Hmmmm. I didn't believe "The Starter Wife" — which debuts tonight on USA Network — was eligible for Emmy consideration since only two hours of the six-hour miniseries airs on TV during the eligibility period.

But, alas, it found a sneaky way into the derby — via the Internet.

No, the remaining four hours of "The Starter Wife" won't be on TV in time, but a new Emmy rule acknowledges other media delivery systems, including computer and mobile devices. Immediately after its telecast tonight on USA tonight, you can watch the balance of "Starter Wife" at the network's website, CLICK HERE! It just needs to make the cut-off of 2 a.m.

USA Network is eager to make the race because TV reviews have been enthusiastic about Debra Messing in the role of a discarded Hollywood wife who tries to rebuild her life.

Entertainment Weekly says, "She's shed the tics of Grace and, in the course of one episode, forged a very different woman on screen. A quite charming woman, as it turns out." Read More - CLICK HERE!

The Hollywood Reporter says Messing is "magnetic and alluring" while giving a "tour de force" performance. Read More - CLICK HERE!

I asked my journo chum Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada, In Touch Weekly and Hello Canada to take a gander at the episodes submitted by contenders for best talk-show host in the Daytime Emmy race and make a gutsy prediction. Here's his appraisal, which, I warn you, differs from the prediction of a few of the judges we've appointed in the Envelope's forums. But before we give you those views, here, first, let's permit Nelson his say. Here's his report:

OUTSTANDING TALK SHOW HOST
Should Win: "THE VIEW" GALS
Will Win: "THE VIEW" GALS
Dark Horse: DR. PHIL

The good news? Looks like "The View" will win the Daytime Emmy in this category for the first time. The bad news? Rosie O¹Donnell won't be attending the ceremony, because according to her publicist Cindi Berger, Kelli is taking Chelsea to Europe; and Rosie has various fifth-grade obligations with her children while they are away.

Regardless, "The View" submitted a kick-ass reel highlighting all the elements that made the bitch-fest the best thing on TV this past year. Although Barbara Walters struggles during the opening monologue (even at one point bringing the show to an uncomfortable halt when she felt the need to talk down to the audience by explaining what 'couture' means), the episode hits all the right notes in the second segment when Rosie finally takes control. Hot topics include gay adoption, transgender children, and the John Kerry speech faux pas.

While the eppy lacked the feud-ilicious moments they've become famous for and viewers yearn for, what should secure "The View" with a historic win is Rosie's infectious and hilarious love rant of all things Barbra Streisand, with a montage to boot! Guests include "All My Children" actor Jeffrey Carlson (nice to see that the spurned soap, which only earned one acting nomination for Levin Rambin, actually made it on more than one reel thanks to "View"), who played a pre-op transsexual (which should impress soap actors voting in this category; nice move), Babs' hubby James Brolin, who pulls a Tom Cruise on their couch, and a boy hero who saved the lives of his family when an intruder tried to burglarize their home by putting on a Power Rangers costume.

Our forums moderator Chris "Boomer" Beachum maintains our most up-to-date list of TV series episodes that contenders will submit to Emmy judges if they make the top-10 cut-off after a popular vote is conducted of TV academy members. (Emmy voting spans June 4 to 22.) Check out the list here in our forums — CLICK HERE! If you have any corrections to alert us to, please click on the "Comments" link below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Patrick Stockstill, historian for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and backstage "keeper of the Oscars" during ceremonies, has died. He was 57.

Stockstill died May 24 of complications following a heart transplant, according to the academy and Forest Lawn Memorial Park, where a funeral was planned.

Stockstill, who specialized in film research at the University of Michigan School of Library Science, helped develop the movie academy's database. He unpacked the Oscar statuettes backstage minutes before presentation.

James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos") and Mary-Louise Parker ("Weeds") changed their Emmy reels at the last minute, but Jonathan Rhys Meyers ("The Tudors") held firm.

Right now frantic second-guessing is consuming Emmy contenders as the final deadline looms for them to declare the sample episode they'll give to judges in the event they make the final run-off after a popular vote is conducted of TV academy members.

Deadline is the last day of eligibility — tomorrow, May 31. By that point they must ship a DVD of the actual episode to the academy's headquarters in North Hollywood.

Originally, Gandolfini planned to submit "Chasing It," in which he gives a jackpot performance showing us a glimpse of his gambling getting out of control just as his life does, too. But he ended up changing episodes — wisely, I think — to "The Second Coming," which Falco also will submit. He gives a much more wide-ranging performance in it, and a heart-felt one, too, as we see him bear his troubled soul to his therapist (Dr. Melfi, we have missed you!) and saved son A.J. from drowning himself.

Parker planned to submit "Pittsburgh," which wrapped up season two in a sensational way. But that would've been confusing to Emmy judges who aren't regular viewers of the series. Besides, her actual performance, emotionally speaking, is better in what she ended up picking: "Mrs. Botwin's Neighborhood."

Rhys Meyers originally planned to submit episode 105 of "Tudors," then considered switching to 107 (the one about the sweating disease), but then, in a moment of clarity, regained confidence in 105.

All wise decisions, methinks! Now what will everyone else decide?

Photo: In "The Second Coming," viewers see Tony Soprano's vulnerability and love for his family after he rescues his son from a suicide attempt and coddles him in his arms at poolside, calling him, "My baby . . . my baby . . . ." (HBO)

Look at Jonathan Rhys Meyers puckering his lips on the cover of Tuesday's Variety! He can almost taste a top Emmy nom for his hit Showtime series.

Most Emmywatchers agree: "The Tudors" is thisclose to becoming the first non-HBO cable series to be nominated in the top series (drama or comedy) categories. Showtime doesn't want to take any chances. Yesterday — the third-to-last day of the Emmy eligibility period — the network not only bought the cover of Hollywood's top tradepaper, but it inserted something inside 30,000 copies that's never been tried: a DVD containing the last four episodes of the season.

That's curious, and quite bold, considering that the final two episodes aren't even Emmy eligible because they'll be telecast after the May 31 cut-off date. But that doesn't matter. Showtime wants to keep that "Tudors" buzz a-buzzing. Back in April the network shipped the first six episodes to Emmy voters, so now it wants to give them a jump on what's ahead while the show has obvious, breakout momentum.

Shrewdly, Showtime is using fresh new episodes of a series to tantalize voters just like HBO does. Don't you think it's rather, ahem, peculiar that both "The Sopranos" and "The Tudors" (two rich, white-trash families on either side of a throne — and the Atlantic Ocean — by the way — have you ever thought of that?) air new material after the Emmy period? What if their best stuff comes at the season finale? It won't be eligible for Emmy notice till next year by which time memory fades.

Well, frankly, that consideration is secondary to the chief goal of keeping TV voters interested in those series throughout the period when ballots will be cast to determine nominees: June 4 to 22.

Variety is reporting that HBO is in final discussions with Vanessa Redgrave to make a movie version of her current Broadway success "The Year of Magical Thinking." This one woman show was adapted by Joan Didion from her best-selling memoir about coming to terms with the death of her husband and daughter. Redgrave is a strong contender to pick up a second Tony on June 10 for this tour de force. She recently won the Drama Desk Award for outstanding solo performance. The celebrated actress also has two Emmys and an Oscar on her crowded mantle.

There are lots of shockeroos on TV Guide's Dream Emmy Ballot. Editors say "The Wire" and "Friday Night Lights" should make the cut for best drama series over "The Sopranos" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Hmmmm, could this be a foreshadowing of HBO bumping off Tony Soprano in the upcoming series finale? Naw . . .

Check out the editors' full rundown of main races — CLICK HERE!

As Broadway junkies know, Susan Haskins and Michael Riedel are the cohosts of "Theater Talk," PBS TV's weekly half-hour show about what's happening on the Rialto. They're a dynamic pundit duo who have mastered an obvious chemistry in their give and take. Check out their take on what they believe will happen when Tony Awards are doled out on June 10. CLICK HERE to Download the Windows Media Video (You May Need to Hold Down Your Computer's Control Key While Clicking.) — And CLICK HERE to Download the Quicktime Video!

(Video: Darren Levine)

Check out my video chat with Melissa Bernardo of Entertainment Weekly and Paul Sheehan of TheEnvelope.com on who they believe will win the Tonys in the races for best revival of a play and musical. CLICK HERE to Download the Windows Media Video (You May Need to Hold Down Your Computer's Control Key While Clicking) — And CLICK HERE to Download the Quicktime Video!

(Video: Darren Levine)

Nowadays the awards bestowed at the Cannes Film Festival don't have much impact on the Oscars. Perhaps a case can be made (a feeble one) for a flash of Oscar foreshadowing occurring last year when a future academy nominee received the best actress award. Actually, Penelope Cruz shared the Cannes kudo with her "Volver" costars and it's entirely likely, given Oscar voters' past fondness for films by Pedro Almodovar, that she would've been nominated by the academy without that earlier nod. At previous Oscars, Almodovar won for writing "Talk to Her," which also earned him a nomination for best director. His "All About My Mother" won best foreign film of 1999.

It's rotten to say this, but all of you Oscarologists know it's true. There's roughly zero chance that Cannes' best actress victor this year will make next year's academy roster: South Korean star Jeon Do-yeon ("Secret Sunshine"). Ditto for Cannes' best actor: Russian thesp Konstantin Lavronenko ("The Banishment").

If Romania's winner of Cannes' best pic prize ("Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days") gets nominated for the top Oscar, I promise to dress like a drunken gypsy or a tipsy Dracula when I arrive at the Kodak Theater red carpet next February.

Does Cannes have any real impact on the Oscars anymore?

I think it does, but less than many folks might believe considering both gigs are epic events on the international film scene. But only one flick has won Cannes' Palm d'Dor and Oscar's best pic prize: "Marty" (1955). I supect that many other Golden Palm champs got major notice at the Oscars because of their earlier prominence on the Croisette. "The Pianist," "Secrets and Lies," "All That Jazz," "Dancer in the Dark" and "Fahrenheit 911," among others.

"Fahrenheit's" red-hot director was back this year, of course, with "Sicko," but, in a rare act of humility, Michael Moore decided that enough kudos was enough, at least for now, so he refused to enter it into awards competition. Expect it to make take a major bow at the Oscars where Moore nabbed a chunk of academy gold for crafting "Bowling for Columbine," winner of best docu feature of 2002. "Fahrenheit" was not nommed in that race a few years later because Moore was aiming higher — to be the first documentary ever nominated for best picture — but failed. Assuming Moore keeps his grandiosity in check this time, "Sicko" has a good chance to be nommed for, and to win, best documentary. Especially since Harvey Weinstein picked up its U.S. distrib rights.

Weinstein also acquired "Control" at the fest, Anton Corbjin's pic about British rock star Ian Curtis and his band Joy Division. Curtis is portrayed by Sam Reilly, who Harvey will probably trumpet for a best-actor bid during derby season.

Meantime, Variety reports about Harvey's alma mater: "Miramax Films has nabbed Julian Schnabel's 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' for about $3 million for North America. A major Oscar campaign is in the offing, and it didn't hurt that Miramax topper Daniel Battsek is just coming off his rousing success with 'The Queen.'"

The Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" demonstrated strong support at the fest, which suggests that it may be Oscar-bound next like many of their past pix ("Fargo," "O Brother, Where Art Thou"). Angelina Jolie's "A Might Heart" received excellent reactions from film critics and industry honchos. Ditto for James Gray’s "We Own the Night" starring past Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.

Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights" got mixed notices. Should we believe them? Is it Oscar material? I haven't seen it yet . . .

Read the L.A. Times' Cannes report, CLICK HERE!

Photo: The Hollywood Reporter calls "A Mighty Heart" an "expertly fashioned documentary-style drama that relates the intense manhunt launched in Pakistan when jihadists kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002." Jolie portrays the reporter's wife, Mariane. She won an Oscar in the supporting category for "Girl, Interrupted" in 1999. "A Mighty Heart" was shown outside competition at Cannes — it was not eligible for awards.(Paramount)

Throughout this week Showtime will rerun most episodes of "The Tudors'" first season before airing the ninth on June 3 (the night before Emmy voting kicks off), then the season finale on June 10. Paycasters like Showtime replay individual episodes all week long. This week catch a rerun of episode 8 (various times) to see supporting actor Sam Neill's submission. Jonathan Rhys Meyers may enter it in the lead actor race, too — he's torn between episode 8 and 5 and has until May 31 to decide. "Tudors" plans to enter episode 3 in the race for best drama series (10 p.m. ET/PT, Monday, May 28).

This week HBO often replays "The Second Coming," the episode of "The Sopranos" being submitted by both lead Edie Falco and supporting player Lorraine Bracco. It might even become James Gandolfini's episode — he's currently wavering between choosing it or his earlier pick, "Chasing It."

HBO pre-empts "Entourage" and "The Sopranos" (their final episodes air June 3 and June 10 respectively) for "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," a telefilm with an impressive pedigree that should be a strong contender for noms in many races, including best TV movie. This adaptation of the best-selling book by Dee Brown about the plight of the American Indian stars Oscar winner Anna Paquin, Emmy nominee Aidan Quinn, and Adam Beach. (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT, HBO)