BALDWIN DENIES HE BOYCOTTED EMMYS

Alec Baldwin has denied reports that he decided to boycott Sunday night’s Emmy awards show to protest the decision by Fox to cut a joke related to News Corp’s telephone hacking scandal from the ceremony’s opening segment. Speaking to reporters in New York, Baldwin maintained that he decided to skip the Emmys because he had a previous commitment to attend an 85th birthday party for Tony Bennett at the Metropolitan Opera House on the same night. “I skipped the Emmys because of this, because I wanted to be here.”