You know when television's premiere awards show has to resort to bringing out Kanye West, who was completely irrelevant to the proceedings, you know the show's producers are feeling like the ceremony has gotten kind of boring and out of touch over the last few years. But it's not the actual show that makes the awards a joke, it's the nominees and the eventual winners.

When The Wire's not even nominated, Jaime Pressly wins a best supporting actress award over the brilliant Vanessa Williams or Jenna Fischer from The Office and James Spader from Boston Legal wins best actor over, well, anyone (but particularly James Gandolfini), I have a hard time respecting the importance and meaning of an Emmy statue. Nevertheless, congrats to the winners — especially 30 Rock — whether they deserved their awards or not. More pics and a list of winners after the jump.

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The Emmy nominations are out, and to quote Isaiah Washington quoting the movie Network, "I'M MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

I'm mad as hell because the best show on television didn't get nominated for a single award. Not a writing award. Not a directing award. Certainly not an acting award or what it mainly deserves, which is Best Drama Series. And it's not just me pouting over my favorite show being ignored. Television critics who know far more about these things than I do routinely tout it as the best show television has seen in years. Maybe ever. And the one thing that sets it apart from the shows in the best drama category — Grey's Anatomy, House, Boston Legal, Heroes, and The Sopranos — is that the cast is almost entirely black, the show is set in poverty-stricken inner city Baltimore, and the writers and producers don't pull any punches or coddle the audience. Yeah, I'm talking about The Wire, and I shouldn't be surprised that its being ignored in its fourth season. It was ignored in the previous three. Not that I had a lot of respect for this particular award show in the past, but now I'm completely done. Done!

I will swallow my bitterness for a moment to congratulate Grey's Chandra Wilson, Ugly Betty's Vanessa Williams, and Life Support's Queen Latifah for their acting noms. Return of the bitterness: they probably won't win.

[EW]

You might not know who the guy in this picture is now, but you probably will soon. Elijah Kelley stars as Seaweed in the new film adaptation of the Broadway musical adaptation of the 1988 film Hairspray, about dancing, obesity, and segregation in 1960s Baltimore. Whew. According to critics, Kelley gives a standout performance. Check out more pics from yesterday's LA premiere, including a couple of Queen Latifah in an ill-advised platinum blond wig, after the jump.

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Oh, Queen Latifah. Doesn't she know she can't keep secrets from the paparazzi? She attended Missy Elliott's less-than-star-studded 36th birthday bash in the Hamptons Saturday but refused to let the photogs snap any pictures of either her or her lady friend. Well, it looks like they captured at least one fuzzy shot as proof she attended the event with her date, friend — whatever. Check out some party pics taken under less covert circumstances after the jump.

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I think a re-release of this song with the remixed lyrics, "Who you callin' a nappy-headed ho," would be a great theme song for the Rutger's Women's Basketball team.

This 1993 Queen Latifah song is ever so relevant to the current hip hop debate but would be a highly unlikely hit if it were released today. Plus, with the current crop of female rappers, who would perform it? Remy Ma? I think not.

I'm shocked and amazed at the lack of major fashion don'ts last night, considering the crowd. Even Lil' Kim, while I wouldn't have chosen that outfit/makeup/hair necessarily, could have done much, much worse. I'm not saying there weren't some questionable wardrobe and hair choices — I'm talking to Keyshia Cole and Vivica Fox specifically, here — but in general things were looking pretty good. More red carpet pics than you can handle after the jump.

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Star Magazine recently released their Best & Worst Celebrity Beach Bods issue, and among the normal categories — Best Tattooed, Best Bikini, Best Plus-Sized (go Queen Latifah) — one stood out. That would be "Best Booty-Shakin.'" I'm not even sure what they mean by that, but of course they honored Rihanna with the title. What else would a young, black pop star be good for on the beach?

[Starpulse]

The girl power version of "I Wanna Be Down" came out way back in 1994. Those were simpler times for Brandy. I would guess they were simpler times for most of us. But, you know, especially Brandy. This was back when the remix was king, girls had an unhealthy relationship with both synthetic braids and over-sized hats, and a little soft lighting from Hype Williams made the most hardened of female rappers look like they were shooting a CoverGirl ad. This was before MC Lyte and Yo Yo had faded into obscurity and acting made Queen Latifah more famous than rapping ever could. Before Brandy's fatal car accident had her embroiled in three multi-million dollar lawsuits and got her fired from her cushy reality show hosting gig. And please notice an adolescent Ray J before he showed the world how much he wanted to be down with Kim Kardashian.

1994. Simpler times.