For the fourth year in a row, William Shatner has been Emmy-nominated for his performance as the infamous "Denny Crane." And on top of that, the Comedy Central Roast which put him through the ringer last August was nominated too.

Once again the Boston Legal star contends in the "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" category, in the Emmy nominations announced this morning. Shatner has won twice as "Denny Crane," the first time as a guest actor in The Practice and then the following year as supporting actor in Legal. He lost the supporting category last year to Alan Alda. This is Shatner's fifth Emmy nomination overall, having been tapped once for 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Shatner's competition this year includes Terry O'Quinn, who played "Admiral Pressman" in "The Pegasus." This is O'Quinn's second Emmy nomination as "John Locke" in Lost. Other contenders include the young Masi Oka from Heroes, Michael Emerson ("Ben Linus") from Lost, T.R. Knight from Grey's Anatomy and Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos.

Though the Shatman is not personally listed as a potential trophy recipient, "The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner" is a nominee for "Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Special." The competition there includes specials by Lewis Black, Tony Bennett, Wanda Sykes and others.

UPDATE 07.20.07: In this morning's Daily Variety, Shatner is quoted regarding the "Roast" nomination: "It was an act of courage to put myself on the line like that and be roasted in that matter and it can be quite a blow to the ego. I did it because it was a new experience and I thought I would take a chance. I didn't realize that halfway through the show I would be thinking, 'What have I done?' That act of foolhardiness has turned out to be a good guess."

In other categories, former Next Generation and Deep Space Nine writer/producer Ronald D. Moore has been nominated for Outstanding Dramatic Writing for his two-part Battlestar Galactica script "Occupation/Precipice," the third season premiere about life on Cylon-occupied New Caprica.

Moore will be competing against Damon Lindelof, producer of the next "Star Trek" movie, who co-wrote (with Carlton Cuse) the season-finale script for Lost titled "Through the Looking Glass."

Galactica also picked up nominations for visual effects artists formerly with Trek. Gary Hutzel, visual effects supervisor, and Doug Drexler, CG Supervisor, are listed among the "Special Visual Effects" nominees for the episode "Exodus, Part 2."

Vanessa Williams, the former Miss America who played "Arandis" in "Let He Who Is Without Sin...", garnered her first Emmy nomination, for Best Supporting Actress - Comedy for her role in Ugly Betty.

Padma Lakshmi, "Kaitaama" in "Precious Cargo," will be attending the Emmy ceremony because the cooking show she hosts on Bravo, Top Chef, was nominated for "Outstanding Reality-Competition Program."

Junie Lowry Johnson, casting director on many incarnations of Star Trek, is twice nominated for her trade on behalf of Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty — the latter with Libby Goldstein, who worked on Enterprise. Mary Jo Slater, who cast "Star Trek VI," also has two similar nominations.

Boston Legal was nominated for "Outstanding Drama Series" for the first time in its three-year history (and once again we ask, is it a comedy or a drama??). Also competing for top dramatic show is Heroes which features George Takei and Malcolm McDowell in its first-season cast. House and Grey's Anatomy are also vying, but The Sopranos may be the one to beat this year. Neither last year's winner, 24 with Manny Coto on the staff, nor the previous year's winner, Lost produced by J.J. Abrams, Lindelof and Bryan Burk, are in contention for Best Drama this year.

The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 16, and will be broadcast live on Fox.

Some of the awards, including the craft categories, will be handed out the week prior, on September 8, at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony also at the Shrine.