It was no surprise to see Showtime's Matt Blank and Robert Greenblatt looking like they were enjoying themselves Friday afternoon during their executive Q&A sesh. Any way you look at it, Showtime is on a roll. They're not getting the

"Why aren't you as cool as HBO?" questions lobbed at them at TCA anymore. Think of the programming assets Showtime has these days: "Weeds," "Dexter," "The Tudors," "Californication," "The L Word," "The Secret Diary of a Call Girl," "Brotherhood," "This American Life," "Penn and Teller's Bullshit!" and "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union."

Greenblatt reinforced the cabler's Big Mo with his rundown of the paybox's programming highlights during the past year, capped by Thursday by the best drama series Emmy nom nabbed by "Dexter." He also showed off clips of two intriguing half-hours  to come, "Nurse Jackie" (pictured left), starring Edie Falco as an unconventional nurse at a Gotham hospital; and the Toni Collette-John Corbett starrer "The United States of Tara" (pictured right), the brainchild of Steven Spielberg and Diablo Cody about a suburban mom with multiple personalities.

Greenblatt noted that Showtime's top buzz-getters, "Dexter" and "Weeds," are in a contest for bragging rights as the cabler's highest-rated shows. "Dexter" set a new high water mark for the feevee-er last September with its season two opener drawing more than 1 million viewers. "Weeds" has been smoking in its fourth season. Its June 16 debut brought in 1.35 million viewers for the premiere, and segs have been averaging a cume weekly rating of more than 3 million -- a ratings record by far for Showtime, Greenblatt assured the crowd.

We should've seen this coming. There's nothing Golden Globes voters like better than big stars in new clothes, and that's what FX served up this year in "Damages."

Legal murder-mystery thriller led the TV noms tally with four Globes chits, one for drama series, for star Glenn Close (pictured left) and costars Ted Danson (pictured right) and Rose Byrne.

It was a given that AMC's "Mad Men" would get some traction this year -- Globes voters rarely snub the buzz -- snaring a bid for best drama series and a richly deserved nod for its handsome star Jon Hamm. Same goes for ABC's "Pushing Daisies," a contender for comedy series and for stars Lee Pace and Anna Friel.

Back to the stars we-know-and-love derby, no surprise that Showtime's "Californication" made a good stand with a bid for best comedy and for star David Duchovny. Donald Sutherland of ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" made the cut in the supporting drama actor; so did Christina Applegate as lead comedy actress for ABC's "Samantha Who."

And in the spirit of the giving season, there was even a little something in the Globes stocking for 90-year-old Ernest Borgnine (pictured left), a telepic lead actor contender for Hallmark Channel's sweet-'n-sentimental "A Grandpa for Christmas." The last time Borgnine was nommed for a Golden Globe, he won -- for lead actor in 1955's "Marty," in which he played a less-than-handsome guy who's convinced he'll never meet Mrs. Right. (With all due respect to Borgnine, and I do mean all due, he was good in the bigscreen rendition of Paddy Chayefsky's telepic, but it's Rod Steiger in the original TV version of "Marty" who reaches down your throat, rips your heart out, pounds it into mush and then puts it back in just in time for him to find happiness with a young Nancy Marchand.)

All the "X-Files" you'll ever need is coming soon from Fox Home Entertainment in a big (61 discs big) box set with a bow tied around it and a $330 price tag, as DVD Spin Doctor reports. Gee, might this be advance promo-stoking for the upcoming "X-Files" movie that David Duchovny dropped a huge hint about during his TCA sesh on his Showtime comedy "Californication." We want to believe. We do know that Gillian Anderson is also on board for the pic. The first "X-Files" theatrical outing from 1998 is included in the box set as an extra...The plot thickens.

POSTED BY STEVEN ZEITCHIK

The story of an "X-Files" theatrical sequel has been as rife with red herrings as the abduction of Mulder's sister.

But David Duchovny says the project is more than just a conspiracy theory.

Series writers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz have completed a script, Carter will direct and Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are on board to star--at least according to the man who played Mulder.

"I wasn't trying to be coy," the actor said at a TCA panel promoting his new Showtime series "Californication," after reporters pressed him for details. "Gillian is on board and I'm on board," he said adding that he planned on reading the Carter-Spotnitz script next week. He also said that the movie could come out as early as 2008.

Movie has been discussed as a potential Fox project but may have gotten caught in a lawsuit between Carter and Fox.

Duchovny had been making comments about the project pretty much since the time when people reported an unidentified craft at Roswell. But this is the first time that anyone involved has acknowledged a completed screenplay--meaning that it may finally be time to stop the conspiracy theories...and cue the conspiracy theories.

--Steven Zeitchik

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

The truth is out there, and David Duchovny aims to find it at Showtime.

Five years after "The X-Files" ended its nine-year run, Duchovny returns to the airwaves -- though this time viewers will have to pay to see him -- in "Californication," a half-hour comedy about an author who has serious intimacy problems.

So what brought him back to TV?

"It was the script Tom (Kapinos) wrote, though I didn't think that if you do a pilot, you also have do the show, too," Duchonvy kidded. "I wasn't necessarily looking for a comedy but I was open to it."

Pilot episode has Duchovny character Hank Moody bedding many women while simultaneously trying to be a good father to his daughter, Becca (played by Madeleine Martin, who said of being part of the very adult drama, "I listen to my iPod during table reads").

Nudity and sex is a hot topic at TCA this year, with HBO's "Tell Me You Love Me" also generating headlines for its risque manner of filmmaking.

"It's a family show," clarified creator/exec producer Kapinos said of "Californication," "but a fractured, f---d up family."

Duchovny most recently starred in the bigscreen indie "The T.V. Set," which received generally good reviews. He scored two Emmy noms for "X-FIles," and also has one each for "The Larry Sanders Show" and for a guest spot in "Life With Bonnie." In 1997, he won a Golden Globe for his role as Fox Mulder.

Kapinos says the title comes from the 1970s term that citizens of Oregon used when they were concerned that the high influx of Californians would ruin their state. "This couldn't be set in another state."

When asked if his wife Tea Leoni might find her way into a few of the episodes, Duchovny -- who also acts as an exec producer -- said, ""We've always tried to not work together. It's mostly because she doesn't want to work with me."

Series, which also stars Brit Natascha McElhone, Evan Handler ("Sex and the City") and Madeline Zima, begins Aug. 13.

-- Stuart Levine