Last night at the 42nd Annual NAACP Image Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium in Hollywood, CA, SouthLAnd‘s own Regina King was honored with the Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. In her acceptance speech, Regina thanked her fellow cast members, as well as TNT for “saving Southland again” – read into that what you will! She was previously nominated for this award last year for the 1st season of the show, but lost to Jada Pinkett Smith of HawthoRNe, also a TNT production. Other nominees in the category were Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy), GuGu  Mbatha-Raw (Undercovers) and Wendy Davis (Army Wives). (continue reading…)

Regina King as Det. Lydia Adams

Were you, like me, slightly irritated (yeah, that’s an understatement) at the blanket snub by the Emmy® Awards for SouthLAnd this year, considering the many outstanding performances and story lines that we saw in Season 2? Did you wonder, like me, if the lack of nominations probably had more to do with politics than talent & skills, especially considering the fact that the episodes were produced by NBC (so NBC would get the credit instead of TNT)?

Well, it looks like we aren’t the only ones who think so. Entertainment Weekly (and just about every other entertainment news organization out there) had predicted nominations in multiple categories for several of the cast members of SouthLAnd before they were announced. Now EW has posted and “Emmy Snubs” online poll, asking which actors and actresses you think should be the winners. In the Lead Actress in a Drama Series category is none other than our beloved Regina King, who we all know should have been nominated for the real Emmy.

Now it’s your chance to tell the Emmy voters that they got it wrong, and the remind the rest of the Internet just how amazing Regina King is. We need everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, to go to the link below and vote for Regina so we can get her into the #1 position. Vote yourself, then spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, email – every method you can – so we can knock that Bones woman out of the #1 spot!

So get your butts over to this page and vote, then tell everyone you know to do the same!

Regina King has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Detective Lydia Adams in SouthLAnd. Other nominees in the category for this 41st presentation of the Image Awards include Chandra Wilson and Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy/ABC), Jada Pinket Smith (HawthoRNe/TNT) and Jill Scott (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency/HBO). This is her 4th Image Award nomination. She previously won an Image Award in 2004 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for the movie “Ray,” a role which also garnered her a Golden Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical. In 2005 she won the BET Best Actress award, while her “Ray” co-star Jamie Foxx received the Best Actor award.

Ms. King is no stranger to acting, starting her career on the hit television show “227“. Since then she has gone on to star in blockbusters like “Jerry Maguire“, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” the hit action-thriller “Enemy of the State,” the family-adventure “Mighty Joe Young,” and the comedy “Down to Earth.”  She also starred in the comedy “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous,” and voiced the character Kreela in the animated film “Ant Bully.” Other feature credits also include “Cinderella Story,”  “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde” and “Daddy Day Care.”

King also found her way back to the small screen in 2000 with a role in the acclaimed “If These Walls Could Talk 2″ and in the comedy, “Leap of Faith.” She most recently worked on the animated series “The Boondocks” as the voice of both Huey and Riley.

SouthLAnd is returning to television next week with its commercial free TNT premiere on January 12 at 10pm/9pm central. This special presentation of the pilot episode will be aired with over 6 minutes of restored footage that was originally cut from the episode. All 7 episodes of the first season will air on the network, with 6 new episodes scheduled to start on March 2nd.

Presented annually, the NAACP Image Awards is the nation’s premier event which recognizes the exemplary works by, for, and relevant to people of color in the arts (motion picture, television, recording, and literature), as well as those individuals or groups who promote social justice through their creative endeavors.

Members of the NAACP may vote for Ms. King on their website.

Amid all the fury over its cancellation by NBC and its subsequent pickup by TNT, there was some great news for SouthLAnd that appears to have been lost in the shuffle. Of course, considering that this particular awards ceremony took place on the very day that TNT announced that it had decided to revive SouthLAnd, I supposed that’s not really much of a surprise, but “credit where credit is due”.

In a quiet, but significant, awards ceremony conducted back on November 2, 2009, SouthLAnd‘s John Frank Levey was nominated by the Casting Society of America in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Television Pilot – Drama“. Other nominees in the category were ‘True Blood’, ‘Fringe’, ‘The Mentalist’ and ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’.

Ultimately the award went to Junie Lowry-Johnson for ‘True Blood’ (also an amazing show), but I think we’ll all agree that John Frank Levey has done an incredible job putting together an awesome ensemble cast for SouthLAnd and this recognition is truly well deserved.

Kudos and Congratulations to John and the SouthLAnd production team!

Complete details on the awards in all categories can be seen on IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Casting_Society_of_America_USA/2009