Fox Edits Phone-Hacking Joke From Emmys; Replaces Baldwin With Nimoy

[Derechos]

The commercials for the Emmy Awards this year promised “unexpected” moments.

Here’s one: on Sunday afternoon Fox confirmed a report by the Web site Deadline Hollywood that the network had spiked a planned joke involving allegations of misconduct by its parent company, the News Corporation, from the awards telecast.

Alec Baldwin, a star of the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” had taped an opening skit for the show days in advance, and in it he had referenced the phone hacking scandal that has embroiled the News Corporation in Britain. When Fox decided to edit out the reference over the weekend, Mr. Baldwin asked that his appearance be cut altogether because he felt the edit might affect the flow of the entire segment. In a Twitter message on Thursday, Mr. Baldwin suggested that Fox had erred in its edit. He later wrote: “I think it would have made them look better. A little.”

In the skit, Mr. Baldwin played the “president of television.” While on the phone with an unidentified colleague, he paused and said, “Rupert, is that you? I hear you breathing, Rupert!” The chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation is Rupert Murdoch.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/fox-edits-phone-hacking-joke-from-emmys-replaces-baldwin-with-nimoy/?ref=television