The Envelope recruited three groups of Emmy experts to predict who'll nab nominations when bids are unveiled at 5:35 a.m. PT on Thursday.

Two actual voters who judged episode samples submitted in the races for best drama and comedy series squared off against top TV journalists and two of The Envelope's message board moderators known for their Emmy expertise.

There's strong disagreement over many of the contenders. The Emmy voters, for example, don't believe "Lost" or "Friday Night Lights" will make the list for best drama, but both shows have strong support among journalists and Envelope moderators. As for Heroes? Read below.

Here's the breakdown:

2 EMMY VOTERS (Anonymous)

Judges agree in both drama and comedy series categories:

BEST DRAMA SERIES
"Grey's Anatomy"
"Heroes"
"House"
"The Sopranos"
"24"

BEST COMEDY SERIES
"Entourage"
"The Office"
"30 Rock"
"Two and a Half Men"
"Ugly Betty"

*******************

TV JOURNALISTS

Marc Berman, Mediaweek
Robert Bianco, USA Today
Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel
Michele Greppi, TV Week
Tom O'Neil, Gold Derby, TheEnvelope.com
Ray Richmond, Hollywood Reporter
Matt Roush, TV Guide
Mo Ryan, Chicago Tribune
Diane Werts, Newsday
David Zurawik, Baltimore Sun

BEST DRAMA SERIES
"The Sopranos" -- Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O'Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
"Friday Night Lights" -- Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
"Heroes" -- Berman, Boedeker, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
"Lost" -- Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O'Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan
"House" -- Bianco, Boedeker, O'Neil, Roush, Ryan, Zurawik
"Grey's Anatomy" -- Berman, Bianco, O'Neil, Roush, Zurawik
"24" -- O'Neil
"Brothers and Sisters" -- Werts
"Rescue Me" -- Richmond
"The Shield" -- Werts

BEST COMEDY SERIES
"30 Rock" -- Berman, Bianco, Greppi, O'Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
"Ugly Betty" -- Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O'Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts, Zurawik
"The Office" -- Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, O'Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan, Werts
"Entourage" -- Berman, Bianco, Boedeker, Greppi, Richmond, Werts
"Scrubs" -- Berman, O'Neil, Richmond, Roush, Ryan
"Two and a Half Men" - Greppi, O'Neil, Roush, Ryan
"Desperate Housewives" -- Boedeker, Werts, Zurawik
"My Name Is Earl" -- Boedeker, Greppi
"Extras" -- Zurawik
"The New Adventures of Old Christine" - Bianco
"Weeds" -- Zurawik

ENVELOPE FORUM MODERATORS

Chris "Boomer" Beachum, Robert "Rob L" Licuria

DRAMA SERIES
"The Sopranos" -- Beachum, Licuria
"Grey's Anatomy" -- Beachum, Licuria
"Lost" -- Beachum, Licuria
"Friday Night Lights" -- Beachum, Licuria
"24" -- Beachum, Licuria

COMEDY SERIES
"The Office" -- Beachum, Licuria
"30 Rock" -- Beachum, Licuria
"Ugly Betty" -- Beachum, Licuria
"Two and a Half Men" -- Beachum, Licuria
"Scrubs" -- Beachum, Licuria

** We'll have the official word on whether or not Heroes make the cut as soon as it's announced.

Unlike other, concrete news about the cast of Heroes - such as the fact that fans are excited for Dianna Agron to join the series - the following is largely based on conjecture.

But Zachary Quinto told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in December that he'd love to take on the rold of Spock in the next Star Trek film:

"I missed the Superman Returns boat ... so I'm angling for Star Trek. People are constantly telling me I bear some resemblance to Leonard Nimoy."

He then joked about getting Greg Grunberg (good friend of Trek director J.J. Abrams, and fellow Heroes star) to put in a good word for him.

"Maybe Sylar should tell Greg, 'I promise I won't kill you if you get me an audition.' We'll see what happens."

That was last year. Rumors are now swirling, however, that Abrams will announce the official Star Trek XI cast later this month at ComicCon.

As of now, Star Trek XI is due to hit theaters on Christmas Day, 2008.

Yes, you read that headline correctly.

Before season two of Heroes hits the airwaves in September, you can relive season one with a collection of Heroes trading cards. Pre-order them today.

And don't worry about breaking that Hayden Panettiere card. It'll regenerate.

Not much news to report as the cast of Heroes embarks on its world tour. So we figured we'd bring fans a quick look at Milo Ventimiglia.

The young actor can't exactly absorb super powers like his alter ego, Peter Petrelli, but here are some interesting tidbits about him:

Milo Ventimiglia Fast Facts:

• Interned at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
• Was onced asked by an agent to shorten his last name to Venti.
• Is an accomplished cook.

Milo Ventimiglia Relationships:

• Alexis Bledel - Ex-significant Other
• Rose Ventimiglia - Sister

College:

• Attended University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Dominic Keating, possibly best know for his role as Lt. Malcolm Reed on the final Star Trek spinoff, has been added to the second season cast of Heroes.

He joins a slew of other new actors, led by Dianna Agron, the actress seen as various minor characters on Veronica Mars.

Keating will play a super-powered Irish mobster, while Agron will join Hayden Panettiere in the role of mysterious cheerleaders. We wonder what will happen if Peter Petrelli saves TWO cheerleaders? Does he save two worlds?

Other recent additions to the series include David Anders (Sark on Alias), Nick D'Agosto, Shalim Ortiz and Dania Ramirez (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-Men 3).

Heroes producers have been very secretive with details as to what powers each character will have. But we'll be sure to let you know more when we do.

There was no rest for Ali Larter in between season one and season two of Heroes.

She filmed the movie Resident Evil: Extinction, a role we assume was only helped by her portrayal of Jessica on our favorite show.

Here's a screen cap of Larter from the film:

Another Heroes fan site, 9th Wonders, talked with Greg Grunberg early on last season. Here's what the man who portrays Matt Parkman had to say...

Were you part of the initial casting process for Heroes?
I was. I actually read for Milo's role. I had worked with the director, Dave Semel, on House, and I had a deal with NBC. And my deal was coming up, I'd done a pilot for them that they didn't pick up, and I so desperately wanted to work with NBC. I just love them. I love what they do. They get me.

And right at the very end of my deal, they sent me this script, and said would you go in and audition and meet with Tim Kring for this role. Found out that Dave Semel was doing it, and so I went in. It was only an hour-long script when I got it. I called Dave, and I said "hey, I'm so excited, I'm gonna go read for you tomorrow," and he said "You're completely wrong for that role." And I had prepared, and everything. I go in, and I audition. I said "I'm gonna knock your socks off. You're gonna love it. I really wanna do this."

Because when I read the pilot, it read to me like a MOVIE. It didn't read like a show. It truly read like something which is, you know, I'm a fan of the genre, and I love the fact that when you create something like this, you're creating a world, the mythology, the history, the future - it has to be laid out. You have to have answers. Not every answer, but you've gotta know where this stuff's going for it to really work, and it just seemed like a story that somebody had wanted to tell and had been working on for their whole life. Tim assures me that's not the case, he threw it together in a matter of weeks.

But it really is so well-written, and I love his writing, and coming from the world of Lost, and Alias, and JJ's writing, and Jesse Alexander, and Damon, these guys - they're just such good writers that, when I read this, I was like "Okay. This is what I want to do." There were a number of pilots I was considering.

Anyway, I went in there, auditioned, I wasn't right for it, but Tim had something up his sleeve, which was the second hour of this two-hour pilot that he was planning, and one of his favorite characters, he's told me since, is this cop. So as I was driving home, they called me and said hey, we're gonna send you a script, if you would play this guy, we'd love you to play this guy. So it was an offer, immediately, it was great. After this audition, I read it, I LOVE this character because I think it's one of the most relatable characters, because his ability is one of the least fanciful abilities, which is reading minds. I mean, obviously, it's still a leap, but something that we can all relate to more than flying or some of the other ones.

So I jumped on it, I loved it. We shot the two-hour pilot, and I think now, I'm not sure exactly, but I don't know if I'm going to be in the pilot-pilot, but that's fine. My character is a very integral part of the show, and has been since the beginning.

What can you say about your character of Matt?
He's this frustrated cop. Frustrated just because he, like all of these other characters, is like most other people. If you talk to people, everyone feels like they are possibly not destined to do more, but everybody feels like they can do more in their life, whether it be lose weight, or get in a better relationship, this guy feels like he needs to be more a part of the action. He wants to be a detective. He's a LAPD beat cop. He's taken the detective test three times, and not passed, and why has he not passed? Because he's got a secret that he doesn't want to share with the department, for fear that he'd be put down to a desk job, which is he's dyslexic.

It's something that's been a real problem. He and his wife have argued about this for years. She's like, just divulge it, who cares. I can't tell them. She's frustrated because she's happy with her life. She's like, "Matt, we can't be happy unless you're happy. Why can't you just be content with where you are in your life?"And I've said for years, in this relationship to her, I know that I'm destined to do more. I know I can do more. I want to be where the action is.

I'm not going to retire a beat cop. And just like anybody else in life, if you were stranded on a desert island and you wanted to lose weight, there you go. You're gonna lose weight. Except for Hurley. Somehow Hurley has found a way to keep the weight on. But if you hate your situation in L.A., and someone picks you up, puts you in a box, and ships you to Florida, you don't know anyone. Now you've got to start your life.

Continue Reading...

Tim Kring, creator of Heroes, recently sat down with Superherohype.com. Here's what the writer had to say:

Q: Is everyone coming back for Season Two?
Kring: Well, I don't want to spoil that for the fans. Clearly we left things up in the air with several of the characters and we want to make sure that the fans don't know what's going to happen so that it doesn't spoil their [enjoyment].

Q: You said 24 episodes. Does that mean no one really died?
Kring: Again, you really just have to wait.

Q: But you're keeping them available so you can bring them back?
Kring: Exactly, they're all on retainer just in case they're needed. [joking]

Q: You have at least eight new or recurring characters. How has it been integrating them in the writing?
Kring: A lot of it was planned for and felt fairly natural. So it's a big cast. One of the things that we are doing this year, because we're not asking the audience to start absolutely from scratch, we're not so concerned about every episode having every single character in it. So we're able to sort of pull back in the ebb and flow and let certain characters come to the surface for an episode and sit out an episode.

Q: Are you talking more about episodes like "Company Man" where it's focused on one story?
Kring: Yes, exactly. The idea of being able to focus on a couple of characters is something that we really learned last year as a very valuable thing to do, but you had to have earned enough interest in those characters to be able to then focus on them.

Q: How are you creating feudal Japan in modern day Los Angeles?
Kring: Well, as we know, Los Angeles has doubled for many, many things. On this show it's doubled for a lot of things. So it's a fairly, I will say, rural view of feudal Japan which allows us to use a lot of the outlying areas like the Santa Monica Mountains and north of here.

Q: Are you going to do anything this season for fans who didn't watch last season to be able to jump in and understand what's happening?
Kring: Yes, that is a big part of what we're doing. I mean, one of the things that I sort of learned in the first season was that we called season one Volume One and it was entitled "Genesis." It just happened to be twenty three episodes long. Volume II is entitled "Generations" and it by no means has to be an entire season long. I wouldn't expect it to be an entire season long.

In fact we're looking at that volume to end in the middle of the season which allows us to wrap up certain stories and allows us to have new stories begin. So you don't get a sense that if you jump on the train that you're aggressively being pushed off of the train because you don't know what's going on. That's a big concern with us.

Q: Do you see the second season as being two big archs or do you not know yet about the second half?
Kring: Well, it's designed to be three. We'll see how that works out.

Q: So will there be some kind of recap for people who didn't see last season?
Kring: Only slightly because the actual episode itself, it's an episode entitled "Four Months Later" and so we pick up the stories four months after we left off at the end of the season. There is tremendous mystery in what happened during those four months and that's part of why you're watching these first few episodes. They're revealing what actually happened. So the recap, in a way, is sort of built into the story.

Q: How do you feel about the mixed fan reaction to the finale?
Kring: I didn't really experience the mixed fan reaction. I heard anecdotally that people loved it and clearly on a show like this, again this is one of the problems with a big serialized show which is that by the time you get to twenty three episodes in you're dragging a tremendous amount of story behind you. So when people wait that long for answers it gets very hard to satisfy people.

This is another reason why I think these volumes are really the way to go because it allows us to not have people build up expectations for so long as to how things are going to be resolved. When you build up for a whole year with a show like this it has an addictive quality to it and so it has to really pay off. Sometimes those expectations are too high for a mere television show.

To read the entire interview, click here.

As you might have predicted, the cast of our favorite show will be present for the 2007 Comic Con convention on Saturday, July 28 to promote the show.

Reportedly, the Heroes panel will last approximately 75 minutes - and you'll get a glimpse of some exclusive clips from the upcoming season, while also enjoying a question and answer session with the cast and crew.

Heroes will get its chance at the spotlight on Saturday, from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Here's Comic Con's blurb on the event:

12:45-2:00 Heroes: Exclusive Volume II Clip and Q&A: Heroes chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. Be the first to see an exclusive clip from Volume II and learn more about the DVD Heroes 360 and more.

Participate in a Q&A session moderated by co-executive producer/comic book writer Jeph Loeb, with creator Tim Kring, comic book artist Tim Sale (Batman: The Long Halloween), and the entire cast: Jack Coleman (H.R.G.), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), and more.

Here's a picture of Milo Ventimiglia about to blow out the candles on his 30th birthday cake over the weekend.

The actor and friends went to TAO Asian Bistro at the Venetian Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to celebrate the occasion on Friday, July 6.