Steven Soderbergh Was Nominated For Three Emmys: One Under His Real Name, Two Under Pseudonyms

We’ve already covered the Emmy nominations and all of the most pressing questions surrounding them, but there’s at least one more piece of business to get to from this morning’s announcement: Steven Soderbergh is nominated for three Emmys for his work on HBO’s Behind the Candelabra, but you’ll only see his name on the list once, in the category of Outstanding Directing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special. That’s because he earned the other two nominations under pseudonyms.

In the Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie category, Soderbergh is nominated under the name Peter Andrews, which he has used to shoot more than a dozen movies and a number of television episodes in the past.

For Outstanding Single-Camera Editing for a Miniseries or Movie, he’s listed as Mary Ann Bernard.

Both aliases are based on family names: Peter Andrews comes from his father’s first and middle names, while Mary Ann Bernard is his mother’s maiden name. [The Wrap]

I like this. This should happen more often. And it should be more secretive. I want to see an Emmy broadcast one year where someone named Max Ramble gets nominated for writing an episode of Parks & Rec or something, and no one at the ceremony has any idea who it is, and when he’s announced as the winner Quentin Taratino comes bounding onto the stage in a rumpled tuxedo and delivers a 20-minute acceptance speech about kung-fu movies no one has ever seen. That would be great. Let’s work on that. I know Tarantino’s down.

Photo credit: HBO

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