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LOS
ANGELES—The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards happen Sunday
night, but the Hollywood action is already in full
swing. Some run-up highlights:
n Calm
before the storm: Work hard, party right.
Emmy
nominees Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh, Sarah Silverman, Jon
Hamm and Don Rickles were among the stars at a luxe
party held in their honor Friday, where many said they
needed the breather in a frantic week.
ACTOR Jon Hamm of
Mad Men
(left) and
Jennifer Westfeldt arrive at the 2008 Primetime Emmy
Awards Nominees for Outstanding Performance
reception in Los Angeles on Friday. --AP
The
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences feted nominated
performers at a private soiree at the Pacific Design
Center in West Hollywood.
In a
sunny room filled with yellow roses and orange daisies,
a five-piece band played on the patio while guests
munched on mini meat loaves, mac ‘n’ cheese and wild
salmon “Wellington.” They sipped martinis and a special
wine vintage bottled just for the Emmys.
Guests
also had a chance to try on pricey diamonds and make
their own chocolate gift bags, and each took home a mini
makeup kit for the big day.
For the
nominees, it was a rare chance to relax in an otherwise
busy week.
“I can’t
keep everything straight from day to day,” said Hamm, up
for his first Emmy for Mad Men. “It’s been very busy,
but it’s been busy for a good cause and an exciting
cause.”
Kathryn
Joosten, who won an Emmy last week for her guest
appearance on Desperate Housewives, said she was all
about enjoying the week’s festivities.
“I
already got my Emmy, so I’m just chilling now,” she
said.
Jon
Cryer, who’s enjoying his third Emmy nod for Two and a
Half Men, said he’s just as happy for his colleagues as
he is for himself.
“The
excitement for me this year is seeing people like Jon
Hamm get nominated,” he said. “He and I did a pilot
together years ago and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, he’s
nominated! This is fantastic!’ [The Emmys] are like
going to a huge great party with everybody you ever
cared about professionally.”
Though
it’s Hamm’s first Emmy show, he said he won’t make a big
deal out of getting ready: “I’m probably going to watch
some football, take a shower, put on my suit and go to
the thing.”
The Emmy
show airs at 8 pm EDT on ABC.
n A
MAJOR MASHUP: Josh Groban has raised us up, and now he’s
going to mix it up.
Groban
spent some time Friday on the Nokia Theatre stage
rehearsing a TV show theme-song medley he’ll sing live
from there for Sunday’s show. It includes 25 favorite
songs, from the Golden Girls theme to the South Park
song — sung in the cartoon characters’ voices.
Wearing
black jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, his shaggy hair
tucked under a gray cap, Groban ran through his
four-minute performance as clips from The Jeffersons and
Cops played on giant screens behind him.
“Nothing
I’m singing I’ve ever sung before, except for South Park
with friends,” the 27-year-old said. “There’s a lot of
stuff that allows me to just be me, then there’s a lot
of stuff that allows me to let my multiple personalities
to go play for a bit.”
n SEAL
WILL BE THERE: Heidi Klum isn’t nervous about cohosting
the Emmys. Just ask her husband.
“You
know Heidi. I don’t think she really gets nervous,” he
said on the red carpet Thursday during a Hollywood event
at Paramount Studios honoring film producer Arnon
Milchan and celebrating the 60th anniversary of Israel.
“She’s really excited. She’s working hard.”
Klum was
so busy, she was unable to join Seal at the last minute
at the glitzy event. The R&B singer, who attended last
year’s ceremony alongside Klum, said he would again be
in the audience to support his supermodel wife.
However,
Jason Alexander, who has been nominated for several
Emmys but never won, is planning to steer clear of the
show.
“Unless
they’re nominating me just because they like me, I can
walk right by it and wave at it and not have to care,
although I do have some friends that are nominated that
I’ll be rooting for at home,” Alexander said before the
event. --AP |
