Newcomers are certainly welcome as potential winners of the Primetime Emmy Awards for Lead Actress, but at the 56th ceremony held on September 19, 2004 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the award winners (and most of their competitors ) turned out to be Hollywood. royalty of various kinds.
Greetings to Gotham City
In the lead comedy actress category, Sarah Jessica Parker earned her first Emmy for her role as Carrie Bradshaw in the final season of HBO's “Sex and the City,” having been nominated five times previously in the category (she won an Emmy in 2001). as executive producer of the series). She had faced several comedy legends: Jennifer Aniston (“Friends,” NBC), who won the category in 2002; Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS), which she won in 2000 and 2001; first-time nominee Bonnie Hunt (“Life With Bonnie,” ABC); and Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle,” Fox), who earned seven nominations in the category for her role but zero Emmy wins.
When Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen presented her with her Emmy, Parker kissed her husband Matthew Broderick (who won an Emmy in 1994) and took the stage. She thanked the usual suspects, including her lawyer and her publicist, and added a special shout-out to the “passersby” of New York City, who always wanted the best for me.
Parker’s “Sex” co-star, Cynthia Nixon, also won that night for supporting actress in a comedy, her first Emmy.
A totally inclusive victory
It was hard to be too surprised when Allison Janney won her fourth Emmy for her portrayal of CJ Cregg on NBC's “The West Wing”; She also won in 2000 and 2001 (as supporting actress) and then in 2002 as lead. Her current total is seven Emmy Awards, including two for “Mom” (CBS) in 2014 and 2015, plus a guest actress award for “Masters of Sex” (Showtime) in 2014.
Janney was up against other drama titans Edie Falco (“The Sopranos,” HBO), who had won in this category in 1999, 2001 and 2003 and won again for “Nurse Jackie” (Showtime) in 2010; Jennifer Garner (“Alias,” ABC), eventually nominated four times for the role but never won; Mariska Hargitay (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” NBC), who won the category in 2006; and Amber Tamblyn (“Joan of Arcadia,” CBS) in her first nomination.
But Janney did something unusual when accepting her award for lead actress in a drama from presenters Victor Garber and Taye Diggs: She invited her fellow nominees to the stage. “Mariska, I know I told you something last night, that I would give you this, and it seems like a really dumb idea right now,” Ella Janney said. “But I would love for you to come and support me because we are wearing such pretty green dresses.” Hargitay stood on the stage to one side, but none of the other nominees accepted Janney's invitation.
Embrace yourself the wonderful
Oscar winners were plentiful in the lead actress in a miniseries or movie category, but Meryl Streep seemed to have the award locked in from the start for her multiple roles in HBO's “Angels in America.” It was her second Emmy; the first was for “Holocaust” (1978, NBC) and she would win a third in 2017 as narrator of “Five Came Back.” Her win helped “Angels” sweep every miniseries acting category (her co-stars Al Pacino, Jeffrey Wright and Mary-Louise Parker also won Emmys). But her co-star Emma Thompson, who was nominated in the same category, ended up without any awards. “[She] He will hold a grudge for the rest of his life,” Streep joked onstage.
In addition to competing with Thompson (who already had an Emmy for her guest appearance on “Ellen” in 1998), Streep was in line with three-time Emmy winner Glenn Close (“The Lion in Winter,” Showtime); three-time Emmy winner Judy Davis (“The Reagans,” Showtime); and four-time Emmy winner Helen Mirren (“Prime Suspect VI: The Last Witness,” PBS).
But Streep surprised and delighted the audience with a playful lack of humility as she delivered her acceptance speech. “There are some days when I myself think I'm overrated,” she told the audience, pausing dramatically. “But not today!” She especially thanked “Angels” creator Tony Kushner, who won an Emmy that night for his screenplay. “The bravest thing in the world is that writer who sits alone in his room and resolves his pain, his anger, his imagination and his deep desire to make people laugh and makes a work of art that then transforms the paper into TRUE. Streep said. “That's all we want, you know? That's all we need”.
