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.

Tonight was the 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards and the winner’s list included some great names.  Perhaps the best win of the night was Peter Dinklage picking up Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Game of Thrones.  Not far behind was Kyle Chandler finally picking up an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series for the final season of Friday Night Lights (the show also picked up an Emmy for Best Writing in a Drama Series).  Martin Scorsese picked up an award for his direction of Boardwalk Empire‘s pilot episode, and ubiquitous character actor Margo Martindale won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Mags Bennett on FX’s Justified.

The top awards for Best Drama, Best Comedy, and Best Variety, Music or Comedy Series went to last year’s winners Mad Men, Modern Family, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, respectively.  Best Miniseries or TV Movie was awarded to  PBS’ Downtown Abbey while CBS’ The Amazing Race picked up another Emmy for Best Reality-Competition Program.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

We’ve got a few casting stories for you tonight. First up, Jamie Chung has joined Rob Lowe in the dark political flick Knife Fight, with Julie Bowen, Connie Britton, Jennifer Morrison, Rebecca Mader and Titus Welliver all in talks to join the cast. And yes, that’s three actors from Lost in one movie (Bowen, Mader and Welliver). Lowe plays a political crisis specialist who plays hard and tough in dealing with various October campaign surprises.

Variety reports that Chung will play his assistant, Bowen plays an ambitious TV reporter sleeping with Lowe’s character for scoops, Britton plays an earthy liberal eyeing a run for public office, Welliver plays a private investigator working for Lowe, Mader plays a masseuse/prostitute with a penchant for blackmail and Morrison plays one of her classmates. Bill Guttentag is directing, with production set to start next month with an eye towards an October 2012 release date, just in time for election season. Hit the jump for news on the casting of Joey King as China Girl in Sam Raimi’s Oz, The Great and Powerful and Katrina Bowden in American Reunion.

The trailer for Horrible Bosses has gone online.  Directed by Seth Gordon (Four Christmases) the movie centers on three hapless employees (played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) who conspire to kill each other’s horrible bosses (played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Aniston).  While I’m eager to see what a red-band trailer might hold, there are plenty of good jokes in this green-band trailer.  As usual, Bateman is terrific (his dry delivery at the end of the trailer is golden), but there doesn’t seem to be a weak link in the cast.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer as well as the teaser poster.  The film also stars Jamie Foxx, Donald Sutherland, and Julie Bowen.  Horrible Bosses opens July 8th.

Sitcom television has evolved quickly over the last decade. Yes, there’s still shows like Two and a Half Men, but the single camera, actually-filmed or faux-documentary style has freed half hour comedies from the set-based, laugh-tracked trappings of earlier generations (even M*A*S*H had a laugh track). Modern Family borrows much from The Office’s faux-documentary conceit, but as a portrait of a family (headed up by Ed O’Neil and his step-wife Sofia Vergara), the show is modern in its approach to what constitutes a family and familiar in how it makes its jokes. It’s multi-ethnic, with a homosexual son (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his partner (Eric Stonestreet), but then also with a Simpsons-inspired regular family (headed up by Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell). My review of Modern Family on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

After raising Old Spice’s sales exponentially following his Emmy-nominated spots, Old Spice spokesperson Isaiah Mustafa is taking his manly musk to the silver screen. In an interview with THR, the former NFL wide receiver turned actor announced that he has been cast in the Warner Brothers comedy Horrible Bosses. In regards to the role, Mustafa says:

“It’s a smaller role, but who wouldn’t want to be in one of these funny, irreverent comedies? The cast is great. I’m playing a cop because I play these authoritative characters well. I don’t know exactly who I’m in the scene with — maybe Jennifer Aniston!”

While this is great news for Mustafa and his career, I must admit this may cause some annoyance on my behalf as people already confuse me for the guy and his being in a mainstream comedy probably isn’t going to help matters (Note: this is a complete lie). For more info on the film, Mustafa’s future projects, and to see him in action, hit the jump.

Following a somewhat unexpected (though not undeserved) Emmy nomination for her work in the ABC sitcom Modern Family, Julie Bowen has landed a pair of roles on a larger screen.  The actress has joined the ever-growing cast of Horrible Bosses, which features Jenifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Colin Farrell as the titular employers alongside Jason Bateman, Jamie Foxx, and Jason Sudeikis.  Bowen will play Spacey’s wife in the film, directed by Seth Gordon (Four Christmases), who directed an episode of Modern Family this season.  The script from television writer Jonathan M. Goldstein (The New Adventures of Old Christine) and television actor John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks!) centers on “three friends who decide to murder their overbearing bosses with disastrous results.”

Hit the jump for details on her role in the wedding comedy Jumping the Broom.