EMMYS - Hollywood's cowardly lions

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NYDailyNews

H'WOOD'S COWARDLY LIONS ON THE CARPET

By LINDA STASI

November 4, 2001 -- I'm not a real hero, but I play one on TV.

That should be the opening line of tonight's two-bit Emmy show, because let's face it, fear among the famous is the real reason the Emmys were canceled, not once, but twice.

First, the producers said they canceled the show because it was the patriotic thing to do. Then last week, the same half-wits announced that while the show will go on, it will go on without the original tribute to the patriots and heroes who died in the WTC attack.

As The Post's Don Kaplan reported, Emmy exec producer Gary Smith even said, ". . . when something becomes overexposed, it has less impact." In other words, hero tributes are so over, honey.

It's time to get back to something that isn't overexposed - like stars giving each other awards. Didn't it occur to any of these clowns that they earn the big bucks by playing the very cops, firefighters, EMS workers, elected officials, soldiers, ER docs and nurses whose tribute they scrapped?

In real life, the real uniforms walked bravely into ground zero. In reel life (a k a Hollywood), the small-screen actors were reportedly too scared to go to the Shrine Auditorium despite enough security for 70 presidential visits. In fact, they were canceling so fast, you'd think they'd been invited to a Taliban dinner dance.

Producers say they'll acknowledge the events of Sept. 11, "but you'll have to watch to see how." I'm too frightened. What if it involves Alec Baldwin? Or worse, Barbra Streisand?

They even moved the damned thing to the much smaller Shubert Theater (logistics, they screamed), and are quarantining the press to a nearby Chinese restaurant, I'm told.

Meantime, in NYC, Yankee fans, too, could have run scared, but hell, you know how hard it is to score a seat to the Series? Nothing could keep either the 57,545 (give or take one) fans out of the Stadium, or the 30,000 runners off our streets for the marathon today.

The Emmy red carpet should be yellow.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Answers

Noone seemed to have shown up to pick up awards, but it might also be because they changed the dates repeatedly and folks are booked with other work. How much does it really mean this year anyway?

Oh, and originally there was no tribute, since originally, they did not know there would be an attack on the USA.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


I thought this was a very small minded article. As stated before, there was no tribute planned before. Why does everyone have to be so nasty?? I don't watch t.v. so I could care less, but this seemed pretty much like trash picking.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

New Yorkers are understandably very upset with those celebs who left the city in a great hurry, especially those who have cancelled gigs so this New York newspaper is reflecting the views of its readers. On the other hand, there are a very brave few celebs who actually did hands-on emergency work at Ground Zero, rescuing animals and handing out coffee and food.

As for the Emmys executive producer Gary Smith saying, ". . . when something becomes overexposed, it has less impact," well, the idea was to honor the rescuers, not to make an impact on the viewers. His words were ill-chosen, to say the least.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


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