Special honour for Law & Order

2008-11-24 10:01

New York - Producer Dick Wolf will receive a special honour at the 36th International Emmy Awards for extending the long arm of his Law & Order franchise into almost every corner of the globe.

Sam Waterston, who has appeared as prosecutor Jack McCoy in more than 325 Law & Order episodes since 1994, will present the International Emmy Founders Award to Wolf at Monday night's awards gala.

He will be joined onstage at New York's Hilton hotel by his co-star Linus Roache, as well as Dann Florek, Tamara Tunie and Michaela McManus from the spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

"It's just stunning, people see Law & Order everyplace," said Bruce L Paisner, president of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

"Every place in the world they have police and some kind of criminal justice system."

Excellence in TV programming

The award to Wolf, the creator and executive producer of Law & Order, will cap off an evening in which 40 nominees from 16 countries will be competing for International Emmys, honouring excellence in TV programming produced outside the United States, in 10 categories.

British television productions picked up a leading eight nominations, including Life on Mars which is bidding for its second best drama series award.

David Suchet received a best actor nod for his portrayal of media mogul Robert Maxwell, while Lucy Cohu is up for best actress for the true-life drama Forgiven about a suburban housewife who discovers her husband has been abusing their 12-year-old daughter.

Brazil had five nominations, including Mandrake (drama series) about a criminal lawyer from Rio De Janiero, Pedro Cardoso (actor) for the comedy The Big Family, and Irene Ravache (actress) for the romance Eternal Magic.

Argentina and Japan each had four nominations, followed by China and Denmark with three apiece. Jordan and Peru had their first-ever nominations.

Controversy

The nominees for non-scripted entertainment include the Dutch hoax-reality show, The Big Donor Show, which stirred controversy when its producers announced a terminally ill woman would donate a kidney to a contestant in need of a transplant.

Shortly before the broadcast, it was revealed the woman was not dying of a brain tumour and the exercise was intended to pressure the Dutch government to reform organ donation laws.

This year the International Academy introduced a new category for telenovels, which previously had to compete against drama series. Once largely confined to Latin America, telenovelas have become popular throughout the world, Paisner said.

The initial nominees are from Jordan (Al-Igtiyah, or The Invasion), Argentina (Lalola), Russia (One Night of Love) and Brazil (Tropical Paradise).

Paisner said the International Academy wanted to get the jump in honouring Wolf with its Founders Award before Law & Order, now in its 19th season, overtakes Gunsmoke (1955-75) as the longest-running prime time drama series in US television history.

The Founders Award is presented annually to a person who has made a difference in the worldwide television business. Law & Order and its spin-offs - in the original US and locally franchised versions - have been sold to almost 300 television markets around the world, Paisner said.

- AP