Emmy Awards Gossip

A week ago, we were treated to drama, controversy and egomaniacal outbursts at the MTV Video Music Awards. Last night's Emmy Awards? More low-key.

The Emmys, after all, actually honor creative arts, rather than just throwing a bunch of celebs together under the pretense of doling out made-up awards.

So while there was no Kanye West outburst (though host Neil Patrick Harris quipped that he hopes Kanye loves 30 Rock), there were plenty of highlights:

• To the surprise of no one, 30 Rock and Mad Men repeated as Emmy winners for Best Comedy and Best Drama, the former winning its third straight.
• While he did not win Outstanding Supporting Actor for How I Met Your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris was the best host in years. As Jon Stewart said, "You're doing a great job, Neil .. normally, these things really suck."
• Quote of the night: "Amy and I are honored to be presenting on the last official year of network broadcast TV." - presenter Julia Louis-Dreyfus
• She may not have taken home a trophy, but for our money, Sarah Silverman's moustache cemented her as the funniest of the ladies nominated.
• Inspiration from Outstanding Reality TV Host, Survivor's Jeff Probst: "If you have a dream, dream big, pursue it with a passion. The adventure you're ready for is the one you get. Life is short. Go for it. Thank you."

Alec Baldwin further cemented his place as the funniest dude on TV by winning Best Actor in a Comedy. He won't be winning any awards for Best Dance Moves, though.

• Glenn Close (Damages) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) won top drama acting honors in the drama field, while Cherry Jones (24) and Michael Emerson (Lost) were recognized for their supporting, dramatic roles.
• Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) won Best Actor in a Comedy, while Toni Collette (The United States of Tara) pulled a minor upset in winning Best Actress.
• Shortly after accepting a well-deserved Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Emmy for her role on the now-axed Pushing Daisies, paramedics were called to tend to Kristin Chenoweth, who had a severe migraine.
• Jon Cryer won Outstanding Supporting Actor for Two and a Half Men.
• Justin Timberlake won another Emmy. Is there anything he can't do?
• They weren't nominated for any awards, but Gossip Girl stars Blake Lively and Leighton Meester made some of our favorite fashion statements.
• On the men's side? Wow, that Don Draper sure is a hunk, isn't he?
• Sultry Dancing with the Stars duo Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who recently called off their engagement, performed an exciting number, but fought noisily behind the scenes. There had to be some drama.

There were some predictable outcomes and a few surprises. Overall, the 2009 Emmy Awards got it more or less right. See below for a full list of winners at last night's awards show. Did your favorite show or actor/actress win?

Best Series, Drama

Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men - WINNER

Best Series, Comedy

30 Rock - WINNER
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight Of The Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
Weeds

The cast of NBC's award-winning 30 Rock.

Best Actor, Drama

Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad - WINNER
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Hugh Laurie, House
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Simon Baker, The Mentalist

Best Actress, Drama

Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Glenn Close, Damages - WINNER
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men

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Candidates for the 2009 Emmy Awards were announced this morning.

30 Rock and Mad Men led their fields with 22 and 16 nominations, respectively. Sadly, there was no love for The Hills or The Bachelor in the Best Drama category, but here's a full list of major nominees:

Outstanding Comedy Series
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

Tina Fey, seen here holding last year's Emmy, and Alec Baldwin bring the funny to 30 Rock every Thursday night.

Outstanding Drama Series
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

Lead Actor in a Drama
Brian Cranston, Breaking Bad
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Michael C Hall, Dexter
Hugh Laurie, House
John Hamm, Mad Men
Simon Baker, The Mentalist

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If Paula Abdul were her own fashion judge, she'd tear up at how beautiful and moving she looked. Perhaps she'd even slap Simon Cowell for suggesting otherwise.

Unfortunately for anyone that had to see the female American Idol judge last night, the dress she chose to wear would never have made it to the finals of any competition.

Take a look for yourself:

Before you recoil in horror, however, remember: some people actually looked good at the Emmys. Go take a look at those traffic-stoppers now.

Last night, Jeremy Piven won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.

He has now also earned The Gossip's award for Best Line of Insult Hurled Against Billy Bush.

During the red-carpet prelude to the Emmys, the Access Hollywood VJ corralled Piven questioned him about a slew of celebrity babies.

Because Piven had just flown in from Arizona, where he was shooting a movie with Jennifer Garner, Bush asked him about Garner's and Ben Affleck's baby, Violet.

From there, the kid questions flew. Seeing as the Entourage star lives in Malibu, Bush inquired about whether or not he had laid eyes on Brangelina's baby, Shiloh. Piven said he hadn't, explaining that he had: "116 other things to do ... I don't go hunting for celebrity babies, thank you, Billy."

Of course, this didn't deter the undeterable Bush. He continued to press the issue, asking Piven if he'd seen Suri Cruise. The soon-to-be Emmy winner lost his patience on that one.

"You need another job. You have potential as a human being ... This may not be right for you. Seriously - can you focus on other things?"

Well said, quasi Ari Gold. We'd encourage you to say the same thing to Lindsay Lohan ... but she has no potential as a human being.

Ok, ok, so Grey's Anatomy didn't win any Emmy Awards last night. We'll get over that shortly.

Helping us to do so would be how striking Katherine Heigl looked in her dress. She's certainly in the running for Best Dressed from the ceremony. Here she is, along with a pair of other hotties that looked dashing walking across the red carpet:

Meanwhile, Heather Locklear was on hand to honor Aaron Spelling. If the former Melrose Place star was still smarting from the deception of ex-best friend, Denise Richards, she didn't show it here:

Finally, Jeremy Piven is allowed to be as silly as he wants now. The actor won the Emmy many believed he should have taken home a year ago for his role in Entourage:

Emmy host, Conan O'Brien claimed ABC wasn't supporting its own show, Grey's Anatomy, by showcasing a major movie against the award program.

What about Emmy voters themselves, however? The hospital drama received no love at all, failing to garner a single victory. Here's a rundown of those who did have reasons to celebrate at the end of the day:

• Jack Bauer: People were probably afraid NOT to hand over a trophy to Kiefer Sutherland, lest they feel his character's wrath. Which is not to say that 24 didn't deserve to win Best Drama and the actor to finally be rewarded for his work as Best Lead Actor in a Drama.

• Office workers: We were pulling for Scrubs, but have no real complaints with The Office taking home the award for Best Comedy. But Tony Shaloub over Steve Carell for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy? For shame.

• Veteran favorites: Julia-Louis Dreyfuss broke free from the supposed Seinfeld curse by winning Best Lead Actress in a Comedy, while Law & Order: SVU fans must've been thrilled that Mariska Hargitay was finally called on stage for Best Lead Actress in a Drama.

• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: The satirical newscast, earned two Emmys, for best variety, music or comedy and the writing award for that category.

Other winners included: Alan Alda for his supporting role in the last season of The West Wing; Megan Mullally, also honored for her performance in another show's closing season, Will & Grace; and Jeremy Piven for his hilarious work in Entourage.

We have no beef with any of those. But, seriously, nothing at all for Grey's Anatomy? A recount may be in order.

The Emmy Awards air this Sunday night. But forget whether or not Grey's Anatomy can win Best Drama (it can and should!), we know most people can't wait for Monday morning.

How come? Because that's when they can dissect celebrity fashion from the show, picking apart every dress and tuxedo worn like high school seniors doling out yearbook superlatives.

But why wait? Let's look at three women from the past couple years that would certainly be in the running for Best Dressed ...

Granted, Halle Berry could wear a garbage bag and be responsible for drool on the chin of every male attending the ceremony. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't recognize true beauty when we see it:

At this point, we don't care if Jennifer Aniston is engaged or not. We just want her to keep looking this gorgeous every time she walks down a red carpet:

Sarah Michelle Gellar slayed many vampires during her television days, but she never took home an Emmy. Oh well. At least she wore this dress:

Uh-oh. The Emmy Award gloves are coming off!

Host Conan O'Brien was recently quoted as chiding ABC for not supporting its own, heavily nominated show. See, Grey's Anatomy is up for 11 awards and the late night talk show host seems to think its network should, therefore, encourage viewers to watch the Emmy broadcast. Even though it's on NBC.

Instead, the folks at the American Broadcasting Corporation are showing Pirates of the Caribbean in a counter-programming move.

"It just isn't done," O'Brien said of the aggressive scheduling. "ABC is pretty much saying, 'No one watch the Emmys! Screw you, Grey's Anatomy!'"

Scheduling a movie to garner ratings for your network isn't done, Conan? The Gossip doesn't see a reason why ABC would actually want viewers to tune in to the Emmys - they just hope Grey's Anatomy rakes in the awards and then the channel can market the heck out of that fact.

Plus, the Emmys did completely snub Desperate Housewives and Lost, so ABC has legitimate reasons for taking aim at the show's ratings.

No wonder Jeremy Piven has been such a success as mega agent, Ari Gold, on the HBO hit, Entourage. He follows the story lines in real life!

Just like the show's main character, Vince, did with the premiere of his latest movie, Piven plans to take his mom, Joyce, to the Emmy Awards next month. And it's not out of duty or pity, but if he wins ...

"It means I may get a chance to talk about my mother in public. That would be unbelievably exciting," he says. "You know, she put me onstage when I was 8 years old and I was doing Chekhov."

Eventually, Piven settled into a series of supporting gigs in movies such as "Say Anything," "Singles," "PCU," "Grosse Pointe Blank," and "Old School." None produced the sort of fame, attention or acclaim, however, as Ari; simply put, the funniest ass on TV.

"I've been kicking around for a while. I'm a 40-year-old guy, you know? And I feel like I'm just coming into my own," he says. "I've been apprenticing this job for 20 years with Garry Shandling and Morgan Freeman and Dustin Hoffman and every person I've been lucky to be around."

Piven believes his age makes the growing celebrity status more manageable.

"When [actors] become famous before they grow into themselves as an actor and a human being, it can be dangerous territory. I've seen it," he says. "I'm just incredibly lucky I've been so unpopular and so uninteresting for so long."

Not anymore. In a recently completed film, Smokin' Aces, Piven has the lead - ahead of such actors Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia.

"That was an incredibly thrilling moment, and the best role I've ever played in my life, and the most tragic. It is a twisted dark comedy in which I play a tragic character," a mob snitch.

The irony is his career transformation is that Piven's alter-ego would never even give him the time of day.

"I'm a stage actor from Chicago. An agent like Ari wouldn't have patience for a stage actor like Jeremy Piven."