by Examiner:

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films has announced its official nominations for the 36th Annual Saturn Awards. Among the stellar lineup of selections of 2009’s best films and televisions series, the acclaimed HBO vampire series by Alan Ball, True Blood, managed to snag three mentions. Going up against Breaking Bad, Battlestar Galactica, The Closer, Dexter and Leverage, True Blood will compete as a complete show in the “Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series” category.

In the “Best Actor on Television” and “Best Actress on Television” categories, Stephen Moyer and his lovely co-star/fiance Anna Paquin both received nominations. Stephen Moyer will be going up against Josh Holloway (Lost), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Matthew Fox (Lost), Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Zachary Levi (Chuck) while Paquin’s competition consists of Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), Jennifer Love Hewitt (The Ghost Whisperer), Evangeline Lily (Lost), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) and Anna Torv (Fringe).

Alexander Skarsgard, who plays the devilshly handsome vampire sheriff Eric Northman on True Blood, has also picked up a nomination in the “Best Supporting Actor on Television” along with actors Jeremy Davies (Lost), Michael Emerson (Lost), Aldis Hodge (Leverage), John Noble (Fringe) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad). Also included from the stellar cast of True Blood is Michelle Forbes for her role as the crazed maynaed Maryann. She will competing against the formidable talents of actors Bernard Cribbins (Doctor Who: The End of Time), Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad), John Lithgow (Dexter), Leonard Nimoy (Fringe) and Mark Pellegrino (Lost) for the category of “Best Guest Starring Role on Television”.

The Academy was founded in 1972 by noted film historian Dr. Donald A. Reed to honor and recognize genre entertainment in the science fiction, fantasy and horror realms. The organization also recognizes excellence in television and home entertainment within the specified genres. The 36th Annual Saturn Awards will be presented on June 24 in Burbank, California. For more information and a complete list of nominees click here.

As we know, Anna is going to present at Screen Actors Awards. But this year only True Blood ensemble got a nomination of ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series‘, along with The Good Wife, Mad Men, Dexter, The Closer.

Source: SAG Awards official site

by Gregg Kilday

George Clooney, Alec Baldwin, Jane Lynch, Michelle Monaghan, Chris O’Donnell, Anna Paquin, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci will be presenters at the 16th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 23rd.
They join previously announced presenter Sandra Bullock, who will present SAG’s Life Achievement Award to Betty White.

The SAG Awards will be simulcast on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles.

by People.com

It’s true love for True Blood couple Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. The two are engaged to be married, reps for both actors on the HBO vampire series confirm to PEOPLE exclusively.

No further details were available.

Paquin, who plays telepathic Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood, is originally from New Zealand and won a 1994 Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the precocious child in The Piano.

Moyer, from Essex, England, plays bloodsucking Bill Compton on the series. He also has two children from previous relationships: a son, Billy, born in 2000, and a daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.

Last month, Paquin, 27, said of her nude love scenes with Moyer, 39: “Obviously, if you’re already with that person then you’re not having to sort of get over the ‘Wow, I’m naked with someone that I don’t even know the middle name of!’”

For his part, Moyer has said of his lady love, “My girl is hardcore.”

The film took three months to film and has run aground in the editing room — for three years.

by John Horn

“You Can Count on Me” was the kind of Hollywood arrival that every aspiring filmmaker dreams about.

Kenneth Lonergan’s 2000 directorial debut about two siblings’ splintered relationship was a solid art-house hit, the film helped launch the career of costar Mark Ruffalo and was nominated for two Academy Awards — lead actress for Laura Linney and original screenplay for Lonergan.

It was hardly surprising, then, that in early 2005 Fox Searchlight and financier Gary Gilbert (“Garden State”) were eager to back Lonergan’s second turn behind the camera, deciding to co-finance his complex account of a young girl’s grappling with guilt and adolescence, “Margaret.”

But although “You Can Count on Me” seemed blessed at almost every turn, “Margaret” has turned into a nightmarish production that has devolved into a bitter court fight. Despite “Margaret’s” initial promise, it is now uncertain when Lonergan’s movie, which was filmed more than three years ago, will ever make it to theaters.

Movie studio shelves are filled with troubled projects that have been put on hold for any number of reasons, but rarely do they involve someone of Lonergan’s standing working with such quality actors (“Margaret’s” cast includes Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Anna Paquin) and an all-star producing team of Oscar winners — Scott Rudin ( “No Country for Old Men”) and the late Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa”).

More unusual still is why, according to one of the film’s two lawsuits, “Margaret” hasn’t come out: Lonergan can’t finish the film.

Because of the litigation and a confidentiality agreement among the lawyers, all of the principals central to the film declined to be interviewed for this story. But conversations with a dozen people close to or familiar with the production, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an endless post-production cycle that left Lonergan and Gilbert clashing and Fox Searchlight sitting on what might be an unreleasable movie.

… read more »