Winslet wins mini-series best actress award at Emmys

Winslet is one of several movie stars nominated at this year's ceremony

Kate Winslet has won the best actress in a mini-series prize at this year's Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

Winslet won for her performance in Mildred Place, a drama about a woman who bakes her way out of poverty.
The mini-series gained nine nominations, second only to comedy show Modern Family, which has 11.
A taped comedy routine by Alec Baldwin that was to open the ceremony was cut because it contained a joke about the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.
News Corp owns Fox, which is broadcasting the awards. Fox called the joke inappropriate, the Associated Press reported.
Martin Scorsese was shortlisted for directing the pilot of Prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire, which dominated last week's arts and crafts Emmys, taking home seven prizes including outstanding cinematography.

Steve Buscemi, whose films include Reservoir Dogs and Fargo, takes the lead role in Boardwalk Empire

The HBO programme is the show to beat in the best drama series category, where it threatens to rob advertising drama Mad Men of its fourth successive Emmy.
Other nominees in the category are The Good Wife, Dexter, Friday Night Lights and Game Of Thrones.
In HBO's Mildred Pierce, Winslet, 36, plays a divorced single mother who decides to open a restaurant business during 1930s Depression-era California.

“Start Quote

This was so much harder than every film project I've done since Titanic. It was like making two-and-a-half films in 16 weeks”

End Quote Kate Winslet on making Mildred Pierce

The role was famously played by Joan Crawford in a 1945 film noir.

Winslet beat Elizabeth McGovern, who plays the Countess of Grantham in ITV1's Downton Abbey in the category of best actress in a mini-series.
Jean Marsh is also nominated in this category for her portrayal of parlour maid Rose Buck in the BBC's Upstairs, Downstairs.
Marsh, who co-created the series, played the same part more than 40 years ago and was nominated for an Emmy in 1974, 75 and 76.
Upstairs, Downstairs has also landed Dame Eileen Atkins a nomination for best supporting actress, thanks to her role as intimidating matriarch Lady Maud Holland.
She battles against Dame Maggie Smith, who plays a parallel character in Downton Abbey.

Upstairs, Downstairs started life on ITV in 1971 before transferring to the BBC

Other notable nominees include Hugh Laurie, for his role as misanthropic medical genius Gregory House; Steve Buscemi, who plays corrupt politician Enoch "Nucky" Thompson in Boardwalk Empire; and Laura Linney, who stars in black comedy The Big C.
The awards are being hosted by Glee's Jane Lynch, herself shortlisted for best supporting actress in a comedy series.
Goodie bags
Comedy programmes took the early Emmys, with Melissa McCarthy taking the best actress in a comedy series and Jim Parsons of Big Bang Theory being honoured best actor in a comedy.
Modern Family won four awards while The Daily Show With Jon Stewart won Emmys for best writing and best variety, music or comedy series.
Julianna Margulies won the Emmy for best dramatic actress for her role in The Good Wife while Kyle Chandler won best dramatic actor for playing a football coach in Friday Night Lights.
Presenters at the ceremony include movie star Zooey Deschanel and comedienne Amy Poehler.
At Saturday's run-through, Poehler jokingly presented her Emmy to Barack Obama, "for this rehearsal only."
When producers asked her to practice accepting the award, in case the recipient was absent, she playfully admonished: "[He] thought he was too special to come tonight. Bad move."
Meanwhile, stars attending the ceremony are being lavished with the customary gift bags.

Julianna Margulies and Scottish actor Alan Cumming are nominated for The Good Wife

Despite the economic downturn, freebies are in great abundance with notebook computers, designer sunglasses, handbags and even high-end baby strollers on offer.
But these are all distractions from the night's main prize - a golden Emmy statuette.
Shows with multiple nominations this year include Tina Fey's comedy series 30 Rock, and legal drama The Good Wife, both of which have six nods.
So, too, does Too Big To Fail, a dramatisation of the 2008 financial meltdown by LA Confidential director Curtis Hanson.
Other prominent nominees include Downton Abbey, with five, The Kennedys, Game Of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and the US adaptation of Danish police procedural The Killing, all of which have four.