Christina Applegate

The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards air Sunday night on ABC. In preparation, we thought it would be fun to give you a little help on your office pool. Welcome to Day 3 of our Emmy preview!

We've already handicapped the supporting races. Now it's time to look at the lead actresses.

Best Actress, Comedy: Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?; America Ferrara, Ugly Betty; Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Julia-Louise Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine; Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Who we're pulling for: With apologies to the other four nominees, all of whom are deserving of this win, there's only one woman we're going to be pulling for: Tina Fey. What can we say? She's funny, whip-smart and possibly the most endearing actress on television. The best part about Ms. Fey's performance is that it actually got much stronger during season two of 30 Rock. She used to be an expert straight-woman, now she's a legitimate leading lady. Our huge crush on her doesn't hurt, either.

Prediction: The Emmy Awards usually love two things: first time category nominees on new shows and comeback stories that you never thought you'd see. Christina Applegate manages to be both.  read more »

MONDAY

Monday’s future just got a little bit bleaker. Dancing With the Stars (ABC)—whose finale last Tuesday earned the network its best ratings on that night in over seven years—cha-cha-cha-ed out of our lives. CBS canceled their December 10th debates, as the Democratic nominees balked, fearing the bad publicity of a protest by striking news writers. (CBS is hurting: How I Met Your Mother is in repeats, as well as the rest of the network’s sitcoms.) And NBC announced this week that Chuck (NBC, 8 PM) will be replaced by American Gladiators—the original was obviously before its time—on January 7th.  read more »

Christina Applegate’s Samantha Who? (9:30 PM, ABC) debuts tonight, sandwiched in between Dancing With the Stars and The Bachelor. She plays a woman who wakes from an eight-day coma with retrograde amnesia only to slowly come to the realization that she was a total bitch. Perhaps a little amnesia is necessary on the part of viewers, who will need to forget Surviving Christmas in order to give this show a shot. (Who am I kidding?  read more »

Former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines--who was forced out of paper after the Jayson Blair debacle--is now getting out of the West Village, too (and, as far as we can tell, out of New York City entirely).

Mr. Raines recently sold his West 11th Street townhouse for $3.5 million, according to city deed-transfer records.

Mr. Raines--who purchased the house in 1996--has been renting it out for some time, while spending his days in his Pennsylvania country house.

Last May, actress Christina Applegate reportedly rented the 18-foot-wide townhouse while performing on Broadway.  read more »

Mr. Raines hadn't yet responded to an email asking about the sale, as of this posting.

- Michael Calderone

When it comes to Tony time, I'm all in favor.  read more »