Critics Circle’s name is mud

When New York’s Outer Critics Circle announced nominations for its annual theater awards Monday, Liza Colon-Zayas was listed as a nominee for best actress for “Living Out,” Lisa Loomer’s play about L.A. nannies and their employers.

A day later, however, the Circle revealed that because of “an editorial error,” the nomination really was Zilah Mendoza’s from the same production at New York’s off-Broadway Second Stage.

It was Mendoza who played the leading role of Ana Hernandez, as she did in the play’s premiere at the Mark Taper Forum last year. In New York, Colon-Zayas played the supporting role of Ana’s fellow nanny Zoila (Diane Rodriguez in the L.A. production).

L.A.-based Mendoza had not heard about the snafu before she got a call Tuesday saying she was a nominee. She speculated that perhaps the error arose because the two women’s first names sound alike, with almost the same letters. “I don’t think it’s anything more than an honest mistake,” she said.