McCarthy Learns of Emmy Nod While Announcing Nominees

Plainfield native nominated for her first TV acting award for role as teacher on 'Mike & Molly.'

Plainfield native Melissa McCarthy received her first Emmy nomination today for her role as a teacher who finds love with a Chicago cop on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly. The actress learned of her nod while announcing the 2011 Primetime Emmy nominations in Los Angeles with Joshua Jackson, one of the stars of the Fox drama Fringe. The announcement came near the end of the list, and clearly caught McCarthy by surprise. "Oh, my god, yikes," she said, as she immediately had to announce another list of nominees. "OK, keep it together." McCarthy is nominated in the best actress in a comedy series, along with Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie (Showtime), Tina Fey, 30 Rock(NBC), Laura Linney, The Big C(Showtime), Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope(Fox) and Amy …

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Mrs. Breen Fondly Recalled by 'Missy's' Friends

Teacher made quite an impression on her middle-school students in the 1980s at St. Mary Immaculate School, then called St. Mary's Academy.

Girls with fond recollections of Melissa McCarthy’s Mrs. Breen have been forwarding their memories our way since she showed up right under our noses last month. Lynne Breen, now Lynne Mau, a second-grade teacher at Troy Heritage Trail Elementary School, became something of a shirt-tail celebrity when actress Melissa McCarthy told Plainfield Patch that she was her inspiration for the teacher role she plays on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly. The young Mrs. Breen, just 23, was in her first year of teaching at Plainfield's St. Mary Immaculate School -- then call St. Mary’s Academy -- when she met the petite, bouncy fifth-grader everyone remembers as “Missy.”  Like McCarthy, her classmates recall Mau as a pretty, stylish teacher who never made …

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We've Found Melissa McCarthy's Mrs. Breen -- You'll Never Guess Where

Months after actress from Plainfield said grade school teacher was inspiration for her TV role, we've finally found her at Troy Heritage Trail Elementary.

Melissa McCarthy’s mysterious Mrs. Breen is missing no longer. In fact, the former St. Mary Immaculate School fifth-grade teacher, whom McCarthy cited as her inspiration for her role as an elementary school teacher on the hit CBS sitcom, Mike & Molly, has been in our midst the entire time. Last fall, when Plainfield native McCarthy told Plainfield Patch that she would love to reconnect with her favorite teacher, we launched an effort to find Mrs. Breen. We had nearly given up hope when a former classmate of McCarthy put us in touch with Lynne Breen, who now goes by Lynne Mau. She teaches second grade at Troy Heritage Trail Elementary, where she's been for the past two decades. Mau, now 54, didn’t realize the “adorable” little Missy …

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