Diggs, Howard, McDonald, et al. Receive Image Award Nominations

Nominations were announced today for the 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards, which will be bestowed on Thursday, February 14 and broadcast on FOX Television.

Performers receiving double nominations include Denzel Washington for both acting in and directing The Great Debaters, which received a total of eight nominations; Queen Latifah, for her work in Hairpsray and the TV film Life Support; and S. Epatha Merkerson, currently starring in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Come Back, Little Sheba, for her work in the TV series Law & Order and the TV film Girl Positive.

Terrence Howard, who is about to make his Broadway debut in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, is up for Best Actor in a Motion Picture for his work in Pride. His co-star in that show, Anika Noni Rose, is nominated for the TV miniseries The Starter’s Wife. Other prominent film and television nominees include Chiewtel Eijofor and Don Cheadle (Talk to Me), Loretta Devine (This Christmas), Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Taye Diggs (Private Practice), Audra McDonald (Private Practice), Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy) Dule Hill (Psych), Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order), Jimmy Smits (Cane), and Daniel Sunjata (The Bronx Is Burning).

For more information, visit www.naacpimageawards.net.