Madonna photo by David Shankbone

By Emily-Fortune Feimster

They may be making the big bucks now — but it wasn’t that long ago that these super stars were at the bottom of the barrel.

P.  Diddy, one of the most well-known money makers of his time, started his career working for free. That’s right!  He was an intern for the now-defunct Uptown Records and did everything from washing cars to fetching coffee. This bad boy worked his way up to being a dancer in Father MC’s video “Treat Them Like They Want to be Treated” while attending the prestigious Howard University, majoring in Business.  He now owns his own record label and is worth over $300 million.   Guess working for free really pays off!

The Material Girl Madonna worked at a Dunkin Donuts in New York City’s Times Square before becoming an international pop icon.  Donuts anyone? Having a whopping IQ of 140, Madonna also won a scholarship to the University of Michigan for excellent grades and studied modern dance and drama for 3 semesters.

Singer Elvis Costello was another closet smarty pants and wears his trademark glasses because in a former incarnation he strained his eyes working as a computer programmer.

But no lowly beginner is as surprising as Tom Cruise, who at the age of 14 attended a Franciscan seminary for one year  while thinking of becoming a priest.  Katie Holmes must be glad that didn’t work out.   In high school, he also had a brief stint as a paper boy for the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Funny lady Ellen DeGeneres had a variety of jobs as a house painter, an oyster shucker in New Orleans, a vacuum cleaner saleswoman, and a paralegal.

Whoopi Goldberg also worked hard for the money. Before her stardom, she applied makeup to corpses in a funeral parlor, and worked as a bricklayer and a bank teller.

Suave secret agent 007 Sean Connery can relate — having earned a living polishing coffins.  Kind of creepy!

Danny DeVito preferred to work with the living and was a qualified hairdresser (or stylist as they like to say).  He was trained at the Wilfred Academy of Hair and Beauty in NYC before snagging a role in “Taxi.”

Mariah Carey tried her hand at beauty school but didn’t make the cut and dropped out after only one day on the job.  She claims to have held several waitressing jobs and said she got fired from them all. Is anyone surprised? I didn’t think so.

Another actor claiming to have been let go is former “Cheers” star Woody Harrelson who said he had 17 odd jobs in one year and was fired from all of them.  Maybe legalizing pot is not as good of an idea as he thought?

Hottie tottie Brad Pitt has no doubt had his fair share of odd jobs — his most infamous being a limousine driver in which he chauffeured strippers between bachelor parties, but only when he wasn’t delivering refrigerators.  He also dressed up as a chicken on the street corner to advertise for the fast food chain “El Pollo Loco.”

His former wife Jennifer Aniston worked as a waitress in New York but that’s not as exciting.

“Titanic” megastar Kate Winslet used to work in a north London deli.

Ok, that’s not exciting either, but off-the-wall Rob Schneider washed dishes in an ice cream parlor before making it onto “Saturday Night Live.”

And get this — before getting his own TV show, comedian Jerry Seinfeld sold light bulbs over the telephone. Kind of crazy, huh?

That’s not all.   Esteemed actress Helen Mirren worked at an amusement park in Southend as a “blagger” – employed to attract punters to the rides — and Sylvester Stallone earned his rent by tending the lion cages at the Central Park Zoo.

Calista Flockhart and Lucy Liu made some extra dough by getting physical as aerobics instructors while director Steven Spielberg earned some money whitewashing fruit trees.

Hawaii native Bette Midler is all too familiar with fruit as well having once worked at a pineapple processing plant.

So don’t feel bad about your day job.  You never know where life will lead you!

“Harvey Keitel is a crazy pick,” says the show’s Oscar Nunez with a laugh.

His preference?  “I’d like to see them promote from within, either Melora Hardin or David Denman,” says the actor known as accountant Oscar Martinez.  “But of course it’s not up to us.  We’re just as excited as anyone to see what they’re going to do.”

With four episodes of “The Office” already in the can for Season 7, Nunez says that there’s no sign of the farewell blues creeping in on set as yet.  “The Emmys were a big, big party and we had a great time.  We just shot an episode with Timothy Olyphant of ‘Ed Wood’ and ‘Justified.’”  That’s a pretty tough guy for Dunder Mifflin.  “Well, he doesn’t have a Glock or any guns in the episode, as far as I know.  Nothing like that.  He’s just a regular office worker,” Nunez says.

Also, the team has its Season 6 coming out Tuesday (9/7) on DVD and Blu-ray Hi Def .  7.  The collection includes deleted scenes, bloopers, and of course, such favorite episodes as Jim and Pam’s (John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer) wedding.

As for what’s ahead for his character in Season 7, “I don’t know,” Nunez says.  “He’s a conservative gay man and I think he plays it very close to the vest.  I don’t think he wants the camera on him as much as Michael Scott (Carell) does.  I feel that way, too.  As long as they keep writing funny episodes, that’s what counts.”

Nunez admits that when Carell announced his exit at the end of this season, “At first I thought it was the end of the show. But I think NBC would like ot keep it going if the numbers are what they are, if it’s funny.”  And then Carell could come back as a guest?  “Could you imagine?  He could stay in that world.  It would be wild.”

According to her, another sweep of cities for “Louis” is soon to be scheduled, now that the first shows have succeeded.

Lowry plays a 1907 New Orleans prostitute who’s had a baby via the corrupt governor (Hayley) in “Louis,” which was lensed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond.  The enterprise was especially exciting for her because she’s been a fan of silent films for years and owns a collection of Charlie Chaplin movies.  “It’s not that people don’t appreciate the art form.  It’s that they wonder, ‘How commercial can it be?’ … In our case, this is art, this is beautiful.  We went in with the attitude that, ‘We’re going to do this at a real high level of quality, and maybe, just maybe, we can change people’s minds.’”

As far as changing her acting style for the silent film – she didn’t.  Lowry notes that in silent film classics of the 20th century, “the damsel is not the caricature that Chaplin was….They would get across the point of the scene in a real way.  They didn’t want to overact or be melodramatic.”

Lowry was on hand for the performances in Chicago, Detroit, Bethesda, Philadelphia and Harlem.  She says, “Magic is the best way to describe it.  It’s sort of unbelievable, really. I think it’s ground-breaking entertainment.”

Ashley Bell "The Last Exorcism"

Critics may have quibbled with the ending of “The Last Exorcism,” but nobody is complaining about Ashley Bell, who has drawn across-the-board raves for her performance as the problem-riddled girl at the heart of last weekend’s top-grossing film.  In London for the U.K. premiere of her movie this week, Bell tells us she’s so thrilled by the response, “I feel like I’m in one of those inflatable jump-jump rooms.”

It helped that she is double-jointed and oh-so-very flexible.

“There’s no CGI in the movie.  Daniel nailed my boots to the floor, pushed me over and yelled ‘Action!’” she says, referring to director Daniel Stamm.  Then she adds, “I’m kidding.”

In fact, Stamm “asked me the night before we did that scene whether I had any ideas – which is a dream situation for any actor – and I said I’d been working on a backbend and several other physical bits.”  The athletically-inclined actress, who is trained in ballet, karate and fencing (she competed nationally in the latter), tells us, “I was banned from yoga class.  I’d end up in these weird positions that made people uncomfortable to look at and I was asked to leave.”

She never worried about being pigeonholed ala Linda Blair, she says.  “Just because of the way the character is structured in this movie.  I really favored the scenes where you got the chance to see who she is before she goes into one of her episodes – while this debate is going on as to whether she’s experiencing a mental break.”

Bell says she read extensively on mental illness as part of her research.  “I’m obsessive.  I read every single book on exorcisms that hasn’t been banned, went to some extremist churches, talked to people involved in exorcisms.  It’s a fascinating subject,” declares the actress, who’s been a horror movie fan since age seven.

The Tisch School of the Arts NYU grad, whose mother, Victoria Carroll, is one of the founders of L.A.’s famous The Groundlings improv theater, says she doesn’t know what she’ll be doing next, but “I would love to do a comedy.”

Jim Belushi, Jerry O'Connell CBS photo

Jerry O’Connell tells us he’s glad that he and Jim Belushi are able to “split the duties” on their Sept. 22-debuting “The Defenders” CBS series.  “That sort of helps it,” he says, speaking of his hectic, chaotic work and family life.

O’Connell and wife Rebecca Romijn’s twin daughters, Dolly and Charlie, who turn two at year’s end, “really are cute, but they’re such a handful.  They’re at that age where they wander off and you just always have to watch them.  We’re looking into getting those leashes for them.  Seriously,” he says.  “They’re starting to fight with each other.

“My wife is great.  My wife is with them all the time.  I owe her a trip or a piece of jewelry,” adds the actor, who did Mr. Mom duty last year when Rebecca was in production with her short-lived “Eastwick” series.  Helpfully, Charlie and Dolly “are going to sleep pretty early these days.”

It sounds like Jerry and Jim have already bonded on the show in which they play a rowdy pair of Las Vegas attorneys who are well-acquainted with the seedy side of life.  “I’m learning a tremendous amount from Jim.  He’s got those Second City improv roots, you know, and 10 years with ‘The World According to Jim.’  He’s such a creative guy, he bring so much to every scene, every day – really dramatic, funny and vulnerable,” Jerry says.

Jerry brings real-life knowledge of the law to the show.  Not that it helps.  He enrolled in L.A.’s Southwestern Law School for real last year, you may recall, and says, “I had to do a closing argument in mock court for a class.  A judge assesses your performance and you go up against someone else.  The judge said I was over-acting – swear to God!  One thing I’ve never been accused of is over-acting.”

Jerry also says Rebecca “came down to see, and she only gave me two-and-half out of four stars.”

But it wasn’t all bad.  “About two weeks later, I had to do my first big courtroom scene for ‘The Defenders.’  When people watch the pilot, they say, ‘Interesting way you really underplayed that.’”

Kyra Sedgwick

EMMY AFTERMATH:  Kyra Sedgwick, savoring her Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “The Closer,” had husband Kevin Bacon close by her side throughout the evening, even standing off-stage, sipping champagne as he watched her field questions in the press room.  The couple isn’t getting togetherness time on her series set this year, however.  Kevin isn’t directing any episodes of “The Closer’s” Season 6 because he’s busy with his own projects, according to Kyra.  And their daughter Sosie, 18, isn’t coming back to the show in her role as Kyra’s niece – she’s too busy with her freshman year of college getting underway.  Son Travis, 21, also flew the nest awhile ago.  So this year, unlike the past five years of her “The Closer” duty, Sedgwick isn’t facing mixed emotions about leaving the family in New York to shoot her series in L.A.

Now that she finally has her Emmy, what honor could come next?  The actress has heard there’s “talk of a wax museum figure.  That’s a little strong, I think.”

Seriously, she’s happy focusing on the show and her now-iconic character, deputy police chief Brenda Leigh Johnson.  “I’m always pushing for the personal stories. As an actor, that’s why I’m doing the job,” she observes.  “I was offered procedurals in the past.  The personal aspect is what got me on board our show.  I think that’s the key to success.”

That and its truly Outstanding star.

AND:  It’s nice to see Aaron Paul acknowledged with an Emmy for his first rate supporting work on “Breaking Bad” – particularly knowing what a grinder the role of drug-selling Jesse has been for the actor.  Playing Bryan Cranston’s hapless partner in crime, Paul’s been roughed up, knocked down, thrown through a screen door that didn’t quite go the way the stunt was planned and generally left bruised and scraped more times than he could probably count by now.

Megyn Price and Patrick Warburton play footsie on "Rules of Engagement" CBS photo

Sounds like Patrick Warburton is reconciling himself to fatherhood on “Rules of Engagement.”  Last season, his series wife Megyn Price let us know that she and Patrick had been fighting the idea of their characters adding a baby – even if by surrogate, as the storyline featuring Jaime Pressly’s character may go.

But now, he notes, “Ultimately, we probably won’t get our way.  You know, I have four beautiful children in my real world, and Megyn has her family.  Isn’t it horrible — two parents fighting not to have a child?  It could add extra dimension to the show.  I guess you get lazy.  We’ve been having so much fun in an adult show.”

As he puts it, “I really look forward to coming to work.  We sit around, eat and drink – not alcohol – and goof around.”

In fact, Warburton stresses that he’s never been happier with the CBS series that will launch its fifth season Sept. 20.   “I always felt really good about certain element of the show – certainly the cast,” he says of the company including Oliver Hudson, Bianca Kajlich and of course, David Spade.  “I thought it would find itself, and it really did last season.  It got sharper.  They sort of cleared out some of the cornier, hokier aspects of the show.  And adding Adhir Kalyan as a series regular, well, as talented and fantastic as David Spade is, to have someone he can play off so well like this really great.  It’s a better, well-balanced cast of six.”

But about that parenthood:  “I’m sure that’s going to be an integral part of what’s going on with Jeff and Audrey,” he says of his and Price’s characters.  And it makes sense, he adds, because “one of the elements that really works on the show is that it’s really relatable.  This couple has been together a long time.  It can play well.”

Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson reports that the album of all-new material she’s been working on– with songs by Brian and Eddie  Holland and Lamont Dozier — will be out “within a couple of months.

“We haven’t decided on a name yet.  It has something to do with my journey in life.  It has a lot to say about life,” says the songstress who rose to fame as one of Motown’s legendary Supremes – who, of course, were hit-making giants thanks to songs turned out by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Mary’s new album is “more adult contemporary,” she says.  “It was originally supposed to come out this month, but it isn’t quite there yet.  Of course, there’s no radio to play new music these days.  There’s the internet and, well, we’ll figure out something.”

Right now, Mary’s busy with her “Up Close” shows, singing sultry ballads at jazz clubs including Hollywood’s Catalina Bar & Grill Sept. 2-5.

“I do ‘Body and Soul’ – there’s a little bit of that sexy thing going on.  I do Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now,’ that really sums up my life.  I do ‘Here’s to Life’ – a very, very beautiful song.”

There’s not a Supremes song on the list.  Those interested in hearing those golden oldies should go to one of her rock ‘n’ roll concerts, not her cabaret performances, Mary says.  “I do my concerts all the time – although, this past year or two have been very, very slow with the economy down,” she observes, referring to the abysmal industry-wide concert scene .  “There’ve been cutbacks on corporate shows, too.  But they’ll pick up when the economy pick up.”

Mary, who lives with three of her eight grandchildren (ages five to 30), looks beautiful and fit.  “I’m 66 and I love being 66 – 66 and a half, actually,” she volunteers.  At a recent rock ‘n’ roll festival in New Jersey, she ran into one of the members of ‘sixties band Paul Revere & the Raiders, who asked her how she could look so good

“I do things to keep myself up.  I drink lots of water.  I do Bikram yoga, the hot yoga, which is a strenuous workout.  I’m not lazy about my upkeep,” she says, “but I’m kind of bad – I drink a lot of champagne.”

Thom Beers Discovery Channel photo

Real guy reality show king Thom Beers has a packed agenda this week – he’s heading north for a meeting with all the sea captains on his wildly popular “Deadliest Catch” show, then onward to confab with the team getting ready for the next season of “Ice Road Truckers.”  And then he’ll be heading south, where, he reports, preparation is underway for what sounds like it could be the next big ticket Beers show, in West Virginia and Kentucky.

“It’s a pilot.  I can’t talk much about it yet,” he says.

Hot environment, or cold?

“Cold,” he laughs.  “We’re actually going into a hole in the ground    We’re going to be down there with the coal miners.  It’s a whole different world.”

Which is how the preternaturally peppy Beers likes it.

“I love getting out there.  Every show is so different – in the surroundings, the characters, the gear you use, and the way you shoot.  They’re a lot more complicated than people think,” reveals the man who has been hailed as reality TV’s only auteur – the man responsible for an array of shows that ranges from “Monster Garage” to “Pitchmen.”

“‘The Colony’ is completely different,” he goes on, referring to the show in which he has 10 people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.  “It’s all shot over the shoulder because we want everyone to discover, as an audience, as the characters are discovering.”   He considers that program, now in its second season, “a real swing for the fences.”  It worked.  “The age, the demographic of that show – 13 per cent is a brand new audience for Discovery Channel.  My 18-to-49-year-olds are bigger than my 25-to-54s,” crows Beers.

Black Gold truTV photo

Right now, the Season 3 launch of truTV’s “Black Gold” show about oil rig roughnecks in Texas is at the forefront of his mind.  The boys will be back Sept. 8, and more trouble is ahead.  Beers seems to get a kick out of the antics of his rowdy crew.

“The biggest challenge in this show is keeping these guys out of jail,” he reports. “This is a much more rough and tumble world.”  And unlike the seamen and truckers on his other shows, “These guys go home at night.  They work, work, work their butts off, go home, get cleaned up and put on their best clothes and then go out to the bars for a few drinks, then a few more drinks.  They’re young.  There’s a lot of camaraderie.  They make two or three times more than anyone else out there.  If you’ll pardon the expression, it’s fightin’ and #$@!-in’”

Beers has had to adjust his filming plans due to unexpected circumstances more than once.  “The two guys I thought were going to be stars at the start of the show got arrested and thrown in jail right at the start of the first season,” he reports.  “You have to be ready to make changes on the fly.”

This year, a woman’s been added t the mix – one who happens to be pretty, blond and in charge.  “She owns the property where they’re drilling.  She’s awesome.  She carries a gun.  She doesn’t take any S@!!.  I’ve got to admit, we found her, and then we decided this would be a good place to drill.”

George Clooney

George Clooney proved again how utterly charming he is, Al Pacino quoted Michelangelo, and Kyra Sedgwick talked the fifth time being the charm backstage at the 62^nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

Maybe it was that First Amendment question that got things rolling.   George Clooney, honored with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his fund-raising work including this year’s multi-network telethon for Haiti earthquake relief, was asked about the conflict between wanting to maintain some kind of privacy in his life and his belief in the First Amendment.

He said firmly that, as the son of a newsman, “I always felt that the inconveniences I have are worth it rather than infringing on anyone else’s rights.”

Alrighty then, open season!

Clooney quickly deflected a question about his date – girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis — noting that “She picked me up in Italy” and yes, she was around.

He said he’d spent part of his day shooting hoops:  “John Krasinski came over to my house with a bunch of guys to play basketball.  If you see him later, well, he’s limping.”

Illustrating anew that the stars’ biggest fans are other stars, Clooney confessed to a moment of that star-struck feeling when he found himself with Al Pacino and Tom Selleck in the green room, and “suddenly I’m 14 years old.  It’s very funny.”

He also gave the telecast its first glowing review:  “The show is really good tonight.  Jimmy Fallon is just really killing it.  He’s just really funny.”

George on Prop 8 being lifted:  “I think it’s terrific.  Now it’s unlifted again…These are things that take a long time to change…People will look back on this period of history and think of it as an archaic time.”

George on his “ER” leading lady, Julianna Margulies, presenting his award:  “It’s pretty great. We’ve stayed in touch.  We’re good friends.”

Clooney talked about the namesake of his award, Bob Hope, noting, “It wasn’t just the USO shows.  That’s something everybody remembers him for 50 years.  He was one of the great charitable actors.  He did it all, always a great sense of humor.  He was fun.  He’d just show up and do something.”  Asked what he learned from Hope, Clooney, who knew the iconic comedian personally as a young man, recalled that “What you learn from him was, he didn’t take himself seriously.  I really appreciated that.”  Clooney recalled that Hope’s wife Dolores sang with his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, on her “Salute” show, and “she was great.  She’s 101 now and really doing great.”

Noting several times that he felt a little awkward to be getting an award for doing the right thing, Clooney insisted, “I don’t particularly do more than anybody else in the position I’m in.”

Well, not everyone organizes record-breaking, multi-network telethons full of A- List celebrities to help victims of the Haiti earthquake, the South Asia tsunami and Sept. 11 — raises hundreds of millions of dollars, and then follows up to ensure that the money is being used properly as Clooney does.  But anyway, he went on, “If you have a tremendous amount of heat from the spotlight, you’re able to deflect some of it onto people who could really use it.  My dad calls it a ‘Celebrity Credit Card’ that you can try to cash in other places.”

Al Pacino

Al Pacino, who won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of Dr. Jack Kevorkian in “You Don’t Know Jack,” admitted that he felt a bit out of place at the TV honors.  “I’m just so used to movies,” he said, noting that he considered his HBO “You Don’t Know Jack” to be a movie, though it was shown on small screen.

“You’re a little lost.  You’re in the midst of all these TV people and you feel a little like you don’t belong.  You still feel like a movie person,” said Al.

Holding an Emmy had to have helped.

Pacino talked about the controversial medico known as Dr. Death for assisting suicides of terminally ill patients, saying he only got to know Kevorkian after making the movie, but “I’m so glad I got to know him.  He’s got that kind of intelligence where you can ask him anything and he’ll come up with something different from what you expected.”

Pacino lost weight to play Kevorkian, a notoriously finicky eater who has impassioned feelings against fat – yet is known to sneak sweets, according to Al.  He joked, “Gaining weight is much easier.  I wish I had to gain weight for a part.  Losing weight requires exercise, and “I’m from the Oscar Wilde school…Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until it passes.”

He told press he considers it a plus to play a real-life character:  “It’s great when you know somebody exists…It sort of frees you.  As Michelangelo said: ‘Free me of myself, Lord, so I can please you.’  I had that with Frank Serpico when I played him.  Actors like it, it’s very nourishing.”

Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick, who took home her first Emmy (outstanding Lead Actress for “The Closer”) in five nominations, was asked whether she’d been afraid of turning into another Susan Lucci, notorious for always being nominated but never winning.  “I love Susan Lucci,” she said.  “I kind of think you think you haven’t got a chance in hell after five times, but it’s always such a gift to be invited to the party.”

Looking amazing in her purple Monique Lhuillier gown, Kyra added that she reached the point, “I started to placate myself” with remembering that a lot of great actors never won Emmys – Martin Sheen, for instance, never won for “The West Wing.”  “I’d find solace in such things.”

With hubby Kevin Bacon in the press room nearby, sipping champagne while she fielded questions, Kyra was asked about competition between the famous couple.

“I think Kev’s won more….We don’t play the same roles…Of course there’s no rivalry.”  She says they always joke around about whether there’s enough room for another award.

Eric Stonestreet

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series winner Eric Stonestreet talked eloquently and movingly about reaction to his portrayal of a dad with a same-sex partner on “Modern Family.”  “I can tell you what people say to me – I get amazing compliments from kids of same sex families.”  He cited a “gentleman who was raised by two moms” who had recently adopted another daughter.  He thanked Stonestreet, saying that now, if bullies ever taunt his sister, “she can say, ‘Look at Mitch and Cam – you like them.”

Mitch and Cam, of course, are the couple played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and himself.   Ferguson and cast mate Ty Burrell were also nominated in the same category, so one reporter wondered whether there’d be awkwardness on the set Monday.

“No, not at all, we had all joked around abut that before — if any one of us won whether it would be fun to punch each other in the stomach or walk out.”  However, “This was a win for the show…We love our job, so it won’t be awkward at all.”

Stonestreet and “Modern Family” executive producer Steve Levitan – who came into the press room after the show won Outstanding Comedy Series honors – both stressed that the upcoming episode in which Cam and Mitch kiss was planned a long time ago.   That is, before the controversy grew over their lack of physicality on the series.  Although, as Stonestreet acknowledged, it’s going “to look like we caved to public pressure, it was planned before.”

Asked about where he found inspiration for his portrayal, Stonestreet pointed to his mom – “spell it right” – Jamey and her excitable, emotional, passionately caring ways.  After he keeps it for a couple of weeks, he’s sending his Emmy to her and his father Vince to keep, he says.

He’s had a lot of women tell him that they identify with Cam.

Edie Falco

“Nurse Jackie’s” Edie Falco came right out and said what a lot of people were thinking about her winning as Outsanding Actress in a Comedy – over a group of funny ladies that included Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Lea Michele, Toni Collette, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.   Said Falco:  “Tina Fey, for heaven’s sake.  It’s ridiculous!”  She also said, “The women I was up against are hysterically funny, talented comedians.  I’m not playing coy here.  I’m just dumbfounded by the events of the evening.”  She added, “But I’m happy to be here nonetheless.”

As for what she planned to do to celebrate?  “I hadn’t planned on celebrating.  I’d planned on going home and ordering room service,” Falco said.  But she was glad to make a change in her plans.

Tom Hanks

For those die-hards who care about the coarsening of public discourse in America today, Betty White’s “What the hell are you looking at” during the opening number of the Emmy show this year no doubt felt like a let down.  Et tu, Betty?  Later, after his “The Pacific” won the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries, Tom Hanks dropped the F-bomb backstage.  At least he apologized right away.  He got carried away when a reporter mentioned how HBO and his Playtone production company continue to be winners, and Tom answered with “$#%-in’ A!”

Hanks also talked about the fact he was sorry there were only two nominees in the category, since there are certain stories that so well suited to the form.  He hopes “The Pacific” serves as a model.  As for what will come next from the firm that has gifted the public with a phenomenal string of artistically, intellectually and emotionally satisfying productions (“From the Earth to the Moon,” “John Adams,” “Band of Brothers” to name three), Hanks said they’re still three or four years away from unveiling any new projects.

Padma Lakshmi

When it comes to the night’s most overtly competitive personality, honors have to go to “Top Chef’s” Padma Lakshmi.  She made it clear that she’d had enough of “Amazing Race” winning “Outstanding Reality – Competition” honors year after year.  “I was really mean to the host on the red carpet.  I think I hit him twice with my purse,” she said.  “I said, ‘You’re going down.’”  And so they did – and “Top Chef” got the Emmy.

Claire Danes

“It’s always nice to see someone who is getting old with you,” said Anthony Edwards, asked about his former “ER” cast mate George Clooney being honored the same night that Edwards’ “Temple Grandin” won seven out of 15 Emmy nominations, becoming one of the huge winners of this year’s awards.

Edwards is one of the executive producers of the telefilm that won Emmys for Made for Television Movie, Outstanding Lead Actress for Claire Danes, Outstanding Director for Mick Jackson, and Supporting Actor and Actress Emmys for David Strathairn and Julia Ormond.  Getting the bio-pic made was a ten-year effort.  “I was very involved from an early part of the journey…Trying to sell a movie about a woman who is autistic and designs slaughterhouses – it’s not the easiest sell,” Edwards admitted.

Clearly, however, it was worth it.  Grandin herself was in the press room, and pointed out that the telefilm has a lot to say about autism and clearing up misconceptions about the nature of the malady.  She noted that autistics range from “Silicon Valley geniuses” to severely afflicted persons who can’t even speak.

She also said she had faith in Emily Gerson Saines, the lead Exec producer and driving force behind the film of “Temple Grandin.”  Saines’ own son is autistic, and she founded the Autism Coalition for Research and Education that’s now a part of Autism Speaks.

Said Grandin, “I knew a mom would get it right.”

Asked what made this win special, Claire Danes declared, “I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder on a performance. It was epic in its scope.  And I don’t think I’ve ever been as inspired by any part I’ve played.”  She feels that Grandin and the film of her story “encourage positive change in the world. That’s wonderful.  I don’t expect to have another opportunity like this.”

Danes admitted that her shimmery golden Armani Prive gown was “not as uncomfortable as it could be.”  She wasn’t complaining.  After all, “It’s a party dress and we’re gonna party!”