James Spader

The news keeps getting stranger and stranger for "Community. " The NBC sitcom has bounced back from a near-death experience a year ago and will return for Season 5 next year. The network confirmed late Friday that it will pick up the eccentric comedy for another go-round, on a day when a batch of other shows, including the Matthew Perry vehicle "Go On," learned they were not making the cut. The perennially low-rated "Community" was considered at death's door last year, when show runner Dan Harmon was ushered to the door.

The news keeps getting stranger and stranger for "Community. " The NBC sitcom has bounced back from a near-death experience a year ago and will return for Season 5 next year. The network confirmed late Friday that it will pick up the eccentric comedy for another go-round, on a day when a batch of other shows, including the Matthew Perry vehicle "Go On," learned they were not making the cut. The perennially low-rated "Community" was considered at death's door last year, when show runner Dan Harmon was ushered to the door.

Not everyone can say he's taken on a Mafia don and the president of the U.S. and lived to tell about it. Actor James Spader, known for off-beat movie roles, scored a major upset, beating James Gandolfini ("Sopranos") and Martin Sheen ("The West Wing") to win an Emmy for outstanding actor in a TV drama for his role on "The Practice."

Steven Spielberg's take on Abraham Lincoln is set to arrive in theaters Nov. 16, yet there has been little promotional material out there for the film starring Academy Award winner Daniel Day Lewis. Wednesday, though, DreamWorks released its one-sheet for "Lincoln," and in profile Lewis bears a tremendous similarity to the 16th president. No word yet on when the first trailer will arrive. The film, according to the studio, will center on the president's final months in office as he pursues a course designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery.

If the world were run by Emmy voters. . . a lot of gamblers would lose the shirts off their backs. Sunday night's 59th Prime Time Emmy Awards saw upsets galore in some of the biggest categories. Sure, HBO's "The Sopranos," as expected, pulled out its second Emmy for best drama even after that anticlimactic, fade-to-black series finale (memo to creator David Chase, who onstage at the Shrine Auditorium seemed unsure how long his mob drama was actually on the air: six seasons). But elsewhere? Whoa.

JAMES SPADER took home his second consecutive Emmy for best dramatic actor on Sunday for the role of Alan Shore, a shockingly unscrupulous lawyer on ABC's darkly comic "Boston Legal." But the first thing he did was thank his mother -- twice -- to make up for not having done so last year. "She really hasn't complained at all," Spader said later backstage. "When I got off the stage last year, I called her right away because I realized.

The day before James Spader won an Emmy for his portrayal of Alan Shore, the morally dubious lawyer on "The Practice," the actor was at the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA, admiring the statues -- especially the female forms. "Look at the beautiful curve of her back, right at the base of her spine," he said, noticing a dancer at the top of Robert Graham's "Dance Columns." "It's the most perfect curve in nature." Then Spader felt a breeze and started ambling in the other direction.

To what "buzz" has writer Jack Mathews been listening ("For the Early Line on Oscar: Listen to the Buzz," Dec. 17)? "Driving Miss Daisy" has been named best picture by the National Board of Review, meriting at least consideration for an Oscar nomination. In the acting categories, Cannes Film Festival best actor James Spader of "sex, lies, and videotape" surely has a chance for a nomination. BRIAN BANKS Encino

Hodgepodge may not be the word writer-director John Herzfeld would use to describe his quirky 1996 black comedy, but hodgepodge it is. And that's not all bad. There are too many characters, but some are a lot of fun. The tone shifts, from graphic murder to wig-flipping farce, are too extreme, but much of it works. Danny Aiello (pictured) and James Spader star (Cinemax Wednesday at 10 p.m.).

Actors James Spader and William Shatner, whose roles as eccentric yet oddly endearing lawyers on "The Practice" won each an Emmy earlier this year, were honored again Monday with Golden Globe nominations for spinoff roles in ABC's much lighter "Boston Legal." Spader was nominated for best actor in a dramatic television series for his role as Alan Shore, an unscrupulous attorney who was fired from his firm and moved to Crane, Poole and Schmidt on "Boston Legal."

What would you wish for if you found a rainbow-colored rock that told you to make a wish, then granted every one? Would you go for world peace, a million bucks? Or like the kids in "Shorts," would you wish for a castle and a moat protected by snakes and alligators, not realizing the complications that might crop up? Me, I'd wish that writer-director Robert Rodriguez, who brought us the finely wrought darkness of "Sin City," would set aside the kid stuff and get back to the promise of his earlier work . . . right after world peace and a million bucks.

If the world were run by Emmy voters. . . a lot of gamblers would lose the shirts off their backs. Sunday night's 59th Prime Time Emmy Awards saw upsets galore in some of the biggest categories. Sure, HBO's "The Sopranos," as expected, pulled out its second Emmy for best drama even after that anticlimactic, fade-to-black series finale (memo to creator David Chase, who onstage at the Shrine Auditorium seemed unsure how long his mob drama was actually on the air: six seasons). But elsewhere? Whoa.

JAMES SPADER took home his second consecutive Emmy for best dramatic actor on Sunday for the role of Alan Shore, a shockingly unscrupulous lawyer on ABC's darkly comic "Boston Legal." But the first thing he did was thank his mother -- twice -- to make up for not having done so last year. "She really hasn't complained at all," Spader said later backstage. "When I got off the stage last year, I called her right away because I realized.

The drug-addicted, ill-tempered doctor. The bartender with a penchant for gunfights and domestic abuse. The hallucinating shrink who is a full blown narcissist, the deeply depressed counter-terrorist with a perpetually clenched jaw and, mercifully, the utterly amoralistic lawyer. Any other year, this might be a list of the "Sex and the City" boy toys, but this year it's the characters played by those nominated for Emmy's outstanding lead actor in a drama.

Actors James Spader and William Shatner, whose roles as eccentric yet oddly endearing lawyers on "The Practice" won each an Emmy earlier this year, were honored again Monday with Golden Globe nominations for spinoff roles in ABC's much lighter "Boston Legal." Spader was nominated for best actor in a dramatic television series for his role as Alan Shore, an unscrupulous attorney who was fired from his firm and moved to Crane, Poole and Schmidt on "Boston Legal."

The day before James Spader won an Emmy for his portrayal of Alan Shore, the morally dubious lawyer on "The Practice," the actor was at the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA, admiring the statues -- especially the female forms. "Look at the beautiful curve of her back, right at the base of her spine," he said, noticing a dancer at the top of Robert Graham's "Dance Columns." "It's the most perfect curve in nature." Then Spader felt a breeze and started ambling in the other direction.

Dylan McDermott is out; James Spader is in. ABC confirmed Wednesday that the actor from such films as "Secretary," "Stargate" and "sex, lies, and videotape" will join the cast of "The Practice" next season. He'll play what the network described as "a complicated and ethically challenged lawyer." Also joining the show in the wake of a major cast shake-up last month is Rhona Mitra, who will play a third-year law school student who joins the firm as an assistant. From a Times staff writer

I was fascinated to read Calendar's list of 500 features that are due to be released this year, but request that you add seven Cinema Group Pictures. They include "White of the Eye" (March) starring David Keith and Cathy Moriarty; "Jack's Back" (April ) starring James Spader and Cindy Gibb; and later this year, "Souvenir" starring Christopher Plummer and Catherine Hicks; "Never on Tuesday," "Higher Education," "Brain Damage" and the $15-million sci-horror film, "The Blob." MARCIE ROBINSON Cinema Group Entertainment Los Angeles

Not everyone can say he's taken on a Mafia don and the president of the U.S. and lived to tell about it. Actor James Spader, known for off-beat movie roles, scored a major upset, beating James Gandolfini ("Sopranos") and Martin Sheen ("The West Wing") to win an Emmy for outstanding actor in a TV drama for his role on "The Practice."

In the increasingly take-no-prisoners business of television, there are precedents for keeping a long-running series fresh by replacing departing cast members. "NYPD Blue," "ER" and "Law & Order" have been repeatedly reenergized by the addition of new regulars. Usually, cast changes are made one character at a time. At the end of its seventh year, "The Practice's" whole A team was wiped out (well, actually, let go), a bloodletting aimed at reducing costs and reinvigorating a tired format.