watched it or not).

The players, left to right, top to bottom: Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson, David Morse as George Washington, Paul Giamatti as John Adams, Laura Linney as Abigail Adams and Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin.

It's worth the investment. Get it. Everyone else is.

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I stood 10 yards from Paul Giamatti.

Star of the HBO mini series, "John Adams" and such films as "Sideways", "Private Parts" and "Planet of the Apes". Saw Paul in the courtyard at Skirball Center after the radio play, "The Rivalry", last night in LA (see 3rd post down) - he performed the role of Stephen Douglas opposite David Strathairn's Abe Lincoln.

Anyway, I wanted to tell him what an inspiring performance he gave as the lead in "John Adams". I wanted to tell him I thought that that mini series was one of the best I'd ever seen on TV and that watching the show made me proud of my country's heritage. I wanted to tell him that there were moments in that show that made me wept.

But he looked as if he was trying to make a beeline to his car in the parking structure when he was suddenly "attacked" by 3 or 4 autograph and picture seekers. I thought to myself, "no - I'll let him be". Was that the high road I just took? Perhaps my good deed will produce dividends some other time.

"The Rivalry", by the way, was excellent.

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Jam-packed California weekend. Me.

Tonight - Paul Giamatti and David Strathairn debate each other in The Play's the Thing's staging of "The Rivalry" - the famed Abraham Lincoln - Stephen Douglas debates - at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA. The play is performed like an old-time radio drama - mikes on stage and scripts in hand, live audience, but broadcast live on the radio.

Saturday night - Gordon Lightfoot at The Canyon Club. This is the most excellent venue where I saw The Zombies in June - and my virgin concert of this Canadian legend and performer of such hits as "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", "Sundown", "If You Could Read My Mind", "Early Morning Rain", "The Pony Man", "Cape Horn" and many others. See my Youtube performance below.

Sunday night - The Carl Wilson Cancer Foundation brew ha at the Roxy in Hollywood with Brian Wilson, Carnie and Wendy Wilson (of Wilson-Phillips fame), The Honeys, Al Jardine of The Beach Boys and Surf guitar legend Dick Dale.

(...and of course, the Jets at Oakland - but I was trying to avoid talking about sports in this particular post. GO JETS! GO FAVRE!)

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David Morse IS Geo. Washington, Sir!

I wrote about the HBO mini-series "John Adams" in mid-March and I continue to wait with anticipation for each upcoming episode. Two or three left to go. David Morse has been hailed as THE best "George Washington" by many critics and I have to say that I agree.

I've provided a clip from the series - George Washington's inauguration - that I would like you to watch. Please watch this clip. Paul Giamatti (who is superb in his own right) portrays John Adams and - in this clip - helps to administer the Oath of Office to our first President of the United States. It's brief; I have watched it a dozen plus times and each time I find myself getting emotional. This moment is captured brilliantly on film - the anticipation, the hesitation, the awkwardness of our new found independence, the exhilaration of victory. I believe it to be the best scene I've witnessed thus far. It is one of the most poignant moments I've ever seen on film.

THIS MOMENT is the beginnings of our country as we know it. It's the next best thing to being there.

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