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It's an event that has honored Sarah Silverman for her song "I'm F---ing Matt Damon" (from ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live"), blasphemed Jesus and featured nonagenarian fitness guru Jack LaLanne leading its audience in calisthenics.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences calls it the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, but the event -- scheduled for August 21 at the Nokia Theatre and telecast in edited form the following Friday on E! Entertainment Television -- might more accurately be described as the Not Ready for Primetime Emmys.

Awards in 71 categories are handed out at the Creative Arts Emmys, more than double the amount at the Primetime Emmys, held a week later at the same venue. While the event has a handful of celebrity-friendly categories, like guest acting, the bulk of the awards are for below-the-line disciplines deemed too mundane for the big show, such as art direction, cinematography and sound editing.

The show's low profile has worked in its favor, making it one of the looser, edgier stops on the awards circuit.

"Because it's on a cable channel, not a broadcaster, and we know that the show is going to be edited, people tend to relax a little bit more with their language," TV Academy chairman and CEO John Shaffner says.

In recent years, the show has increased its celebrity quotient with high-profile hosts such as Penn & Teller, Neil Patrick Harris (who went on to host the Primetime Emmys in 2009) and George Lopez, and a growing number of TV star attendees and presenters, many of whom turn out to show support for the craftspeople on their shows.

One of the engines behind the evolution has been producer Spike Jones Jr., who started with the show in 1995 when it was just a modest dinner dance at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

"It was noisy, people were smashed," Jones recalls. Although "3,000 people smashed is a lot of fun," he allows, "it was basically, 'Here's your award, here's your salad, have a nice day.'"

When the Emmys were moved to the Shrine Auditorium in 1998, the TV Academy decided to give the Creative Arts Awards its own telecast, albeit a modest one carried by TV Land. Jones was given just three cameras to cover the action and less than 24 hours to whittle the three-hour-plus show down to a 90-minute special airing the following night.

"That was nuts," Jones says. "We literally finished the show and all went to an edit facility. We were making edits that none of us really wanted to make. We'd say, 'Let's look away from the monitors so we don't have to see what's happening, because we're just killing this thing.'"

Although producers are now given four days to edit the show, the cuts can still be brutal, particularly when it comes to acceptance speeches. The TV Academy's generous policy of guaranteeing every winner face time on the telecast means that awardees' rambling lists of thank-yous are often cut down to mere soundbites.

"People complain, 'How come my son's speech was cut?' Well, he didn't say anything pithy," Jones says.

The most noteworthy acceptance speech -- and arguably the most famous moment in Creative Arts Emmy history -- came in 2007 when Kathy Griffin stepped to the podium to pick up the best reality program award for her Bravo show "My Life on the D-List."

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus," Griffin said, holding up the statuette. "Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now."

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights denounced Griffin's remarks as "obscene and blasphemous," and the TV Academy announced that her speech would be edited for the telecast. But a funny thing happened on the way to Griffin's eternal damnation: She was invited back to host the ceremonies in 2009.

"Now that I've been around the block a few times, I've learned that's the way these things typically go," says Griffin, who affectionately refers to the Creative Arts Awards as "the Schmemmys." "I curse on CNN on New Year's Eve, I 'get in trouble,' I 'get banned,' then they look at the ratings, and I get invited back next year."

Nonetheless, there are limits to how far the show is willing to go. In 2007, Jones had planned to film a cold open for the telecast in which actors from different shows would sing the words to the Emmy-nominated song "D--k in a Box" from NBC's "Saturday Night Live," but TV Academy officials nixed the idea.

For many, the most controversial aspect of the Creative Arts Awards is the idea that their category is being shunted off to a separate-but-not-so-equal ceremony. But "Mad Men" costume designer Katherine Jane Bryant says she understands.

"It would be nice to be on primetime, like (the below-the-line categories) are in the Oscars, but at the same time I understand that there are a lot more awards," says Bryant, who won an Emmy for "Deadwood" in 2005.

Besides, "the Emmys all look the same," says HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins, who was honored with the TV Academy's Governors Award at last year's event. "A year later, nobody knows whether you got it on the Primetime Awards or at the Creative Arts."

Lori Loughlin admits her daughters, ages 10 and 11, have seen episodes of her old "Full House" series, but "They're not big fans." Her current show, the CW's "90210," is more of interest. And then there's "Summerland," the show that Loughlin produced and co-created, which marked the series debut of Zac Efron. So mom had a big part in the rise of Efron's career, and how cool is that?

"Isn't it amazing? When I met Zac, he was just 14 years old, a sweet kid with a gap between his teeth," Loughlin recalls. "I have to say, an old friend of mine, publicist Jeff Ballard, met Zac and immediately said, 'That kid is going to be a huge star.' I said, 'How do you know it?' And he said, 'I just know it.' He's got a really good eye. The only other one he ever said that about was Johnny Depp."
Loughlin says she's thinking about doing more writing and producing. "At first, after 'Summerland' was over, I thought, 'Oh, I'll never do that again.' But after some time has gone by, it seems more possible."
Not that she has any time for it at the moment. Loughlin is already juggling her "90210" duties and promoting her forthcoming "Meet My Mom" Hallmark Channel movie about a single mother whose son's school project -- writing letters to a soldier overseas -- leads to a hunky sergeant showing up at their door. And then there's her family life with her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, and their offspring, Isabella and Olivia.
She's proud that, especially having gotten off to a bumpy start, "90210" was granted an early renewal by the CW. "The show is looking really, really good. I think it's become its own show. It stands on its own. You never know when you take something that familiar and reinvent it how it's going to go," she says. She credits exec producer Rebecca Sinclair for making "90210" go well. "She's done a great job."
SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES: Mayim Bialik may have made a successful transition into adult actor, but she still can't seem to escape her "Blossom" roots. The actress isn't complaining, though. "There will be sort of a 'Blossom' reunion on my episode of ''Til Death' on May 2," reports Bialik, who is busy acting again after taking a long break to attend graduate school and start a family. "People still ask me about 'Blossom' all the time, especially what I think about Joey's (Joey Lawrence) hair, so I think it's very exciting. I wish I could say more, but that is part of the allure."
The Fox show isn't the only project that has reunited Bialik with some of her "Blossom" buddies. She has returned for another season on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." "Brenda Hampton, who created the show, was a writer on 'Blossom,' so she's been writing for me since I was a teenager. It's fun to work with people who know exactly what it's going to sound like coming out of my mouth. When I get a script, I don't even have to ask any questions because I know exactly what they want," she says. "It's a good fit. I like playing quirky characters, and I like being the comedy relief on a show that is otherwise not high comedy."
The actress tells us she's just relieved to have been able to find her place again in the business. "I wasn't sure if the industry would be interested in hiring me as an adult. I do a little bit of teaching on the side so I thought if acting doesn't work out, then I'd just teach more. Luckily, I've been working enough to keep things going."
FUNNY STUFF: With TV Guide having pronounced Jay Leno's return to No. 1 in the ratings for four consecutive weeks, back in his old "Tonight Show" home, as "nothing short of miraculous," perhaps the squawking about Leno taking back the show will quiet down. The fact is that NBC based its decision on ratings, and now it's been proven. He pulled off an instant ratings recuperation -- all the more impressive considering that viewership had fallen by almost 50 percent during Conan O'Brien's tenure. Fans may have noticed, Leno's added a few fresh touches like his "cold opening" -- before the show's introduction -- comedy skits.
Matt Walsh, who co-founded the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York along with Amy Poehler and a few other friends, tells us their branch in Los Angeles is really starting to take off. Having a few famous buddies stop by from time to time certainly doesn't hurt. "There's a lot of talented people in L.A. who are bored when not doing their TV show so we'll have people like Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt and Zach Galifianakis stop by. They keep the shows interesting. And nobody gets paid," he adds. "They do it for the love of it. You can come see a great show for like $5 or $8 so it's gotten a nice following." Walsh notes, "We're really fortunate that there's a real population of people who want to learn how to improvise. There's been a big boom. It's a tribute to a lot of talented people who found us. They're the ones who maintain the theater."
With reports by Emily-Fortune Feimster.

Matt Damon has bad breath, according to Sarah Silverman.

The American comedienne - who famously created a video entitled 'I'm F***ing Matt Damon' for her TV host boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel in 2008 - joked the actor's breath was not the freshest she'd ever smelt, while honouring him with an award on Saturday night (27.03.10).

Sarah claimed she'd given Matt "his first really big break" in the video, which was aired on US TV before becoming an instant YouTube hit, and added: "The worst thing I could say is, you know, Matt Damon is, like, a perfectionist. And his breath is like, Jesus! And his hair plugs are really obvious. Besides that, there's, like, nothing."

The 39-year-old actor - who was honoured in Beverly Hills with the 24th American Cinematheque Award - was continually ridiculed all night by several of his celebrity friends.

Actress Charlize Theron joked the Hollywood heartthrob was to blame for one of Will Smith's box office flops.

The Hollywood Reporter gathered six of the funniest examples of the trend: Christina Applegate (ABC's "Samantha Who?"); Jane Krakowski (NBC's "30 Rock"); Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine"); Mary-Louise Parker (Showtime's "Weeds"); Amy Poehler (NBC's "Parks & Recreation") and Sarah Silverman (Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program") to debate how to star on a hit comedy series and keep your sanity.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: IS IT POSSIBLE TO SLIP IN AN ACTUAL LIFE DURING PRODUCTION OF A HIT COMEDY SERIES?

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Well, I do a multicamera series, which I think is a lot easier than what these ladies are up to. We have two or three 12-hour days every week, but not five, which I think is what you have to put up with in a single-camera show.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: WAS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU TO DO A MULTICAMERA SHOW FOR THE REGULAR SCHEDULE?

Louis-Dreyfus: Actually, it's pretty much just for the money.

Amy Poehler: The Benjamins. Call them the Benjamins.

Louis-Dreyfus: No, but it was important because while I adore single-camera comedy, and the look of it is so fantastic, considering the life I have with my kids I couldn't pull that off.

Mary-Louise Parker (whispering): What the f--- is a single-camera comedy?

Sarah Silverman: It's like a show where there isn't a live audience. It's kind of an old term. Single-camera and three-camera.

Parker: I really am this stupid, by the way. I have two kids, so it's tough. It limits you. I can't really do much of anything else aside from the show or I'd never see my kids. Or I could just have someone else take care of them. I mean, they're super-duper cute.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: DO THE MOMMY DUTIES MAKE IT TOUGHER FOR AN ACTRESS TO BE THE STAR OF A SERIES?

Poehler: It's a pretty crushing schedule for me, like 14 hours every day. I'm in every scene. Plus I'm the producer on it as well, so we're casting and writing and stuff all weekend. And yes, I have a baby, too. It's trying to figure out how to balance all of these things. You just depend on a lot of help and a lot of good advice from people.

Jane Krakowski: Tina (Fey) astounds me because she wears all of the hats on ("30 Rock") and is raising a child. She'll shoot the show all day and then go home and write until like 2 in the morning. And then her daughter will bop in at 6 a.m. going, "Hi Mommy!" I really don't know how she does it.

Poehler: She has a heroin problem.

Krakowski: No!

Poehler: What, we're not supposed to say that? Sorry, that's off the record.

Silverman: It's way different for me on my show because, first off, I need 20 hours of sleep a night. I have children's hours.

Krakowski: The main challenge for me is to do what I do in my job along with everything the tabloids might say I'm doing. Like, I wasn't even in the country when I was supposedly at a party here in the U.S. I literally have proof that my passport was stamped. I don't know how they can get away with that sort of writing.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: MARY-LOUISE, HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE "WEEDS" TO WORKING ON A DRAMA LIKE "THE WEST WING?"

Parker: I enjoyed "West Wing." But so many people come up to me and are like, "I just don't understand why they had you on that show." They apparently didn't like the character. You just can't believe the s--- people say to us.

Silverman: And they're always such quality people, too.

Parker: People come up to me now and ask for a dime bag. As if I've never heard that one before.

Silverman: I've learned that it's best to just fake your reaction. Like when people come up to me and say, "Hey, I'm f---ing Matt Damon, too!" I'll act like that's the funniest thing I've ever heard. It allows you to move on.

Parker: I'll have to remember that. Because usually I just flip them off.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: JULIA AND CHRISTINA, YOU BOTH HAD ROLES ON CLASSIC COMEDIES AND MANAGED TO MOVE FORWARD WITH SUCCESS IN OTHER SERIES. DO YOU EVER FULLY LEAVE THAT BREAKOUT

SHOW BEHIND?

Applegate: No, I don't think I ever will. ("Married With Children") is still on five times a day, so it's constantly there, even though it left the air like 12 years ago. But I don't try to hide from it. People had posters of that girl, and without that show I wouldn't have learned how to do what I can do now. I don't pooh-pooh on it like a lot of other people have their prior shows. I really embrace it, in fact.

Louis-Dreyfus: "Seinfeld" still comes up a lot in my life, which is great. I mean, it's kind of an iconic show.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: IS AGE EVER AN ISSUE FOR ANY OF YOU IN YOUR CAREERS?

Louis-Dreyfus: I'm 48 now. I think it's not so much an issue in TV as it is in film.

Poehler: I auditioned to play Jonah Hill's mother not that long ago, and I'm 37. I was eight years older than Rachel McAdams when I played her mother (in "Mean Girls"). That was a broader comedy choice thing, but yeah, you can end up playing much older than you are. And issues can arise out of that.

Applegate: I was supposed to do the cover of a magazine and they said I was too old. They didn't want anyone over 35. Now I guess I'll never be on it. I just don't think of any of that because I feel 20 years old.

Silverman: The only time age comes into play for me is if I'm looking at a script and it's for a "girl" part that isn't funny. Even if it's a great comedy, often the character you read for isn't funny. I don't need to play the girl who's mad at the main guy anymore. I've done it, and it can be embarrassing.

Louis-Dreyfus: Wasn't Anne Bancroft only like six years older than Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate?" That's real acting.

Silverman: When she did "Grease," Stockard Channing was like 35!

Krakowski: Let's talk about how great HD is for helping us with our age issues. My show is so harsh. We shoot like nine to 10 pages a day, with multiple takes and stuff. We improvise all the time. We're always in real locations using real props.

Applegate: Oh God, with HD, it's so crisp you really do see everything. You can actually see into your brain.

Silverman: It's the future. (Laughter)

Poehler: I know that when they switched to HD on "SNL," it was a huge deal. You could suddenly see things you never had before. You could see so deep. So the sets had to be changed. We had to wear a lot more makeup. Wigs had to get even more refined and smaller.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: HOW MUCH DO YOU MONITOR YOUR SHOW'S RATINGS?

Parker: I don't give a s---. I mean, if people aren't going to watch it, then it's going to get canceled and I'm going to find another job. It's not like I'm going to think, "I better take off my shirt!" I'm going to take my shirt off anyway.

Poehler: You can't worry too much about your show's numbers or it just drives you mad. But I have to tell you, I find TV to be good for comedy. There's an immediacy in television, a feeling that everything isn't so precious. You can readjust things. There's not so much weight behind every choice. And especially if you get to play a character for awhile, you get to experiment a lot. I like the fact the piece might not always quite be ready but has to be done.

Louis-Dreyfus: I think the idea of playing a character for a long period of time isn't weird so much as interesting. Because you can just keep making crap up about yourself. It's an interesting challenge. But it also makes it quite fun.

Krakowski: That's so true. No matter how things go one day, you get to try again the next day and say, "I'm going to figure out a way to be funny in that particular situation or watch everybody else and grow." Sometimes, you get magic just by throwing it out there.

(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)

Trent Reznor, Jimmy Fallon, Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Silverman and Twitter were among the winners of Webby Special Achievement Awards announced this week.

The prizes will be presented at the 13th annual Webby Awards Celebration June 8 in New York.

All of the Special Achievement Award winners are expected to accept their honors in person, organizers said on the Webby Web site.

Reznor was declared the Webby Artist of the Year for the debut of his album "The Slip" as a free download on his Web site last May.

Fallon will be honored as the Webby Person of the Year in recognition of his enthusiastic embrace of the Internet to connect with his fans.

Twitter won the Webby Award for Breakout of the Year. Accepting the award will be Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, who is recognized for his creation of the micro-messaging service that has grown in use by 900 percent in the past year.

Silverman has been named Best Actress in recognition of her popular YouTube music video, "I'm (expletive) Matt Damon," and for "utilizing the political power of the Internet" with "The Great Schlep," organizers said.

Kudrow won the Webby Award for Outstanding Comedic Performance for the Internet series "Web Therapy," which she stars in, co-writes and co-produces and which airs on lstudio.com.

Seth MacFarlane won the Webby Award for Film and Video Person of the Year in recognition of his Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy animated videos distributed through Google's content network and on sethcomedy.com.

Also to be honored at next month's ceremony are NPR, NYTimes.com, Digg, NBC.com, Next New Networks, The Onion, YouTube and the BBC, Information Week said.

With a wad of cash in her hand, Jessica Alba was out for a stroll on her 28th birthday while visiting Soolip Paperie & Press in Hollywood on Tuesday (April 28).

Looking relaxed on her special day, the "Sin City" starlet wore a cardigan, black tank, black leggings, and gladiator flats.

Miss Alba flashed back to celebrate last Sunday. An ‘80’s theme party took place with tunes from Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, and it wasn’t just music. Games also came out from the 1980’s such as Connect Four and Chinese Checkers.

And, of course, the 50 guests invited had to come totally retro. Hubby Cash Warren and Alba made sure everyone looked the part for the theme that included, Sarah Silverman, NBA player Baron Davis, and Rosario Dawson.

The party took place at their home while Alba had Cazadores mojitos with her girls and Warren dined and conversed with guests on fajitas, rice and beans.

Rainn Wilson, Sarah Silverman and Michael C. Hall have joined the cast of the indie comedy, Peep World. Now that’s a surefire way to get our attention.

Wilson, of course, is genius as the demented jobsworth Dwight K. Schrute in The Office (American vintage). Silverman is possibly the funniest woman on the planet right now. Hall, best known as Dexter on the show of the same name, is simply a fantastic actor. So the prospect of seeing them bounce off each other is mouthwatering.

Peep World – which would be a great name for a Peep Show movie, by the way – is about an author who causes major friction with his dysfunctional family after he writes a novel featuring barely-disguised versions of them. A similar thing happened in the Empire office once when this correspondent wrote a steamy fan-fiction about characters called Holly Richards and Ellen O’Hara. That did not go down well with Olly and Helen – though how they cracked the code, we’ll never know…

Anyway, back to Peep World. Barry Blaustein, who directed The Ringer, will call the shots on the movie, which also added up-and-coming actor Ben Schwartz to the cast. Occupant Films is stumping up the cash. 

Continuing along with the making of the "Transformers" sequel, Megan Fox was spotted visiting a production and effects studio in Burbank on Monday (March 9).

The brunette beauty, who recently split with boyfriend Brian Austin Green, was reportedly there to have a body mold made for her Mikaela Banes movie role.

And while she's still been seen spending time with her "Beverly Hills 90210" ex-beau, Miss Fox has found herself alongside Natalie Portman in rumors of a potential relationship-in-the-making with "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson.

Not long ago, Pattinson reportedly spent two straight nights at the Palihouse Hotel bar, meeting up with Megan now that she's staying at the hotel since moving out of Brian's Hollywood Hills home.

Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is moving into "Melrose Place," returning to series television seven years after landing her breakthrough role on the WB's "7th Heaven."

In the "Melrose" update, the singer-actress will play a bright-eyed but shrewd small-town girl and recent L.A. transplant who has come to town with a secret.

Her character draws parallels to the original series' blond, budding-Southern-belle starlet, Sandy Harling (Amy Locane).

Simpson-Wentz, who joins the previously cast Michael Rady and Katie Cassidy, took a four-year hiatus from acting to focus on her music career. She and her rocker husband Pete Wentz guest-star on the March 18 episode of "CSI: NY," in which they play Bonnie-and-Clyde wannabes.

(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)

Spotted out together for the very first time since the announcement of their engagement, Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen enjoyed a lunch outing in Malibu on Wednesday (March 4).

Doing their best to elude paparazzi, the "Jumper" co-star lovers both looked stylish as they grabbed a bite to eat at Marmalade Cafe.

And while neither of the two actor's reps have confirmed the impending nuptials, Rachel has been wearing a rock on her all-important finger and friends have backed up the story.

A source told People magazine that the pair got engaged in December, saying,"They’re so excited. They’re a great couple. Rachel seems thrilled beyond belief.”