‘Mrs. Maisel’ dominates comedy category
Adam Sandler picks up a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for hosting ‘SNL’
The nominations for the 71st Emmy Awards were announced in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and they may break the record for the most non-Jews playing Jewish characters.
Rachel Brosnahan, perhaps the most famous non-Jew currently playing a Jew, was nominated for another Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy for the leading role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the Amazon series about a young Jewish housewife in the 1950s who becomes a comedian. She won this category last year.
Fellow gentiles Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle – who play her parents also got nods in the supporting categories, while Luke Kirby was nominated for his performance on the show as famed Jewish comic Lenny Bruce in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy and Jane Lynch – another non-Jew playing a Jew, was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress. Alex Borstein, who actually is a member of the tribe and plays Mrs. Maisel’s manager on the series, which has divided audiences as to whether or not its portrayal of Jews is stereotypical or accurate, was nominated in the supporting actress category.
The show itself received a nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, which it won last year. This year it dominated the comedy category with 20 nominations, while, not unpredictably, Game of Thrones got the most nominations in the drama category, with 32. This helped HBO win the battle of the nominations this year with 137, beating out Netflix, which received 117 altogether.
The Kominsky Method’s stars, Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, also scored nods in the outstanding lead and supporting actor in a comedy categories. Eugene Levy was nominated for his leading role in the comedy series, Schitt’s Creek. Henry Winkler got a nod for his turn as
an acting teacher to a serial killer in Barry.
In the Outstanding Actress in a Comedy category, Natasha Lyonne was nominated for her performance in Russian Doll, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose latest nomination for the final season of Veep may make her the winner of the most Emmys in history. She already made history in 2017 when she became the first actress to win in the comedy category six times in a row for playing the same character. She also has two Emmys for other shows. If she wins this year for playing Selina Mayer, she will beat the previous record for Emmy wins for individual performances held by Cloris Leachman.
Sarah Goldberg received a supporting actress nomination for her performance as an aspiring actress in Barry.
Adam Sandler picked up a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for hosting Saturday Night Live.
Julia Garner, whose mother is Israeli, is nominated in the Supporting Actress category for her role as a tough redneck on Ozark.
Joey King was nominated for her performance as Gypsy Rose in The Act in the Limited Series category.
The Emmys will be awarded on September 22.