Dish Of Salt: Tuesday TV Round Up (Golden Globe Edition)

Golden “Glee”

I was thrilled this morning to learn that Fox’s “Glee” received four Golden Globe nominations. I thought Jane Lynch was a shoo-in for her role as the deliciously evil cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. In fact, I think they should just hand her the trophy right now. How the Hollywood Foreign Press would handle the rest of the cast and show was what I wasn’t quite sure about here. However, as we have seen over the years, this is a group that loves musicals. I mean, they gave an award to Madonna for her role in “Evita,” right? So then I guess it’s no surprise that “Glee” was nominated for best television Series, Musical or Comedy and both Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison (the shows two Broadway vets) received acting nods.

This morning, Maria Menounous was on set with the “Glee” cast who told us how they were all celebrating. All in unison the glee club members yelled, “By going to rehearsals. That is the celebration!” The show is back in production after a near six-month hiatus. This being a high school show, Maria put them to the test to find out if like in real high school they have developed any typical teen style reputations.

The list went:

Most Tardy? Seems Amber Riley gets this award since everyone was in agreement. Although she did protest, telling Maria, “I’m not the tardy one. I’m the gracious one. I was the last one in the makeup and hair trailer today!”

Class Clown? Cory Monteith seems to be the culprit here, although he pondered, “I thought it would have been Chris [Colfer]”

Most Likely to Succeed? No contest here. Everyone said Jane Lynch.

Heartbreaker? That would be mohawk man Mark Salling. I would agree. I watched him in action one night at a bar in Hollywood before the show was even on the air. He was quite the ladies man then!

Class flirt? Kevin McHale. Oh definitely! He’s always a flirty one in our interviews.

Prankster? Amber herself fessed up to this one. She described one of her best pranks to Maria, “Someone had a love note from Lea Michelle in their trailer with a kiss on it. I made it and she freaked out, ‘Who did this! Whose lips are these!?’”

Lea told Maria when she heard her name called this morning she was shell shocked, “I was really hoping for this for my show and for Jane and Matt, but the fact I heard my name in between Edie Falco and Tina Fey? That’s crazy!” she exclaimed. She also admitted it took a while for it to sink in. “They must have made a mistake. I must have misheard them. I had to rewatch and reread about five or six times before I let anybody in my apartment get excited,” she said.

“Modern” Moment

This morning I fought LA morning rush hour traffic to make my way to the “Modern Family” set where they were celebrating their nomination for best television Series, Musical or Comedy. I hit up the Dunphy family home which, it turns out, is somewhere in a real LA neighborhood. The people who actually own the house they shoot exteriors on must have really understanding neighbors to have all that commotion going on on their street! Julie Bowen, who plays Claire, said she was already awake when she heard the news, “My kid was screaming at 4:15 this morning!” She says everyone in the cast was taking it very calmly and not getting overly amped up about winning, “We don’t want to be too excited because we are so realistic and we are so thrilled for the show… Their are some really strong contenders and we just want to enjoy it. I’ve been a huge fan of some of those other shows. So it’s weird to think of our ourselves in that league. I also had a chance to talk to the three kids who play the Dunphy kids. What a trio. Some very funny moments happened which I’ll post soon.

“Cougar” Courteney

Tony Potts hit up the set of ABC’s “Cougar Town” this morning where Courteney revealed what went on when she got the call about her first Golden Globe nomination for best Actress. “I was sleeping and I was really excited and I woke up David and Coco came into my room and I was like ‘Coco, guess what?’ and I tried to explain it to her.” Her daughter didn’t quite get it. She is only five but she was smart enough to try and get something out it for herself. Courteney laughingly admitted, “Coco wanted to see if she could not have to go to school because of it!”

Simon Says

Always the humble guy, Simon Baker thinks his Best Actor nomination for CBS’s “The Mentalist” is a shared accolade. “I think a lot of this stuff just comes down to the fact that we have a great time when we are making it,” he told our producer MJ this morning. Simon said he was asleep and when he rolled over, he saw some messages on his phone which is not uncommon since his down under friends call him during the middle of the night. He actually had to check his phone to learn that he had been nominated with the likes of Hugh Laurie, Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall and Bill Paxton. “Just to be in that group was an honor,” he mused.

Reality Monday Premieres – A Hit & A Miss

(by guest writer Jeremy Blacklow)

Two new reality series of significance debuted last night – NBC’s “The Sing Off” and E!‘s “The Bank of Hollywood.” NBC’s is very reminiscent of “Clash of the Choirs” from two years ago, right down to its use of Nick Lachey and it’s single-week of stunt programming position on the schedule. The a capella group competition is clearly seeking to capitalize on the popularity of FOX’s “Glee,” just without the wit and inspiration. The panel of judges (Ben Folds?!) is just plain boring and overall the show lacks anything original for its genre. Still, it was enough to gain NBC’s highest ratings on a Monday in over a year – which isn’t saying much considering how “Heroes” has been faring in that time slot most recently.

Across the dial in cable-ville, E! debuted Ryan Seacrest Productions’ latest, “The Bank of Hollywood,” which is my latest guilty pleasure. The format’s simple… people come forward and ask a panel of four judges to give them money for something… anything… ranging from a mom who wants to send her daughter to flight school (Approved!), to a drag queen who needs money for dresses in a plus-sized beauty pageant (Denied!). What makes this show work is the right mix of personalities, including Candy Spelling and Wilhelmina Models president Sean Patterson (meanwhile, the show’s host, Bryan Callen, is its weakest link). While I’d like to learn more about each contestant’s circumstances (one gets the sense that a LOT gets edited out in post-production), the show has heart and its simplicity makes it work. This one will keep me coming back for more!