Odd Emmy moments

Fox cuts away as Sally Field speaks her mind on war

And the winner of the Most Controversial Political Moment: Sally Field, whose passionate acceptance speech when she took the award for lead actress of a drama series was cut short by Fox's standards and practices officials.

Field -- who was honored for her portrayal of Nora Walker, the matriarch of the fractious family on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" -- turned her moment onstage into a pointed antiwar statement.

"At the heart of Nora Walker, she is a mother," Field said. "So surely this belongs to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen, may their work be valued. . . And to especially the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait, wait for their children to come home, from danger, from harm's way and from war."

"I am proud to be one of those women," added Field, whose character's youngest son was deployed at the end of the show's last season. "And let's face it: If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamn war in the first place!"

But viewers missed most of her last sentence, as Fox abruptly cut away to a view of what appeared to be the back of the auditorium and the sound of a chattering crowd. A network publicist said Field was bleeped out because of her use of "god" and "damn" together.

When told by reporters backstage that her comments were cut, Field replied, "That's too bad, but I wanted to say something about the mothers who wait for their military children to come home from harm's way, from war. That's the heart of Nora's character this year."

"I shouldn't have said the 'god' in front of the 'damn,'. " she added. "But you're up there in front of the lights, it's flashing. I would've liked to have said more words to get bleeped out. I didn't have an agenda."

Her speech appeared to inspire at least one other award winner. Minutes after Field left the stage, "Sopranos" creator David Chase picked up on her theme, offered his own wry twist as he accepted the HBO show's award for best drama series.

"In essence, this is a story about a gangster," Chase said. "And gangsters are out there taking their kids to college and taking their kids to school and putting food on the table."

"And hell, let's face it, if the world and this nation was run by gangsters -- "" Chase paused and shrugged. "Maybe it is."

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A conservative Emmys

So how environmentally friendly were the 59th annual Emmy awards?

The red carpet was recycled, the flooring inside the Shrine Auditorium was made out of plastic bottles, and the circular stage was fashioned out of existing materials.

Oh yeah, and one more energy-saving measure: "To power tonight's show, we've got the entire cast of 'Kid Nation' backstage on treadmills," quipped host Ryan Seacrest. "Stay hydrated, guys."

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The "Sopranos" gang won't be back

We hate to disappoint any die-hard "Sopranos" fans, but according to director Alan Taylor, this season's finale of the award-winning HBO miniseries was truly the finale.

"It wasn't a door left open," Taylor said backstage at the Emmys. "It was exactly how David [Chase] wanted to end the show. People on the show think it meant [Tony] got whacked. Others don't. That conversation is what he wanted to happen. He loved the audience and the show. He didn't want the ending to tie things up. Like life, you don't know it's tied up until it's tied up, and then it's too late to talk about it."

Was Taylor surprised at the negative reaction the controversial ending provoked?

"At first, I was surprised by the level of rancor -- 'Don't be so surprised, it's just an ending.' But," he said, "people were pounding their fists on the TV sets."

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Has Canada been annexed?

True, Vancouver is billing itself as Hollywood North, but last time we checked there was still a border in place.

So what's up with Robert Duvall? In accepting his lead actor in a movie or miniseries Emmy for AMC's "Broken Trail," Duvall beamed that the show's success affirms the health of the genre -- "the western is here to stay, and I'm very glad I could be a part of it" -- further noting its relevance in Hollywood, in particular, and the U.S. in general.

"I never knew an actor in my lifetime or in anyone's lifetime who didn't want to do a western. We all want to do westerns, and believe me, it belongs to us in this country, uniquely to us," Duvall said, "starting with the Blues Brothers in Calgary, going down to Texas and back up."

Returning a few minutes later to accept the award for best miniseries, he gushed more about the great experience of filming this uniquely American set piece -- in Alberta, Canada.

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Deep "Roots" in TV history

Cicely Tyson was a stern presence backstage. She stopped one reporter who referred to the cast of "Roots" as "you guys" ("Leslie Uggams and I are ladies," the eminent actress said). Then she got into a strange exchange with LeVar Burton.

"Long-form television is dead . . ." Burton began.

Tyson put her hand on his chest and interjected: "Well, 'Roots' was the first miniseries, there was no miniseries before 'Roots.' "

Burton casually corrected her: "Well, it wasn't the first."

"It was the first," Tyson said emphatically.

The two then went off to the side of the stage, out of earshot of reporters, to debate television history, with Burton saying that "Rich Man, Poor Man" preceded the 1977 landmark miniseries on the legacy of slavery in America. (He was right.)

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Is Emmy moving out?

Is one of L.A.'s most famous venues becoming a Shrine of showbiz past?

During the Emmy broadcast on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the show confirmed that "there have been talks" of relocating the show but added that "it's not confirmed, so there is no comment."

That sounds like the award show's future may be in play and might not include the 6,500-seat venue that first opened its doors in 1926 and in recent years underwent $15 million in renovations.

There's not much cooking at the Shrine through the end of the year, and the venue has been losing its most prestigious trophy shows. The Oscars left in 2001 for a tailor-made home at the Kodak Theatre, and the American Music Awards have just announced that with November's show they will be moving to the soon-to-open Nokia Theatre in the new downtown L.A. Live complex.

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Piven vs. Ari: There's no contest

Jeremy Piven waxed on backstage after his Emmy win for playing über-agent Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage." Here's the recap:

On how he differs from his character: "When people meet me, they're bored. Some people find the humor in being crass. I'm a softy character actor from Chicago. I will bore you to tears."

On Ari, the sentimentalist: "Here is this aggressive, Type-A wrecking ball. He loves his family. You think he's a pig. But if he cheats on his wife, his whole life falls apart."

On hanging with his niece, Will Ferrell's new sidekick Pearl, the foul-mouthed toddler: "Bad news, she's so much of a better actor than I am, and so much more popular, and she's only been alive eight minutes!"

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Pressly may still be dizzy

Jaime Pressly huffed and puffed and worked out intensely to get her weight down so she could fit into the skimpy costumes worn by her character, Joy, on "My Name Is Earl." Then the show's writers made her character pregnant.

But wearing an uncomfortable "fat suit" on the set had its drawbacks. Not only did it cause Pressly's skin to break out and leave her drenched in sweat, but it also caused her to suffer dizzy spells.

"It's kind of like feeling the way I hear that women feel in menopause," she said backstage.

Pressly went on to say how much winning an Emmy meant to her. With a golden statuette firmly in her grasp, she said, she now thinks people will see that there is much more to her than, well, a skimpy outfit.

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Terry O'Quinn is tickled pink

Why, you ask, did Terry O'Quinn choose a bright pink shirt to go with his black suit on the night he won the television industry's most notable award?

"Because it's not white," the soft-spoken actor said backstage, still visibly affected by the adulation. "They say it takes a brave man to wear hot pink."

As for keeping his sanity, he credits "the hovering specter of poverty and my wife. You can't live with the illusion it's going to last forever. You're on a good run, you hope it's going to last."

Nominated twice, the "Lost" actor collected his first Emmy. O'Quinn, a fan favorite from the time viewers saw his paralyzed character walk after the plane crash, said that just before his win was announced he had thought to himself, "As soon as this award is done, I get to go to the bathroom."

Wrong!

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Steve Carell lets cat out of the bag

"The Office" star Steve Carell couldn't stop sweating on the red carpet and wiped his brow every 10 seconds during an interview with E's Giuliana Rancic. Still, when she asked if money and success had changed him, he concurred: "I've become evil. I've become a bad person. Money does that to people."

"We don't have any more cats in the neighborhood," added Carell's wife, Nancy.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Carell said. Gesturing to the rich and glamorous gliding into the Shrine, he added, "Most people here are bad. Most people are not nice."

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Less than animated

The show started off with a cloying cartoon character -- no, not Ryan Seacrest, it was Stewie (and Brian, his talking dog) from "The Family Guy." They had some good dingers in their musical number -- especially the line about Zach Braff being on an unfunny comedy and the blackout finale of "The Sopranos" -- but isn't the world a little weary of singing Toon Time at awards galas? Madonna performing with the Gorillaz at the Grammys was just weird, and people are still making fun of Rob Lowe's duet with Snow White at the Oscars in 1989.

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One golden boy to another

In his role as E! interviewer -- preceding his role as Emmy host -- Ryan Seacrest asked for some advice from past and future Oscar host Jon Stewart. Seacrest said he found asking stars what they were wearing on the red carpet was easier than hosting.

"This makes me more comfortable. In some strange way, I like the panic and the chaos," he said. And it didn't matter that his double duty for the event caused him to work double time. "When I suck I can blame it on the fatigue," Seacrest cracked. Stewart consoled him, "If this doesn't go well, people will die."

Then he cut him some slack and promised Seacrest that there would be another Emmys show next year and the world would go on.

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Longoria, wearing a shade of red

Nothing like getting to the point fast. TV Guide's Lisa Rinna started off the day by asking "Desperate Housewives' " Eva Longoria, "How's sex with Tony?" -- i.e. hubbie Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs basketball star.

A startled but good-natured Longoria laughed and said, "Good."

Joey Fatone, Rinna's co-host: "And he's a very tall man."

Rinna: "Now I'm speechless."

Longoria: "Well, now there's nowhere to go."

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Wall-to-wall carpet

"Who are you wearing?" is a red carpet standard. Then there are the curveballs. Here are a few of the stars and the blank-stare-inducing questions they had to deal with from one Fox reporter:

To Jon Stewart: "Do you still get star struck? Do you find yourself shrieking at these events?"

America Ferrera: "Do you feel like a Grecian goddess?"

Rebecca Romijn: "How is life like playing, what is it, a transgender. . . are you enjoying that?"

Steve Carell: "How are you holding up to all the success you've been having?"

Joely Fisher: "You seem like really love to play dress-up."

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No free songs from Tony Bennett

As Tony Bennett walked into the Shrine Auditorium, New York's Fox 5 entertainment reporter Toni Senecal interviewed him about his Emmy nominations this year. Then anchor Karen Hepp in New York relayed a question through her reporter: Would Bennett please sing something live on the air? Bennett looked incredulous and said: "You have to pay me." Senecal said, "I've got some money in my wallet," while Hepp laughed and said, "It's not in our budget."