The nominations for the 2013 Producers Guild Awards have been announced.  The PGA’s are a fairly reliable predictor of the Academy Awards, as last year all but two eventual Best Picture nominees (The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) were PGA nominees.  This year’s contenders include expected fare like Argo, Les Miserables, and Lincoln, indies such as Beasts of the Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom, and critical favorite Zero Dark Thirty.  The PGA’s are also fond of singling out one “popular” choice, and in this year’s case that film looks to be the excellent Skyfall

In addition to the feature films, the PGAs also announced the nominees in television.  Drama series nominees include the usual suspects like Homeland, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, while the comedy category is filled out by 30 Rock, Louie, Modern Family, and for some reason The Big Bang Theory.  Notably absent is HBO’s Girls and NBC’s brilliant Parks and Recreation.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of film and television nominees.  The 24th Annual PGA Awards will be held on January 26th.

The Producers Guild of American announced the TV and Digital Series nominations for the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards today.  The Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television Drama nominees include Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland, and Mad Men, while the comedy category consists of 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie, and Modern Family.  Hit the jump to see the full list of nominees.  All other nominations (including film) will be announced on January 3, 2013, followed by the 2013 Producers Guild Award ceremony on January 26, 2013.

While at the HBO portion of the TCA Press Tour, President of Programming Michael Lombardo and co-President Richard Plepler took some time to talk about new and returning programming.  During the interview, they spoke about how long Game of Thrones and True Blood could run for, the status of the Entourage movie, their movie deal with Larry David and the affect that could have on future seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm, their thoughts on the first season of The Newsroom, the possibility of a fourth season for Treme, and what viewers can expect from the Woody Harrelson/Matthew McConaughey series True Detective.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

The 2012 Emmy nominations are here, and there are plenty of predictable results, a few pleasant surprises, and a slew of snubs (I hear you, Parks and Rec and Community fans, I hear you!).  I mentioned in my piece on underrated series and performances this year that there were plenty of shoo-ins from shows I shouldn’t even bother mentioning, most especially Justified and the aforementioned comedies.  Apparently I was dead wrong.  But there were a few nice additions, including Michelle Dockery for Downton Abbey(what’s with all of the Downton noms this year?  It had a lackluster second season aside from Dockery) as well as Christine Baranski for The Good Wife and Mark Margolis for Breaking Bad (ding ding ding!).  For the list of nominees, hit the jump.

The American Cinema Editors have announced their list of nominees for the 62nd Annual Eddie Awards. Before you brush editing off as an insignificant category, take note that no film has won the Best Picture Oscar without at least a Best Editing Eddie nomination in 20 years. Martin Scorsese’s longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker was nominated for her work on Hugo, as were last year’s Oscar winners Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Other films singled out include The Artist, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, and Young Adult.

On the television side of things, Breaking Bad, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friday Night Lights, and Game of Thrones all landed nods. Hit the jump to see the full list of nominees. ACE’s 62nd awards ceremony, hosted by Patton Oswalt, will be held February 18th.

On the hit HBO series True Blood, actress Lauren Bowles plays Bon Temps waitress Holly Cleary, who is also a practicing Wiccan. As part of a coven with Merlotte’s cook Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) and his boyfriend, Jesus (Kevin Alejandro), she realized that she was in totally over her head when powerful coven leader Marnie (Fiona Shaw) started slaughtering not only vampires, but members of her own coven.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Lauren Bowles talked about how landing the role was a dream come true for her, that she was a fan of the show since the pilot, how awesome this cast has been to work with, that she lives in fear of ruining the twists and surprises when she does interviews, and how things are going to get even crazier in the Season 4 finale. She also talked about how much she enjoyed playing half of a married couple, with her own husband (actor Patrick Fischler), on Larry David’s HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

Larry David is back, and he’s as neurotic as ever in this new trailer for the eighth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. And once again, this season is rife with some great guest stars which you can see in the trailer including Ana Gasteyer, Paul F. Tompkins, and the one that I can’t wait to see, Michael J. Fox. We also know that Ricky Gervais will show up at some point, so that’s definitely someone else to get excited about. The season premiere hits HBO on Sunday, July 10th ant 10/9c, but in the meantime, you can check out the hilarious new trailer after the jump.

As the regular TV season winds down, HBO’s anticipated summer season of television is inching closer. Today the cable network just announced the premiere dates for their long-running series returning in the middle of the summer. True Blood is back for a 12-episode fourth season run which will debut Sunday, June 26th at 9/8c, so you know summer is going to be bloody and sexy. Larry David’s hit comedy series returns for a 10-episode run for the eighth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which we already know will have a guest appearance by Ricky Gervais ) on Sunday, July 10th at 10/9c. Finally Entourage returns for eight episodes for the series’ eighth and final season on Sunday, July 24th at 10:30/9:30c. The series has had a good run, but Vinny Chase has about all the ups and downs his career can handle. Should be a hell of a summer on HBO.

Unfortunately, Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of those shows that I have yet to dive into for one reason or another. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the series as well as Larry David himself. As a matter of fact, I also love seeing Jeff Garlin pop up in films and TV from time to time and he’s always on the show! Plus a series that once offered a makeshift Seinfeld reunion had to be great. But when you watch as many movies and series as I do, some of them have to fall to the wayside. One of these days I vow to catch up on this apparently great HBO comedy and find out what all the buzz is about. But for now, after the jump we have a teaser trailer offering a taste of the eighth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm for everyone who is foaming at the mouth for more.

Back in June we found out that British funnyman Ricky Gervais would spread his hilarity even further across HBO’s comedy line-up with a guest appearance as himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Well Gervais does his best to keep his fans updated on his forthcoming work and today he exclusively delivered the first photo of himself appearing along series star Larry David for what will be the eighth episode of the eighth season which won’t hit HBO until 2011.

Hit the jump to check out the photo an interesting tidbit concerning a new international edition of The Office.

Most TV shows are worn out by their seventh season.  Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t one of them.  If anything, the show has become stronger.  I would argue that the show’s real turning point came in season four when Larry was hired to play Max Bialystock in The Producers.  Since then, Curb has found a way to keep an over-arching plotline that helps to balance season-long B-plot with the A-plot of Larry David’s continual comedy-of-manners and errors.  Season five had Larry looking for ways to avoid giving his kidney to Richard Lewis, and season six introduced The Blacks and a beautiful layer of racial humor to the show.  Larry also separated from his wife Cheryl (played by not-his-real-wife Cheryl Hines) over one of the best mismanagements of priorities of all-time.

If Ricky Gervais has a home anywhere in America, it has got to be at HBO.   The premium cable station has already aired both seasons of Gervais’ comedy series Extras, his stand-up special Out of England and the animated Ricky Gervais Show, which will be coming back for a second season next year.  Now Variety is reporting that Gervais will be appearing alongside his pal Larry David in the next season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Gervais will play himself – which should surprise no one who watches Curb - in the 8th episode of the new season.

It is also expected that Gervais will have another series of his own airing on HBO next year.  He is currently gearing up to begin shooting his third comedy series, Life’s Too Short, for the BBC and it seems most likely that it will air on HBO when it finally makes it across the ocean.  Life’s Too Short will “document” the life of a show-biz dwarf and will star Warwick Davis, with Gervais, and Gervais’ writing partner Stephen Merchant in minor (no pun intended) roles.

Larry David keeps finding great ways to change up Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Last year was the brilliant Seinfeld reunion and the year before that we had The Blacks.  Now, for the show’s eighth season, David is going back to his roots.  The New York Post reports [via Vulture] that the majority of season eight—which is set to air in 2011—will be shot in New York City.  Susie Essman, who plays Jeff Garlin’s obnoxious wife on the show, let it slip that she’s relieved they’re shooting in NYC because “Now I get to sleep in my own bed. Let [the rest of the cast] stay in hotels.”  Essman also revealed that while she and Garlin usually get to see the season’s outline ahead of time, they haven’t seen anything so far for this season.

Back in March, David mentioned that because of the Toyota recall, there might be a storyline involving his character’s beloved Prius.  David also said that it’s likely JB Smoove would be returning as fan-favorite character Leon.  If that’s still the case, it looks like Larry will have some great company on his trip to New York.

HBO has announced that Curb Your Enthusiasm will return for its 8th season in 2011.  Said the show’s star, creator, and writer Larry David: “After much soul searching – and by the way, it was nowhere to be found – I have decided to do another season of CURB.  I look forward to the end of shooting, when I can once again resume the hunt for my elusive soul.  I know it’s here somewhere or perhaps in the rugged mountainous regions of Pakistan.”

Fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm will agree that after seven seasons the Larry David comedy has lost none of its humor or vitriol.  Season seven brilliant last season (with the exception of the episode “Denise Handicapped” where Larry just behaved like a complete sociopath), as the show reunited the Seinfeld cast in a clever way, quasi-apologizedfor that show’s finale, and entered “second-hand semen” into the vernacular.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Seventh Season hits DVD on June 8th.

Earlier today, Curb Your Enthusiasm creator and star Larry David told a nearly sold-out crowd at the William S. Paley Festival that there was a “pretty good chance” the HBO sitcom would return for an 8th season.  In their article, Variety does not specify how many times David used the word “pretty” in making his comment.

HBO keeps the door open for David to new a season (because the network isn’t stupid), but David only does it if he has a good story to tell for the ten episodes produced each season.  In the most recent season, Larry was able to re-unite the Seinfeld cast and make it work damn well.  He also added the term “secondhand semen” to the national lexicon.

David told the audience that if Curb does come back, guest star JB Smoove would likely return (I don’t think fans would accept the show without Smoove’s character, Leon) and that he would consider an arc about the Toyota Prius he drives on the show (“Hey, Prius!”).