Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

8:57 p.m.: "Please welcome the cast of The Sopranos," the Fox flack announces, only to quickly correct herself. "Sorry, the producers of The Sopranos."

8:58 p.m.: Do we have a Sopranos boycott here? A protest, perhaps, because the acclaimed mob series only converted three of its 15 Emmy nominations into wins? Nope. For one thing, the show was named Outstanding Drama Series. For another thing, Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli, Aida Turturro and more are milling about as series creator David Chase and producers take the press-conference stage.

8:59 p.m.: Well, maybe James Gandolfini and Edie Falco are staging protests, because they're nowhere to be seen.

9 p.m.: Chase cuts to the chase when a reporter refers to the dearly departed Sopranos as being a seminal show. "I don't think we've had that much of an impact," he says by way of a shrug.

9:02 p.m.: Leave it to Paulie Walnuts. Actor Tony Sirico isn't shy about joining the producers onstage. And he's not shy about expressing himself on the Gandolfini Emmy defeat. "I think it was a shame...He should've won tonight," Sirico declares. "I speak for Jimmy when I say he can handle it."

9:03 p.m.: The producers depart, and the cast, still minus Gandolfini and Falco, take the stage.

9:08 p.m.: Actors whose characters were killed off on the seminal show—sorry, the nonseminal show—are asked to raise their hands. I count five, which seems low. Maybe some of the other stiffs are already hitting the post-Emmy parties.

10:01 p.m.: It's late. The pressroom's long since emptied of Emmy winners. The leftover organically grown and locally produced food is, if the press release is correct, on its way to a rescue mission.

10:02 p.m.: I wonder if I'm starting to look green.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 10:44 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

8:40 p.m.: "Tonight, I was really taken by surprise...I was just sort of dazed and confused when I was up there," says James Spader, an upset Lead Actor in a Drama Series winner for Boston Legal.

8:41 p.m.: Let's try not to imagine how James Gandolfini feels.

8:41 p.m.: So, are the Emmys better in the round? Not according to Spader. "It was disconcerting to speak at all with the way the stage was set up," he reports.

8:46 p.m.: According to Conan O'Brien, a winner for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Emmys in the round "was neat."

8:47 p.m.: The upbeat O'Brien, last year's Emmys host, has nothing but upbeat words for this year's Emmys host—once he's done joking that Seacrest is probably hosting a post-Emmys show in the parking lot. "I thought he did a nice job," O'Brien says of Seacrest.

"He did it his way."

8:49 p.m.: The cast of 30 Rock has arrived, literally and figuratively—minus Alec Baldwin, who lost the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy to Extras' Ricky Gervais, who isn't here, either.

8:50 p.m.: Tina Fey is under no illusion that the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy is going to mean more viewers for the low-rated 30 Rock. "I had friends on Arrested Development," Fey says. "So, I know how hard it can be."

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 10:34 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

8:27 p.m.: Daily Show winner Jon Stewart hasn't visited us back here for a couple of years, and he has been missed. "Did they use when I said cock?" goes his deadpan response to a question about the telecast's several bleeped-out moments.

8:28 p.m.: Stewart's just getting started—and so are the questions about the bleeps. Asked to comment on the Katherine Heigl moment—the Grey's Anatomy star was caught mouthing "s--t" when her Emmy win was announced—Stewart confesses, "I looked in the camera [once], and my eyes said s--t."

8:29 p.m.: Unfortunately, we can't ask Heigl about her "s--t" moment, or her vigorous defense of costar T.R. Knight during the Isaiah Washington imbroglio—she's a pressroom no-show.

8:29 p.m.: Stewart, recently tapped to host next year's Oscars, is already working on a game plan for the show. "I'll probably lay off the Brokeback Mountain stuff," the emcee of the 2006 telecast says. "I don't know if that'll be nominated again."

8:34 p.m.: Is it an advantage to be a bilingual actress in Hollywood? Radiant but composed Ugly Betty winner America Ferrera wouldn't know. "I was born and raised in the Valley, so I'm as bilingual as you, probably," the Latina star politely informs a presumptive reporter.

8:35 p.m.: Ferrera just as politely declines to respond to an inquiry about her love life. Her position remains unchanged since last January's Globes, where she offered a similar noncomment.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 9:57 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

8:10 p.m.: For a woman who made such a big antiwar statement in her acceptance speech, Brothers & Sisters winner Sally Field is so...small.

8:12 p.m.: "That's too bad," Field says sweetly, upon being informed that the "goddamned" part of her acceptance speech didn't make the Fox telecast.

8:15 p.m.: "Oh, well," Field says, upon being informed her bleeped-out remark is going to be one of the top Emmy stories of the night.

8:16 p.m.: Field's not done not getting upset about either being censored or stepping into a potential political minefield. "Good. I don't care. I have no comment other than, 'Oh, well.' That's my comment," she says, still as sweet as organically grown chocolate mousse. "I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world and let their work be seen and valued."

8:17 p.m.: But come on, Ms. Field, aren't you even a tad rankled by the network censor? "Oh, well. Too bad. That's a shame," the unshakable Field says. "I had no agenda...I wanted to pay homage to mothers, period—and especially mothers who wait for their children to come home from war."

8:18 p.m.: Field cracks! Just a teeny, tiny bit. "I think I probably shouldn't have said the 'god' in front of the 'damned.' " On the other hand, she adds, she's surprised she didn't say more words that sent the censors looking for the mute button.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 9:25 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

7:28 p.m.: Robert Duvall, another winner for Broken Trail, sounds every bit like the plainspoken men of the Old West he plays so well. "It worked out," Duvall says simply of his parents' suggestion he take up acting.

7:41 p.m.: Al Gore is the Helen Mirren of former vice presidents. When last we met, he was celebrating An Inconvenient Truth's Oscar win. Now he's hoisting a special Emmy for his cable venture Current TV and being asked if he intended to go for the Tony. "Thank you very much," Gore says, supplying the reporter's rim shot.

7:45 p.m.: I know politicians aren't known for their candor, but I'm banking Gore will be the one to tell us whether we pressroom creatures look better without all the fluorescent lighting.

7:46 p.m.: "I think they're using LEDs back here," Gore says, craning his neck. "I know that sounds like a geek or a wonk."

8:20 p.m.: Yes, Mr. Gore, it does. And it doesn't answer my question.

8:21 p.m.: Scary thought: Maybe Mr. Gore is too nice to tell me and my colleagues that the purple-hued chandeliers make us look worse.

7:50 p.m.: Eightysomething Tony Bennett, toting his Emmy for his variety special Tony Bennett: An American Classic, moves a little stiffly, but he can still project to the back of the room. "Thank you very much!" he booms.

8:01 p.m.: Does Jerry Bruckheimer, holding The Amazing Race's latest Reality-Competition Emmy, have any mercy for the perennially winless American Idol? Well, not really. "We just want to keep winning it," says Bruckheimer.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 8:53 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

7:08 p.m.: The cast of Jersey Boys is harmonizing back here on "Walk Like a Man."

7:09 p.m.: The guys sound lovely, but their performance in a pressroom is about as weird as, well, their singing in an Emmys telecast tribute to The Sopranos.

7:13 p.m.: I didn't know Kenny Mayne won an Emmy.

7:14 p.m.: The ESPN sportscaster didn't. It's Mayne look-alike Alan Taylor, who's back here after winning an Emmy for direction on The Sopranos.

7:15 p.m: "Nobody has any questions about The Sopranos?" a flack asks in disbelief when the pressroom falls silent.

7:16 p.m.: I hate to tell the flack, or Taylor, but I think it's that nobody has any questions for Taylor.

7:17 p.m.: Somebody has a question for Taylor! The reporter wants to know about the German phrase he dropped in his acceptance speech. "I'm so glad that's the only question I'm getting tonight," Taylor says drIly. "Who cares about The Sopranos—it's over."

7:18 p.m.: Well, I guess we know now where The Sopranos got some of its famous edge.

7:20 p.m.: If I were the paranoid type, I'd think Helen Mirren was stalking me. Every time I go to an awards show—bam!—there she is. What's her excuse this time?

7:25 p.m.: "I must be the only woman wearing the same shoes two years in a row," reports the well-traveled Mirren, whose excuse this time is her Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Emmy for Prime Suspect: The Final Act.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 8:28 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

6:55 p.m.: Thomas Haden Church, a winner for the miniseries Broken Trail, arrives, tie off, casual pose on. The Texas-born Church is chewing on...something. Something organic, hopefully.

6:56 p.m.: Where does Church get his strength, a reporter wants to know? "Fiber," he reports.

6:57 p.m.: "Brilliant actor!" Ben Vereen shouts at Church from the wings.

6:58 p.m.: Who does Vereen think he is? Cicely Tyson?

6:59 p.m.: "This thing is so pointy; it's like a barbecue fork," Church says, marveling at his spike-tipped statuette.

7:03 p.m.: "The Emmys are designed to be entertaining," says TV Academy chairman and CEO Dick Askin.

7:06 p.m.: "I think it's a very entertaining show," Askin continues.

7:07 p.m.: Look, if the Emmys bring joy to just one person, isn't that what it's really all about?

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 7:57 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

6:44 p.m.: The cast of Roots, we're told, is available for questions.

6:45 p.m.: How can you ask questions of the cast of Roots when you really just want to stare reverently?

6:50 p.m.: That Cicely Tyson isn't a legend—she's a pistol. She corrects a reporter who refers to the assembled actors as guys. "Leslie Uggams and I," she enunciates in that precise way she enunciates, "are ladies."

6:53 p.m.: Even with the TV sound down, comic Lewis Black is shouting so loud on the telecast he's threatening to drown out LeVar Burton, currently on a riff back here about the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

6:53 p.m.: Tyson's at it again. This time she's taking on Burton over whether Roots was TV's first miniseries. Burton suggests it was one of the first; Tyson insists it was the first. "It started that format," she declares.

6:54 p.m.: Who's going to tell Tyson that the likes of Rich Man, Poor Man and Upstairs, Downstairs were doing the miniseries thing before Roots took root? Not I.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 7:35 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

6:13 p.m.: Jeremy Piven, a repeat winner for Entourage, walks before the microphone, places his Emmy on the stage and casually puts back on his tux jacket while fielding his first question. All he needs is a fedora, a cigarette and a glass of amber-colored liquid for full-fledged Rat Pack membership.

6:14 p.m.: Piven flatly denies he's anything more than a regular old character actor from Chicago. "When people meet me," he says, "they're really bored with me."

6:16 p.m.: The boring Piven notes he has set a record for bringing his mother to the Emmys—"and I'm straight by the way."

6:18 p.m.: The boring Piven confesses that if they gave awards for work done in junior high, he'd be on hand hoping to get one. "I'm an actor," he explains.

6:19 p.m.: My turn. I ask Piven if, as a red carpet veteran, tonight's Emmys seem greener than past awards shows. Suddenly, he gets all serious: "We all realize that we need to embrace this," goes one call to action. "Now is the time," goes another; and "I drive a hybrid—I do what I can," goes yet another.

6:19 p.m.: Apparently, Piven thinks I wanted him to get political; I really just wanted him to tell me how I look under the nonfluorescent lights.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 6:59 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

5:20 p.m.: As we await our first Emmy winner, let me note that no matter what Eva Longoria said on the Fox preshow about it being roasting here at the Shrine, it has actually been a very mild Emmys, temperature-wise. I just knew the organically grown desserts would stem global warming!

5:24 p.m.: A reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune just asked me to stop bouncing my legs so much, on account of my bouncing is shaking the floor so much she can't jot down notes.

5:25 p.m.: In my defense, these things happen when you eat too much sugar for the environment.

5:36 p.m.: Terry O'Quinn, a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series winner for Lost, is the first Emmy bearer in our sights. To be honest, he's more pink than green. (It's a tie and shirt thing.)

5:37 p.m.: No, it's not just you, the poor, confused viewer. Per O'Quinn, his Lost character Locke is "a bit of a puzzle—he's not entirely knowable."

5:38 p.m.: About that pink-striped tie...O'Quinn's asked who made it. (An organic farmer, perhaps?) "Jeez, my wife told me, and I've forgotten," O'Quinn says, looking in vain for a label.

5:40 p.m.: No, it's not just you, the poor, confused viewer, who wonders if Locke is really Lost's mysterious man in the chair. Says O'Quinn, "I have no idea."

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 6:08 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

4:53 p.m.: I just spotted organically grown chocolate mousse on the food table, and by "spotted" I mean "consumed." Anyway, I'm digging the green kick the Emmys is on. I have got to find me that organic garden with the doughnut holes and the chocolate mousse. Maybe it'll have Milk Duds, too.

4:54 p.m.: It does! It does have Milk Duds! Two young women are walking the pressroom, distributing, cigarette girl-style, Milk Duds and radios. The radios are so that we can hear the Emmy telecast even when interviews are being conducted. The Milk Duds are so that, um, our mouths are too full to ask questions?

5 p.m.: It's Emmys time, and the big show is on four locally produced HDTVs.

5:08 p.m.: I don't think host Ryan Seacrest was trying to be funny as much as personable, which is good, because the writers back here, some of whom are critiquing the show, weren't laughing as much as typing.

5:11 p.m.: I think Ray Romano is trying to be funny, and still no laughter.

5:12 p.m.: But hey, I hear Romano's routine was organically grown, so good for the polar bears.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 5:33 PM

Categories: emmys 2007, backstage report

4:30 p.m.: So, I've been walking around the green Emmys—eco-friendly enough for Al Gore and Fox chieftain Rupert Murdoch combined—and here's what I've seen:

* A blood-red carpet, made of, we're assured, used plastic bottles. (Who knew old Dasani 12-ouncers made for such lush ground covering?)

* A black Los Angeles Police Department bomb-squad truck, made of, I hope, something a little sturdier than used plastic bottles.

* Seven (recyclable?) cardboard pizza boxes, containing, the security guards confirmed, pizza.

* One little green Prius amid an encampment of big, white TV trucks.

* Three purple-hued, chandelier-like displays in the pressroom in place of the usual banks of energy-sucking fluorescent lights.

* Blue recyclable trash containers next to the pressroom tables of, we're told, locally produced and/or organically grown food like, um, doughnut holes.

All in all, I'd have to say the show is, as billed, pretty green. I mean, seriously, organically grown doughnut holes? Who knew?

4:45 p.m.: By the way, it's possible the Emmys has reduced its carbon footprint by about three sizes too many. When I arrived at the pressroom, my power strip was out of juice.

4:47 p.m.: Out of juice...Wait, I get it. The power strip wasn't malfunctioning—it was doing a tie-in to the O.J. Simpson arrest. Clever.

* Posted by Joal Ryan on Sun, Sep 16, 2007, 5:20 PM