Jack Bauer In Jail?

Actor Kiefer Sutherland faces possible jail time after being arrested for the second time on charges of driving while under the influence.

Sutherland was arrested early Tuesday morning after being spotted making an illegal U-turn by police. After failing a Breathalyzer test, Kiefer was arrested and booked. He posted bond at $25,000 and is scheduled to appear in court on October 16th.

Since Sutherland is already on probation from a first offence in 2004, he not only faces charges associated with the DUI, but charges of violating his probation. Under California law, the punishment for violating probation is a mandatory five days in jail.

Where's Chloe O'Brian when you need her?!

Surprise Winners/Goofy Show Mar This Year's Emmys

It started out nicely enough, but this year’s Emmys quickly turned into a train wreck...both in onstage antics and in some of the inexplicable choices voters made in some of the night’s biggest awards.

Although viewers didn’t know it at the time, the highlight of the evening proved to be the opening number, performed by the animated characters of Stewie and Brian from FOX’s Family Guy. But things went quickly downhill after that.

For the first time, the Emmys were presented “in the round,” meaning half of the stars in attendance had everybody on stage facing away from them throughout the entire evening. Winner James Spader even commented on the poorly designed set-up, saying “I’ve been to thousands and thousands of concerts in my life, and I can tell you, these are the worst seats I’ve ever had!”

Speaking of Spader, just what were Emmy voters thinking when they gave the Best Actor in a Drama nod to him, instead of James Gandolfini...or Hugh Laurie...or even Denis Leary? As stunned as anyone that he won, Spader’s first comments upon reaching the stage were “I feel like I just stole a pile of money from the mob!”

Also leaving viewers scratching their heads was FOX’s handling of several instances of profanity by those in attendance, choosing to cut away to a still of the room’s ceiling as opposed to just cutting the audio (which they did) or just inserting a bleep over the offending footage. The cut-away occurred three times during the program – first when presenter Ray Romano used an off-color word in a joke about his former television wife, Patricia Heaton; followed by Grey’s Anatomy winner Katherine Heigl uttering a word (which the censors weren’t fast enough to stop audiences from seeing her mouth – although it could not be heard); and finally when Sally Field took the Lord’s name in vein during her anti-war acceptance speech as Best Actress in a Drama.

If there was any area in which the Emmys did get it right, it was in the final two awards, as Best Comedy went to NBC’s 30 Rock, while HBO’s The Sopranos was named Best Drama.

Oh, and Tony Shalhoub finally left an Emmys ceremony empty-handed. I guess we can be thankful for that!

Jon Stewart Returns To The Oscars

The New York Times reported yesterday that Daily Show comedian Jon Stewart has been selected to host the 80th Annual Academy Awards on February 24th, 2008.

Stewart has hosted once before, back in 2006, to mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike. While Stewart's last Oscar gig resulted in some of the lowest ratings the ceremony has ever had, one presumes he was called back to duty in 2008 given the fact that it's a Presidential election year.

An official announcement is expected sometime today.

Curtain Call

Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, perhaps the greatest opera singer of our time – if not all time – has passed away at the age of 71.

Pavarotti died from complications of pancreatic cancer, from which he had been battling for quite some time. The owner of one of the most extraordinary voices ever heard, Pavarotti rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s, giving mainstream attention and admiration to a form of theater that previously was reserved for an elitist niche.

Pavarotti’s final public performances took place during a farewell tour in 2006...a tour he had to cancel to get surgery for his declining health. Pavarotti expected to resume his tour at some point this year...sadly, we’ll never get to see that happen.