Emmy Awards

The 2019 Emmys are in full swing -- and there is quite a variety of famous faces to soak in from behind the scenes ... a testament to where entertainment's headed, perhaps?

There was a very mixed bag of stars on hand Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in L.A. to smile for the camera, congratulate one another and if they were lucky enough ... give an acceptance speech. Just a handful of the celebs who were there Kim K and Kendall Jenner, Anthony Anderson and Regina King, Alfie Allen, Kerry Washington, Taraji Henson, Bill Hader, Jane Lynch, Michelle Williams, Amy Adams, Olivia Colman, Don Cheadle, Patricia Arquette, and others.

It's interesting ... it feels like TV has sorta overtaken the star power and glam of movies, with a bunch of A-list actors having migrated over lately. Watching the Emmys is almost like watching the Oscars these days -- and, apparently, it carries just as much weight.

That much is clear by how happy some of these fine people look to be walking away with a statuette. As we've said before ... the time a changin'.

Colin Kaepernick got a W on Sunday -- and he's got the Emmy to prove it!!

The Nike "Dream Crazy" commercial featuring the NFL quarterback had been nominated for a 2019 Creative Arts Emmy for Best Commercial ... facing stiff competition from ads for Netflix and Apple.

But, Colin's spot emerged victorious ... and we're told Colin and The Swoosh are PUMPED. Our sources tell us Kap is especially proud because he was involved in the creative process.

As we previously reported,  the ad was produced by the Wieden+Kennedy agency -- a Portland-based company located near Nike's headquarters. They famously produced the Terry Crews Old Spice commercials and Bud Lite's "Dilly Dilly."

The spot dropped back in September and featured Kap telling inspirational messages about overcoming the odds ... while using other huge athletes to make his point.

"Don't picture yourself wearing [Odell Beckham's] jersey. Picture OBJ wearing yours," Kap said.

He also referenced Shaquem Griffin, LeBron James and Serena Williams ...

"And, if you’re a girl from Compton, don’t just become a tennis player. Become the greatest athlete ever. Yeah, that’s more like it."

Nike caught some flack for the ad because people took issue with Colin's line, "Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything."

Critics felt Colin didn't really "sacrifice everything" since he still has millions in the bank -- while military members who died in action really did sacrifice everything fighting for the country.

Gypsy Rose is reacting to Joey King's Emmy nomination for her portrayal in "The Act" ... and it doesn't exactly scream let's be BFFs.

Fancy Macelli, a Gypsy Rose family spokesperson, tells TMZ ... Gypsy sincerely congratulates Joey for nailing the role and mastering her look, voice and mannerisms. That being said ... Gypsy has ZERO interest in meeting Joey following the Emmy nom because Gypsy is adamant the story line in Hulu's limited series is inaccurate ... and by meeting with her, it would validate the series' narrative.

What's more ... Gypsy, who was forced to pretend to be disabled for years and wanted to escape her mother's medical abuse, wants to put this ugly episode behind her. Gypsy says she has nothing to gain by meeting with Joey.

As for some of the inaccuracies in "The Act" ... Gypsy claims the repeated sex scenes in the series is not a true depiction of her sex life and it was dramatized to make her seem like a nymphomaniac.

Gypsy also takes issue with how often the series shows Gypsy's mom, Dee Dee, tying her up in bed and holding her hostage. She says it only happened once ... after she tried to escape.

As you might know by now ... Gypsy's then-BF, Nick Godejohn, admitted to murdering Dee Dee in 2015 to help Gypsy escape from Dee Dee's claws. He's currently serving a life sentence while Gypsy is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

After Joey found out about her Emmy nom, she bawled like a baby and called the nomination an honor. She later told an outlet there's so many things she'd like to tell Gypsy ... adding she hopes Gypsy knows she respects her story, "and that all I wanted to do was to right by her. And I hope she can see and understand that."

Alex Trebek is in the battle of his life, but he clearly hasn't lost his sense of humor, because he stole the show Sunday night at the Daytime Emmys.

Alex won Best Game Show Host, this in the wake of his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. When the crowd stopped roaring, he kind of went in on them, grousing he's not a big fan of sympathy votes.

But then ... the best game show host in the biz did an about-face, noting just a year before he was in another life-or-death health battle and he was overlooked when the Emmy folks doled out the hardware.

In the end, Alex pulled a Sally Field and said he appreciated the gesture.

We love this dude.

Katt Williams' handlers wanted him to get some shine at the Emmys so badly, they kept him in the dark about a scheduled court date -- a decision that blew up in Katt's face with his weekend arrest.

Sources close to the comedian tell TMZ ... Williams' management team didn't tell him he was due in an Atlanta courtroom at the same time he was flying to L.A. last month to attend the Emmys. Yes, Katt was nominated for his role on the hit show "Atlanta," and he ended up winning.

However, we're told Katt's making it clear he would've picked going to court over the award show if anyone on his team had bothered to let him know what was at stake. When Katt no-showed for court, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

Our sources say Katt never even knew about the warrant until he got busted in Oregon for allegedly assaulting his driver. He remains in a Portland jail, and no decision's been made yet on extradition.

Bottom line -- Katt feels like he's paying the price for his team choosing lady Emmy over Lady Justice.

Katt Williams had some explaining to do about Tiffany Haddish and a gun that was supposedly pulled on him and, while he finally cleared the air ... it wasn't without difficulty.

We got the comedian Monday night strolling the streets of L.A. after the Emmys -- with his own in hand -- and asked him to elaborate on Atlanta radio host Wanda Smith's husband allegedly pointing a gun at his face and chasing him to a supermarket across the street.

Katt plays more than coy here ... he's just downright speaking in riddles with us. But, he does make one thing clear -- the sitch would've been far more dire if a gun was involved.

Our camera guy also asks about the apparent hatchet burying that happened when he saw Tiffany at the award show. She posted photos of him kneeling before her in what looked like pure contrition.

We got Tiffany at LAX Tuesday morning who echoed Katt's stance here ... no beef to see here. In fact, she's even open to working with the comedian in the future.

Katt does apologize though, saying he's sorry for bringing her up in a disparaging way ... and giving a shout-out to another comedian who apparently set him straight.

Donald Glover's creepy mansion dwelling, Michael Jackson-esque, character from his hit show, "Atlanta," made a surprise appearance at the 2018 Emmys -- except Donald wasn't behind the makeup.

DG and the rest of the "Atlanta" stars were in attendance Monday night, but so was Teddy Perkins ... who nearly killed Lakeith Stanfield's character in season 2. On the show, Donald played the role of Teddy, but at the Emmys ... this group shot sparked a mystery -- WHO'S WEARING THE MAKEUP???

Everyone assumed it was Donald until the photo made it clear that wasn't the case. Tuesday morning, comedian Jay Pharoah started taking credit for the appearance -- which would make sense, since his 'SNL' buddies wrote and hosted the Emmys.

If you haven't seen the show yet, here's an example of just how damn freaky Teddy Perkins really was during his brief stint in "Atlanta." Spoiler alert ... RIP, Teddy.

"Atlanta" had a pretty solid night with 16 nominations and 3 wins ... including Katt Williams' for his role on the series.

Katt Williams didn't want any real smoke with Tiffany Haddish after dissing her badly on a radio show last week ... 'cause he was kneeling for the comedy queen at the Emmys.

Tiffany posted a series of photos Monday at the award show which show Katt taking a knee before her in deference ... and then the two of them posing together happily.

It appears the two comedians are good now after Katt questioned Tiffany's comedy chops this past Friday. You'll recall ... he said Tiffany hadn't proven herself as a touring comedian ... and insinuated that she only blew up after saying she wanted to sleep with Brad Pitt. Harsh stuff, but that all seems to be water under a bridge now.

Tiffany said she couldn't wait to see Katt at the Emmys, where they each picked up their respective awards. In a tweet, she elaborated by saying she just "to shower (him) with REAL Love cause you need it, and I Love you."

This is one helluva first -- the guy who won an Emmy for directing the Oscars asked his girlfriend to marry him onstage while accepting his award ... and she happily said yes.

Glenn Weiss -- who won Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special for the 2018 Oscars -- popped the question Monday night toward the tail end of his acceptance speech ... telling his significant other, Jan, that if she wondered why he didn't like calling her his GF, it was because he wanted to call her his wife. AWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

The entire crowd got to their feet as Jen made her way to the stage, where Glenn put the ring his own father used for his mother on the lucky lady's finger. He asked the question, and she eventually nodded yes while fighting back tears.

It was quite a moment, to say the least. Talk about a good proposal story, huh?

The 2018 Emmys kicked off with an overly long and overly topical monologue from hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che that tried hard to be funny ... but ended up being cringeworthy.

The 'SNL' vets came out standing shoulder-to-shoulder Monday night and threw zinger after zinger after zinger at the board -- most of which were so on the nose and didn't really stick.

Some of the worst attempts at humor came in jokes about the #MeToo movement, with Che saying it was great being there with everyone who hadn't been caught yet. Jost also quipped that Roseanne Barr had canceled herself, but got picked up by white nationalists.

Another eyebrow-raising line from Che ... 'The Handmaid's Tale' is like the white women's version of 'Roots' ... since the characters are forced to have babies and work against their will.

They also took shots at Trump by saying they hoped the Obamas' Netflix production deal would churn out a new 'Apprentice' that got huge ratings ... something DT would clearly hate.

Forget Dior and Chanel ... "Black-ish" star Jenifer Lewis was all about NIKE at the Emmys -- rocking a Swoosh sweatshirt to support Colin Kaepernick.

"I am wearing Nike to applaud them for supporting Colin Kaepernick and his protest against racial injustice and police brutality," the actress told Variety.

Lewis says she was swimming the other day when she started brainstorming fashion ideas that would be "meaningful" on the red carpet ... and that's when Nike came to mind.

"I'll wear Nike to say 'thank you' ... thank you for leading the resistance. We need more of corporate America to stand up also."

She added, "Thank you, Colin. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for being brave. Thank you for taking a knee. Thank you."

Nike signed Colin to a new deal recently -- and will be dropping everything from a new custom shoe to a Kaepernick-themed apparel line.

Les Moonves was at the helm of 18 TV programs that have been nominated for Emmys, but he's not going to the big shindig Monday night ... because CBS didn't invite him.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ, CBS made a decision not to extend the invitation in the wake of the sexual misconduct scandal. Each network gets a certain number of tickets it can distribute as it wishes, and Les will not be a beneficiary.

A network source calls it a "non-issue" because Moonves has not attended the Emmys in several years.

One source says it's complicated because Moonves was not technically fired, although he was clearly forced to step down after a dozen women accused him of sexual misdeeds. Nevertheless, it's the network's decision who gets tickets ... so, case closed.

As for some of the shows nominated under Moonves' watch ...

-- "The Amazing Race"

-- "The Big Bang Theory"

-- "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

-- "The Late Late Show with James Corden"

-- "Bruno Mars: Live 24K Magic at the Apollo"

Anthony Bourdain and his hit show, 'Parts Unknown,' will be in the spotlight at the Emmy Awards, because he's up for 2 statuettes and the show got 7 nominations.

Bourdain got the nod for Outstanding Informational Series or Special as an executive producer. His show has swept that category for the last 4 years. He's also up for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program ... for his episode on Southern Italy.

Bourdain had been filming an episode of 'Parts Unknown' in France when he died of a suicide on June 8.

The show's other nominations are for Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series (for the show's website), Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction Program, and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program.

Step aside, Julia Roberts ... Louie Anderson is the new pretty woman and he LOVES it.

We got Louie at LAX and asked if he's at all concerned about how he looks playing a woman in "Baskets." The role earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor, and Louie digs it ... telling us, he's absolutely way more attractive as a woman than as a man.

Louie's Emmy win was pretty groundbreaking. It was the first time a male actor has ever won for playing a female character.

Ya come a long way, Louie!

Sean Spicer's riding high off his surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards, and while it got him plenty of applause in the room ... it did NOT get him a sit-down with Melissa McCarthy.

Sean seemed pretty damn happy Monday night as he arrived back in Washington, DC ... and talked about keeping his cameo under wraps -- as well as his simmering beef with Melissa.

It's not fully heated beef between Spicey and McCarthy, but he's definitely been critical of her 'SNL' portrayal. So, with his moment in the Hollywood sun ... you'd think the duo could have seized the opportunity to meet. Maybe even at the podium.

Sean's take seems to be -- it'll happen, but he ain't rushing it.

Michael K. Williams says if Sean Spicer's ready to turn the page on the Trump chapter of his life -- as his Emmys skit seemed to indicate -- then why shouldn't Hollywood welcome him with open arms?

We got the Emmy nominated 'Night Of' star Monday, and he sounded impressed with Spicer's bit on the award show. While some celebs have groused at the idea of "laughing with" an ex-face of the Trump administration -- Michael's way more forgiving.

He explained why Spicey deserves another shot, and as fans of "The Wire" know ... it's hard to argue with Omar.

Hell, even Alec Baldwin extended an olive branch Sunday night -- so, maybe Spicer could have a future in Hollywood after all? As MKW put it ... never say never.