TELEVISION What's gay at the emmys? by Blase DiStefano

The 54th Annual Emmy Awards promises to be an eventful evening (well, eventful if you record the show and watch it later so you can fast forward past most of the thank-you speeches). • Two Matthew Shepard-related shows are nominated: The Laramie Project (HBO) received four nominations, including Outstanding Made For Television Movie, and Stockard Channing is nominated for her supporting role (a little odd, because hers appeared to be a starring role) as Matthew's mom in The Matthew Shepard Story (NBC). • Will & Grace (NBC) received 13 nominations. Debra Messing is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the third year in a row, and she's the only one of the foursome to have not won an Emmy. Eric McCormack won the lead actor award last year but is not nominated this year. Both Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally grabbed the gold for their supporting roles in 2000, lost in 2001, and are nominated again this year. Michael Douglas (as a gay detective) and Glenn Close (as a bisexual photographer) are nominated for their guest-starring roles. • That brings us to Six Feet Under (HBO). Although the only "gay" nomination is straight Michael C. Hall's role as the somewhat closeted and rigid David Fisher, the show has been given a whopping 23 nominations. Included is the show's nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, created by openly gay Alan Ball, who is also nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (Ball was the 1999 Oscar winner for his screenplay for American Beauty). • The Emmys air Sunday evening, September 22, on NBC. Will & Grace's new season starts September 26 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Will & Grace creators go to miami

Good Morning Miami is a new show by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the gay/straight duo who created Will & Grace. There's nothing else gay-related in the show; but Suzanne Pleshette, who costars as Jake Silver's (Mark Feuerstein) eccentric grandmother Claire, did play the conniving mother of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) on last season's Will & Grace. (FYI: Pleshette and her ex-TV-husband Bob Newhart will be presenters at this year's Emmys.) • On Good Morning Miami, Silver is a young TV producer who arrives in Miami to revamp the lowest-rated morning show in the country. How exciting is the show? As Claire tells her grandson, "I've had pelvic exams more fun than that show." We only hope Good Morning Miami is as fun as Claire's pelvic exams. • Premieres Thursday, September 26, at 8:30 p.m. on NBC, immediately following Will & Grace.

A hunk, a hunk of burning love ... & Money

Robbery gone awry. Cops murdered. Two men, Nene (Leonardo Sbaraglia) and Angel (Eduardo Noriega), along with their cohorts in crime and millions of dollars, flee to Buenos Aires to hide out. But all of that is extraneous to the fiery love story between Angel and Nene. Their undying love-or in this case, their dying love-for each other is erotic, codependent, and somewhat demented. Burnt Money is also a true story, and what an engrossing one it is. • The Sundance Channel presents the television premiere of this 2000 film directed by Marcelo Pineyro at 8 p.m. on Sunday, September 15, with a repeat airing at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 24. For more information, visit www.sundancechannel.com.

THE BADGE BEAMS

A terrified woman runs through a dense swamp and dashes across a stretch of rural road in Louisiana directly into the path of an 18-wheeler. The next morning when the woman is found dead, there are two surprises: she has a bullet in her back and she has a penis. • Patricia Arquette plays Scarlet, a stripper married to the transgender, an arrangement that the local sheriff (Billy Bob Thornton) finds distasteful. That the sheriff's brother (Thomas Hayden Church) is gay only adds to the tension that the murder brings to the small Southern town. • The Badge chronicles the sheriff's struggle to break free of his bigotry and evolve as a human being. The subject matter is handled with enough sensitivity as to warrant a viewing. • Premieres Saturday, September 7, at 8 p.m. on Starz!

Queer as Folk ... The Lesbian Version

Showtime announced that production has begun on the drama series pilot tentatively titled Earthlings, an "intimate story about the lives and loves of a group of lesbian friends living in Los Angeles." The oddly titled show (I guess we should be thankful they didn't choose Alien Dykes) will be directed by out lesbian Rose Troche of Go Fish fame. • "Having just graduated from the University of Chicago," the press release reads, "Jenny (Mia Kirshner) moves to L.A. to be with her boyfriend Tim (Scott Bairstow) and to begin her professional writing career. Her life is turned upside down when she attends a party hosted by Tim's neighbors, Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Hollomon, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love), a lesbian couple who are looking to take the step into parenthood after seven years of dating. A brief encounter at the party suddenly has Jenny thrust into a lesbian community and a whole new world." • One of the cast members is Leisha Hailey (All Over Me), who is a singer with The Murmurs and whose name has been linked with k.d. lang. (When we contacted k.d. lang's publicist to ask if the two women were still together, her response was succinct: "I think this is none of your business.") • Earthlings is scheduled to debut on Showtime in 2003.