When "The Tudors" debuts this Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET, Showtime aims, officially, to topple HBO as Emmy's cable king.

Think of Showtime's sexy re-imagining of Henry VIII as possible awards kin to HBO's drama about that monarch's daughter that swept the Emmys last year — "Elizabeth I" — winning best miniseries and best actress (Helen Mirren). It's not as artistically pretentious as "Elizabeth I," but "The Tudors" still has literary panache (it's penned by Michael Hirst, who wrote the 1998 film "Elizabeth," which earned Cate Blanchett an Oscar nom, as well as the upcoming sequel "The Golden Age"), it's a lot more fun and lively and it's landing on TV smack-dab at peak time in the Emmy campaign season. DVDs of six episodes are also landing smack-dab on the doorsteps of Emmy voters right now, given a royal presentation in a handsomely designed box complete with a 60-page color book about the series and — here's the crowning touch — copies of handwritten love letters between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

No wonder. Behind its marketing is Showtime VP Richard Licata, formerly one of HBO's prime Emmy strategists. Since switching jobs, he's pulled off kudos miracles at the rival pay channel, including nabbing 7 surprise Emmy noms for "Huff" two years ago. Now Licata's got many more tempting Emmy toys with which to play — and all just the kind of edgy programming that once seemed to belong to HBO alone: "Weeds" (about a sympathetic, pot-selling suburban momma), "Dexter" (a nice police forensics official who moonlights as a serial killer), "Brotherhood" (two siblings on either side of the law) — PLUS "The Tudors," which is produced in a way that, if successful, will continue as an open-ended TV series. So, therefore, it competes at this Emmy derby in the drama series categories, not TV movies/minis.

Meantime, HBO's longtime Emmy-arm-twister "The Sopranos" soon will be sleeping with the TV fishes, following the recent exit of "Sex and the City." Newer series "Big Love," "Deadwood" and "The Wire" haven't caught on so well with TV academy voters.

USA Today's Robert Bianco says of the new Showtime entry: "'The Tudors' can offer many a royal pleasure, starting with Jonathan Rhys Meyers' lusty performance, but including a mostly excellent supporting cast, high-class production values and an entertaining script from writer/producer Michael Hirst (the movie 'Elizabeth')."

And Newsday's Diane Werts writes: "Virile star Jonathan Rhys Meyers ages down eminent monarch Henry VIII to tempt TV's younger demographics. No longer the rotund old church-wrecking serial groom of the official-portrait image, he's now a hunk called Harry, a studly hard-bod hothead. Showtime is going for contemporary gusto."

As is so often the case in Hollywood, this Broadway season has been dominated by male driven vehicles. Yet, the hottest ticket in town is for "The Year of Magical Thinking," a one woman tour-de-force by Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winner Vanessa Redgrave , who brings to life Joan Didion's memoir about the death of her husband, screenwriter John Gregory Dunne. While the play met with mixed reviews, the critics were unanimous in their praise of Redgrave who is now the frontrunner for best actress at the Tonys in June.

Ben Brantley, influential critic of The New York Times, thought, "Ms. Redgrave, in a simple pale skirt and blouse, is an imposing, Cassandra-like creature, a prophetess at a temple of doom where we must all someday arrive." He suggests, "students of acting buy tickets as close as possible to the stage to observe the presence and craft that allows one woman to hold an audience’s attention for 90 uninterrupted minutes." An unabashed fan of Didion - "her voice is one of the most insistently hypnotic in literature" - Brantley was disappointed, "that though the script is by Ms. Didion, with many of its sentences lifted directly from the memoir, I never heard Ms. Didion’s voice when Ms. Redgrave was speaking."

In Newsday, Linda Winer was more enthusiastic about this pairing of actress and author, calling it, "an electrifying confluence of formidable females, in which this magnificent actress has reached her long, lean tentacles into Didion's deep, lean recollections, fastens those pewter eyes on a space beyond the audience and dares us to think that we have ever before heard any of this exquisitely told story." And Elyse Gardner of USA Today thought, "the scrupulous integrity of Didion's writing, her refusal to indulge in cheap theatrics, demands that Redgrave use the full weight of her presence while also showing great reserve." She found that, "the actress meets that challenge, mining the wit and grace of Didion's words and the mind-bending sorrow of her experience, miraculously, while remaining seated through most of the show, imparting expressive powers to such simple gestures as clutching her hands or playing with her hair."

To Michael Kuchwara of AP, "Didion is an impeccable observer, and when her insights and descriptions are delivered by an actress as accomplished as Vanessa Redgrave, you know the evening will achieve moments of eloquence." However, "despite the star's formidable presence, 'Magical Thinking' still works better on the page than on the stage. Didion's language is cerebral and exact; her musings punctuated by careful and detailed research. It doesn't easily lend itself to theater." David Rooney of Variety thought the opposite, "as in adapting the book for the stage, Didion has filleted the text into a spare but compelling solo piece. Whether or not it's a play is difficult to judge in David Hare's audaciously austere production, given how inextricably linked the work is to Vanessa Redgrave's riveting interpretation. But regardless of how it's classified, this is unmissable theater."

For Clive Barnes, of the New York Post, the evening offered, "a cauterizing performance by Vanessa Redgrave staged with simple, graveyard clarity by David Hare." He readily admits, "unlike many, I'm not a particular admirer of Didion's prose style - its careful elegance and calculated irony have always struck me as clever, precious and rather shallow." However, he thought, "Redgrave and Hare have created a starkly honest theatrical miracle out of Didion's text." Finally, for Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News, "this was a theatrical experience you will never forget." But, even he thinks, "the play isn't 100% successful. Toward the end, Redgrave as Didion rises from the chair and reads from the original book. It's a strange moment, as if we'd left the theater and had moved to a Barnes & Noble." Yet, he concludes, "those are minor complaints about a play that is as intensely intimate as it is universal."

Photo: Even before the stellar reviews for her bravura performance, the name 'Vanessa Redgrave' over the title had ensured the limited run of "The Year of Magical Thinking" was virtually sold out. (Booth Theater)

Did you read the article in the L.A. Times about the discovery of an Oscar with a price tag of $150,000 at a garage sale in Hollywood? It was won by Joseph Schildkraut in 1937 for portraying Alfred Dreyfus in "The Life of Emile Zola." (CLICK HERE) It's sill available.

But, wait! Two more are up for sale, too — at relative bargain prices. Reputable auctioneer Profiles in History is hawking the statuette won for best special effects of 1941 to Farciot Edouart for "I Wanted Wings," starring Ray Milland, William Holden and Veronica Lake. It's up for sale on eBay till April 5, estimated to fetch $20,000 to $30,000, which is realistic. Starting bid is $17,000, but no one's placed one yet. CLICK HERE!

I don't know what to think of the auction of an alleged Oscar statuette claiming to be the accolade won by Ethel Barrymore as best supporting actress of 1944 for "None but the Lonely Heart," also up on eBay. The seller tells me that it "was purchased from Ethel's estate, specifically, from her daughter-in-law." At its eBay listing, he says, "This item is genuine and has been meticulously maintained. Authenticating documents, letters and the theatrical poster for this film are also included." Since it's located in Los Angeles, I've asked the seller to let me inspect it up close, but I haven't heard back yet.

Sale continues to April 1. But so far, nobody's bid. Probably because the starting bid is omigod high — $75,000. CLICK HERE to see eBay item #180099479388.

I'm leery of Oscars for sale on eBay because I've seen so many frauds there. I lucked out back in 2005 and purchased one on line that turned out to be legit. (CLICK HERE to see details). But soon thereafter scammers swiped the photos and pretended to sell it again and again while I desperately tried to get eBay to shut down the auctions (sometimes they did, sometimes they refused to) and contact the bidders to warn them (sometimes they listened, sometimes they lost thousands of dollars because they refused to believe me).

Even if this statuette looks legit up close, it doesn't mean it is. Remember the brilliantly faked Oscar claiming to be Karl Malden's for "Streetcar Named Desire," that went on sale at eBay a few months ago? Not only did it have a perfectly antiqued look, but the serial number was correct. (Read more — CLICK HERE.)

Only Oscars bestowed prior to 1950 may be sold. If others go up for sale, they must be offered first to the academy for the price of one dollar.

Photo above: Oscar tech winner Farciot Edouart in his studio office. Photo below: "None but the Lonely Heart" was the directorial debut of Clifford Odets, the Broadway playwright and Hollywood screenwriter best known today for penning "Sweet Smell of Success" and "The Country Girl." Ethel Barrymore won her Oscar for portraying a dying Cockney woman so desperate for cash that she turns her second-hand store into a fencing front. Her hooligan son is portrayed by Cary Grant, who earned his second and last Oscar nomination. Both bids were unsuccessful. (eBay/ RKO/ Profiles in History)

The award prospects of two upcoming films are brightening so much that studio chiefs have moved them closer to the next derby starting gate.

The New York Post's Page Six reports that Harvey Weinstein is moving "The Nanny Diaries," starring Scarlett Johansson and Laura Linney, from next month to September, "hoping to hoping to win a Golden Globe for Best Comedy after premiering the picture at a prestigious film festival. Our sources are betting it bows at the Venice fest at the end of August."

"Kaching!" cries Edward Douglas of Comingsoon.net to Gold Derby, noting his response to hearing the news that "Atonement" is exiting September for a new launch on December 7. "Out of the 'Constant Gardener' positioning and into the 'Brokeback Mountain' positioning!" "Atonement" features "Last King of Scotland" star James McAvoy as a man wrongly accused of a crime by his lover's (Keira Knightley) young sister. Directed by Joe Wright ("Pride & Prejudice").

Photo: Keira Knightley in "Atonement." (Focus Features)

Wow. Give Mark Wahlberg an Oscar nom and that convicted felon sure gets uppity. No, make that downright thuggish.

"I had problems with Marty," he's now saying about his dealings with Marty Scorsese during the shooting of recent Oscar champ "The Departed."

Among other things, he confesses to throwing a tantrum over Scorsese's refusal to shoot a scene when Wahlberg wanted it done. The hissy fit took place outside Scorsese's trailer during the wee hours of day.

"Marty didn't like it at seven o'clock in the morning when he still needed a little rest and I'm out there yelling and screaming and he comes out of his trailer and says, 'What the f***'s going on?'" he told the London Telegraph. "But it wasn't just Marty. The whole time I was in the character so I was mad at everybody. It was Leo [DiCaprio], Matt [Damon] and Jack [Nicholson]. F*** Jack, too."

Read more — CLICK HERE!

Photo: In "The Departed," Wahlberg suddenly appeared on the good side of the law. In his early days as a young man, he spent time behind bars for drug and assault crimes. (Warner Bros.)

The whole idea of conducting the Kids' Choice Awards may seem a bit absurd.

Being so young, kids know less than everybody else on the planet, so many adult awardwatchers must wonder: Who cares what they think about the best of anything?

Answer: because kids' views are always fun to hear and — here's the punch line — their awards show, now 20 years old, has grown up to be a big deal.

Last year the telecast attracted nearly 6 million viewers on Nickelodeon, which is roughly the same audience size as the Tony Awards on CBS and Daytime Emmys on ABC.

Continue reading my feature article, CLICK HERE!

Photo: Tom Cruise is among the many celebs who've been slimed on the Kids' Choice Awards. Others: Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, Will Smith, Ben Stiller, Justin Timberlake and James Earl Jones. (Reuters)

"American Idol" is really, of course, America's amateur Grammys — that is, it's a showbiz competition in which participants get judged (sometimes cruelly) by their peers.

Well, I'll have no more of that cruelty when it comes to poor, misunderstood Sanjaya Malakar, who's getting an awful thrashing for doing his job ridiculously well on that stage. Tonight tune in to Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show to watch me rally to his defense! (You know, dear trusty readers, what a caring, Christian samaritan that I am!) Meantime, "Countdown" producers asked me to contribute my fearless views to their blog. CLICK HERE! to see the piece. Or read on — text repeated below.

Back off, Sanjaya-bashers! "American Idol's" newest superstar is really a master showman.

Who cares if he can't sing? Sanjaya's got another talent and knows how to sell it. Camp is one of the great traditions of showbiz and — come on! — it takes a genius to know how to pull it off. As those sassy strippers in the classic Broadway musical "Gypsy" say, "Ya gotta bump it with a trumpet, honey!"

You can't just do it a little. You've gotta go screaming (or screeching) over the top. The next time you see a photo of Sanjaya's pony Mohawk, think of Dame Edna's purple hair, or that rat's nest on Tiny Tim's head. Both of those guys have equally ghastly singing chops. (Uh-oh. You didn't know Dame Edna was a guy? Sorry!)

But it ain't about the singing. It's about putting on a show! And that spunky, little 17-year-old Liberace wannabe knows what he's doing and is doing it with shrewd surrender and abandon.

Frankly, let's be honest — that's how Taylor Hicks WON last year. Justin Timberlake was right about him. Taylor "couldn't carry a tune in a bucket." Simon Cowell was correct, too, when he slammed Taylor for sounding like a drunk dad at a wedding while singing "Living for the City" the first time on the show.

But, then — presto, change-o — as soon as America started buying into Taylor's campy wiggle and screech, cheering him on, that unabashed hypocrite and celebrated cad started praising Taylor. Worse, Simon applauded Taylor for singing "Living for the City" the exact same, awful way during one of the finale shows.

Hey, where's the Let's-Get-Simon-Cowell-Lynch-Mob when you need it?

The real tragedy of Taylor's triumph as top winner last year was that Simon wasn't alone. Everybody cheered on that no-talent. Why? Because that's what we do to drunk dads acting silly at weddings? Yes, as long as they're macho cool.

Sanjaya is acting silly, too, but he's a sissy. So the bullies of America are beating up on him. Unfair! Rise up, oh, Sanjaya fans! Let's strike back! Keep voting for him! Dialing and dialing! And keep the faith!

Because Sanjaya is exactly what "American Idol" deserves. Early on in the TV season producers played up the worst acts as a way to pump ratings. Now it's their own fault that one deliciously, hilariously lousy act survived and is drumming up legions of fans the same way that camp rockers like Ozzy Osbourne fill football stadiums -- because they know how to ENTERTAIN.

The lesson here: it's not always about the singing. It's about putting on a show. Taylor Hicks proved that last year without the pizzazz, the humor, the wink to the audience, the gutsy camp that Sanjaya knows instinctively.

All of THAT plus the hair!

Go, Sanjaya! Gooooo!

Photos: Sanjaya (top) knew how silly he looked last night. When his poor mom saw his wild hairdo backstage before the show, she shrieked her protest, "You can't go out there looking like that!" But Sanjaya replied firmly, "It's OK, momma. I know what I'm doing!" What Sanyaha knows is what other great camp performers know, too — that they shouldn't be afraid to look ridiculous, like Dame Edna, Liberace and Tiny Tim. (Fox/ Radio City Music Hall)

"Academy Award-winning Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson's career has taken a dramatic turn," reports Pete Hammond at HollywoodWiretap.com. "She's playing fellow Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker's daughter in the just-started indie drama, 'Winged Creatures,' now shooting in Los Angeles.

"Adding more Oscar gold dust to the cast is 'Little Children' supporting nominee Jackie Earle Haley as an abusive husband and father."

Read more — CLICK HERE!

(Dreamgirls)

The Producers Guild of America will be handing out its awards next February 2 at the Beverly Hilton, longtime home to the Golden Globes. While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has not set a date for its awardscast, expect them to be in mid January. After AMPAS announced Sunday, February 24 for the 80th annual Oscars, SAG set Sunday, January 27 for its kudos, with the DGAs due the night before, and the BAFTAS to come on February 10.

BMI, the music royalty collective, will recognize the Bee Gees as Icons at their 55th annual Pop Awards on May 15 in Los Angeles. This invitation only event also honors the song, songwriters, and publishers of the year in various genres. The list of Icons is as varied as music itself, with Paul Simon, James Brown, and Dolly Parton among past recipients. Collectively, Barry, Robin, and the late Maurice Gibb won 109 BMI Pop, Country, and Latin Awards including four Song of the Year wins for “Night Fever,” “Too Much Heaven,” and the Kenny Rogers Dolly Parton duet “Islands in the Stream,” which won in both the pop and country categories.