Backstage Drama of the Day: Alec Baldwin was all set to play a fictional president of television in the opening video for tonight’s Emmy Awards show, but the 30 Rock star quit the gig after News Corp-owned Fox cut a joke he made about News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and the ongoing phone-hacking scandal.
“Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke,” the actor tweeted a few hours ago, “[w]hich sucks [because] I think it would have made them look better. A little.”
Baldwin wouldn’t reveal the content of the controversial jab, but did say he understood why NewsCorp chose to kill the joke.”If I were enmeshed in a scandal where I hacked phones of families of innocent crime victims purely 4 profit, I’d want that 2 go away, 2,” he tweeted.
Fox told Deadline the joke was nixed because the network didn’t want to be perceived as making light of allegations they take very seriously.
Leonard Nimoy stepped in to take Baldwin’s place, and the skit was re-shot without what Baldwin called “the funniest line.”
[deadline / @alecbaldwin.]
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