Awards Watch: ALMA Awards

The nominations for the 2008 ALMA Awards, recognizing "the outstanding artistic achievements of Latinos in motion pictures, television and music", have been announced.

Special achievement awards will be given to the cast of Ugly Betty, High School Musical 2 director Kenny Ortega and the Spanish language film Under the Same Moon. Other television nominees include Desperate Housewives' Ricardo Chavira, Lost's Jorge Garcia and Grey’s Anatomy's Sara Ramirez, while movie nominations went to Bella, El Cantante, Illegal Tender, Love in the Time of Cholera and Tortilla Heaven.

The 2008 Alma Awards, hosted by Eva Longoria Parker and Cristian De La Fuente, will be broadcast September 12 on ABC.

Ready for Their Close-Up

Lachey assays Sharpays.
The High School Musical juggernaut continues. Following two hit Disney Channel movies, a concert tour, a legitimate stage production, theme park attractions, a documentary and even an ice show, it's only natural that the next step would be an American Idol-ized talent-slash-reality show. Right?

Titled High School Musical: Get in the Picture and hosted by former boy bander-slash-Newlywed Nick Lachey, the series will follow a group of hopeful Zac Efrons and Vanessa Hudgenses as they compete for the big prize: a chance to star in a music video for the franchise's feature film threequel, High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Yeah, that doesn't sound like much, so Disney recently sweetened the deal to include a couple singles and a possible network gig.

HSM: GITP starts tomorrow night on ABC with the first of a two-part premiere, to conclude on Monday. Here's a sneak peek.

Awards Watch: Emmy Nominations 2008

The 2008 Emmy Award nominations were announced today, which means: time to start complaining. Seriously, Two and a Half Men, one of the least original "comedies" on TV today, instead of the brilliantly creative Pushing Daisies, the revitalized Desperate Housewives and the one and only Ugly Betty? Boston Legal, again? At least Lost returned to the Best Drama line-up.

Nevertheless, some of our favorites did make the cut, including Daisies' Lee Pace and Kristin Chenoweth, Betty's America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams, Housewives' Polly Bergen and Kathryn Joosten, Brothers & Sisters' Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths, Lost's Michael Emerson and Grey's Anatomy's Diahann Carroll, Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson.

Also among the nominees include out actors Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon, plus the TV movies Bernard and Doris (along with stars Ralph Fiennes and Susan Sarandon), A Raisin in the Sun (and its stars Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald, who both won Tonys for the Broadway production) and High School Musical 2 and the specials Movies Rock, Company, AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition and the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

The Emmys will be presented live on ABC on Sunday September 21.

HSM 3: Senior Cheer

Tweens (and those of us who think like them) rejoice: the official trailer for High School Musical 3: Senior Year is now available online.

Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale and all the HSM gang are back, in what looks to be a decidedly big budget affair. In addition to the expected scenes at the prom, graduation and the "big game", there also appears to be a Footloose-style dance off in a junk yard between Zac and Corbin Bleu, plus the promise of ten new original songs.

HSM3 opens in theaters October 24.

Poster Post: Grad Tidings

First look at High School Musical 3: Senior Year ... although it is pretty much what you would expect considering the ads for the first two movies.

What is most interesting is that, according to MTV.com, filming has yet to start on the Disney franchise's first theatrical outing ... and yet it is scheduled to open this October 24.