ENTERTAINMENT: Las Vegas Emmy nomination ties

  Las Vegas isn’t a big TV-industry town when it’s not serving as a backdrop for production. But the Emmy nominations announced today again honor Rio headliners Penn & Teller, at right, and stage designer Andy Walmsley, at bottom right.
  Penn Jillette and the single-named Teller — along with writer Michael Goudeau, who also performs with Lance Burton — were nominated for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming for their Showtime series “Bullshit!” The “New Age Medicine” episode was singled out in the series that devotes each half-hour to debunking its selected topic.
  The series also was nominated for its editing, though Jillette and Teller were not personally nominated in that category.
   The series has been nominated 13 times previously, five for writing and four for overall nods in the reality category. In its seventh season, it is Showtime’s longest-running series.
  Walmsley’s set for “American Idol” was nominated for Outstanding Art Direction For Variety, Music Or Nonfiction Programming.
  The British set designer moved to Las Vegas four years ago and his recent work includes the sets for Mirage headliner Terry Fator and Flamingo magician Nathan Burton. It’s his third Emmy nomination (same category, all for "Idol") but “still very exciting,” he said by e-mail today from the less-exciting confines of the dentist’s office.
  Walmsley also is trying to launch a Web site for Las Vegas entertainment professionals: www.vegasliveshowpro.com.
  He is not Las Vegas-based, but David Rockwell — the ubiquitous designer who did the sets for “Peepshow,” the custom theater for “Phantom” and retail-restaurant space at CityCenter — is competing against Walmsley. Rockwell is nominated for his stage design for the Academy Awards.

  Los Angeles-based choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D'Umo, both graduates of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, were nominated for Outstanding Choreography for "So You Think You Can Dance," as was Mia Michaels, who chroeographed Celine Dion's "A New Day."
  The awards involving local nominees won’t make the CBS prime-time ceremonies, but will be included in the Creative Arts ceremonies on Sept. 12 in Los Angeles.