‘Desperate’ times call for comic relief

Girls gone wild: Wait, does this mean the squabbling, the envy, the backbiting will stop? The lovely leads of “Desperate Housewives” have all received nominations as best actress in a television series -- musical or comedy, leveling the skewed Emmy playing field earlier this year in which Eva Longoria was left out. (Well, not quite leveling it, but maybe the others won’t notice that Felicity Huffman got a second nomination -- for a film.)

Lead, schmead: Donald Sutherland’s nod for best supporting actor in ABC’s “Commander in Chief” caused some initial confusion. Touchstone Television, which produces the show, had nominated him for best actor, along with Geena Davis as best actress. But the selection committee for the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. took it upon itself to move him to the other category. “We unanimously felt he was supporting, in the same way as on ‘The West Wing,’ Martin Sheen is the only lead, because he’s the president,” said Jenny Cooney, head of the association’s television committee. “We felt that way about Geena Davis.”

A Ted Baxter moment: In announcing this morning’s Golden Globe nominations, a KCRW newscaster mistakenly referred to “Brokeback Mountain” as “Bareback Mountain,” causing faces to flush, wags to twitter and producers to consider a sequel.

Insta-hit: Six weeks before “King Kong” was set to premiere, James Newton Howard was brought in to replace the film’s original composer, Howard Shore, who had already completed more than two hours of scoring. The result? A Golden Globe nomination for best original score. (Rumor has it that by the time you read this, Howard will also have scored three more films, a country/rock song and a jingle for Dairy Queen.)

The more the merrier: Unlike the motion picture academy voters, whose exacting standards have sometimes caused there to be fewer than five nominees in an Oscars category, the Hollywood Foreign Press gang sometimes has trouble limiting itself to five. This year’s awards will see six nominees in each of four categories. (We feel compelled to point out our stellar work behind the camera at our child’s Christmas performance.... Perhaps there is still room in the director’s category?)

A “Housewives” in the making? The Emmy-winning “Lost” was nominated for three Golden Globes, including best actor for Matthew Fox, the first such lead actor nomination for the show. Fox said he is grateful that his gamble to enter in that category paid off: “I think there was some talk about putting myself in the best supporting actor category ... but I do feel pretty strongly about going for that lead actor thing. We just stuck with our guns on that.” There’ve been reports that the mysterious creature in the jungle feels slighted.

-- Elena Howe, Matea Gold, Maria Elena Fernandez