Last month, we reported that Dane Cook would lead the voice cast of Disney’s Cars spin-off, Planes.  His character, Dusty, dreams of being a racer, but because he’s not built for it, he turns to a seasoned naval aviator to help him take on the defending champ of the racing circuit.  Today, Disney has announced the actors voicing the supporting characters.  It’s a surprisingly large cast that has Top Gun‘s Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards voicing fighter jets, which is a nice touch.  The voice cast also includes Stacy Keach, Cedric the Entertainer, Teri Hatcher, Brad Garrett, Roger Craig Smith, Gabriel Iglesias, Carlos Alazraqui, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Cleese, Priyanka Chopra, Sinbad, Brent Musburger, and ESPN’s vile radio host Colin Cowherd.  Cowherd voices blimp “Colin Cowling”.  It is currently unknown if the blimp will engage in race-baiting.

Hit the jump to check out images of all the supporting characters.  Planes opens in 3D on August 9th. [Updated: We've added a press release, which contains details on the new characters]

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her third Emmy in as many series for Veep and it’s not hard to see why. She’s more than just a funny lady here – though to be sure, you may not see anyone quite as funny on television today. Underneath her hapless vice president’s pratfalls and panic attacks, she conveys a strange and abiding sadness. This figure is smart and capable. She wants to make the world a better place. She possesses the tools to leave the government in a better place than she found it. But by the very nature of the system in which she’s trapped, all her assets come to naught. She can only flail about in a mad effort to protect her image and her standing, a process as hysterical as it is quietly troubling. Hit the jump for my full review.

HBO’s political comedy Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as hapless Vice President Selina Meyer, was one of last year’s best and most overlooked series.  From the creators of the masterful British series The Thick Of It, Veep has that show’s same perceptive understanding of the chaotic ineptitude of politics, presented with acid wit.  The Office of the Vice President should be the second-highest in the land, but in Veep we see it instead as a marginalized den of the bewildered.  One of the great, subtle running gags of the series is Selina Meyer asking her secretary if the President has called, with the reply always being a resounding “no.” (that dynamic was also played up in the first teaser for this upcoming season)  The new spot shows more of Selina’s fight to establish some kind of legacy in the hostile environs of Washington, presumably without much luck.  Hit the jump for the trailer.

The 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards were given out last night, and longtime favorite Mad Men had a pretty rough evening.  Matthew Weiner’s AMC drama was shut out in every category in which it was nominated (Christina Hendricks was robbed), denying the series a record-breaking fifth consecutive Best Drama Series Emmy in favor of Showtime’s excellent freshman series Homeland.  The cable thriller nearly swept the drama series category, even landing Damian Lewis a surprising Best Actor win over perennial favorite Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Mad Men’s way overdue Jon Hamm.  It’s hard to complain, though, as Homeland had a positively stellar first season and star Claire Danes gave a powerhouse performance as a psychologically plagued CIA analyst, for which she was awarded Best Actress.

On the comedy side of things the awards were a tad more predictable, with ABC’s Modern Family pulling off another sweep in the genre. Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home the Best Actress award for her hilarious work on Veep, and Jon Cryer inexplicably won Best Actor in a Comedy for his role in Two and a Half Men despite that show not being funny.  Hit the jump to read the full list of winners.

The 2012 Emmy Awards air Sunday at 8pm on ABC during all of your other programming (set those DV-Rs!), so is the show worth watching?  Will there be any upsets?  Or will it just be worth it to sit there smugly as Bryan Cranston wins again for Breaking Bad, turning to your friends, significant other or Siri and saying “I totally called that.”  Hit the jump to see my predictions for who will win and whoshould win Sunday night based on Vegas odds, rumors, secret handshakes, the predictability of Emmy voters, with maybe an upset or two thrown in to keep things interesting.

Before the 2012 Emmy Nominations are officially announced (July 19th), I wanted to jump in and highlight some of what I believe to be some of the best underrated performances on television this year.  Putting aside some of the perennial winners, the following discussion for each of the major categories is likely to mention plenty of names who won’t get Emmy mentions this year, but certainly should (and others who may get a nod, but likely won’t win).  Hit the jump for the (spoiler-free!) list that is not meant to be exhaustive (after all, I do watch an unhealthy amount of TV but I’m not caught up on everything), but hopefully brings at least a few of those dark horses to light with the recognition they deserve.

Hot off a season two order for her new HBO comedy series Veep, Julia Louis-Drefus is poised to team up with fellow HBO alum James Gandolfini in the new Fox Searchlight film from Please Give writer/director Nicole Holofcener.  Deadline reports that Louis-Drefus will play “a masseuse who falls in love with the husband of a new friend,” and Gandolfini is set to play said husband.  Further plot details are unknown, but Holofcener will write and direct the project while Anthony Bregman will produce.

Holofcener’s 2010 drama Please Give drew rave reviews and this new untitled project is definitely one to watch out for.  Holofcener also directed the 2006 pic Friends with Money and helmed two episodes of the stellar NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation.  Gandolfini recently completed shooting the comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone with Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, and will be seen later this year opposite Brad Pitt in the crime thriller Killing Them Softly.

Let’s hear it for the ladies! HBO’s freshman comedy series Veep, from In the Loop writer and director Armando Iannucci and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Girls, written, directed by and starring Lena Dunham, have only aired a handful of episodes between them, but EW reports each of the series has just been renewed for a second season. Both hit completely different comedic styles and tones, but they have each found their own audiences and seem to have quality writing, directing and performances among them.

There’s been a lot of buzz round Girls (both good and bad as the female sex tries to figure out whether they love or hate the depiction of their particular demographic) and Veep, while not as divisive, certainly brings the laughs (read my review of the series premiere right here). HBO now has a strong slate for their female audiences again for the first time since Sex and the City, so that’s something to be happy about. Maybe people will stop complaining about all the nudity on Game of Thrones now?

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of enjoying In the Loop, a British comedy from Armando Iannucci, based on the series The Thick of It set in British government, finally the writer and director is bringing his comedic stylings to American politics. Julia Louis-Dreyfus continues her run as the second most successful cast member from Seinfeld to keep her career going strong with the HBO comedy series Veep. If Aaron Sorkin was a little more of a natural comedic writer, he would have written Veep instead of The West Wing. However, the political satire seems to be a bit less prevalent than the situational comedy, making it slightly less witty, but still very smart. Read my full take on the series premiere of Veep after the jump.

Delivering one of the best political satire comedies I’ve seen in years, In the Loop writer and director Armando Iannucci just had his new comedy series Veep picked up by HBO. Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the series follows former Senator Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus), who becomes Vice President, only to discover the job is nothing like she expected, but everything she was warned about. The cast also includes In the Loop star Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale (Arrested Development) Matt Walsh (Outsourced) and more.

Iannucci says, “I’m thrilled more than anyone is legally entitled to be. HBO is the dream network to make television for, and I’m excited to be working with such a superb and funny cast headed by the uber-superb-and-funny Julia Louis-Dreyfus. If making season one of Veep is as much fun as making the pilot, then I can die chuckling. Plus, we get to say rude words.” Since In the Loop was filled with great comedy and colorful language, this sounds great to me. Hit the jump for the full press release with more details.

As HBO works on the upcoming fourth season of their hit vampire series True Blood, one recurring cast member just got promoted to series regular while three more ladies have also joined the cast. Deadline reports Jessica Tuck (who plays Nan Flannigan) will now be a series regular on the HBO drama along with Janina Gavankar who will play Luna, a super-sexy public school teacher and shapeshifter who is first seen attending an informal gathering with others like her. Someone should start a pool to figure out how long into her debut we’ll see her naked. In addition, Alexandra Brecekenridge (Dirt) and Vedette Lim (As the World Turns) have joined the series as recurring characters. Brecekenridge will play Daisy, a member of a wiccan group founded by Marnie (who we found out will be played by Fiona Shaw) while Lim will play Naomi, a fierce fighter who participates in underground cage matches for money. Production on the fourth season is slated to begin next week.

Hit the jump to hear about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ new series Veep on HBO, and casting for Locke & Key.

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.

Early in the 1990 horror film Troll 2, Michael Waits (played by Dr. George Hardy) now famously yells at his 10-year-old son Joshua (Michael Paul Stephenson), “You can’t piss on hospitality!”  20 years later, its stars have taken that lesson to heart.  Adoring fans around the world have turned the once obscure, overwhelmingly flawed flick (witness a 0% score on rottentomatoes) into that rare gem of an actual cult classic.

Stephenson & Hardy have embraced the affection to reclaim their initially dark experience with a love letter of a documentary: Best Worst Movie.  The film chronicles the making of Troll 2, its odd resurrection, the fans that made it happen and the cast members’ search for a little artistic redemption.

Collider chatted up Stephenson (BWM’s director) & Dr. Hardy (its main subject) for a funny back-and-forth this week. Hit the jump for the interview’s full audio and transcript, along with stories of whether Troll 2 actually works in other languages, what links Quentin Tarantino to the story and a budding rivalry with The Room‘s director Tommy Wiseau.