Emmy Awards 2011: Alec Baldwin pulls out over cut Murdoch joke
(CBS) Alec Baldwin isn't showing up for tonight's Emmy Awards after a joke he made about News Corp. was cut from a segment recorded to open the ceremony.
On Thursday, Baldwin tweeted: "I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me NewsCorp may cut the funniest line."
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On Sunday, he added, "Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke. Which sucks bc I think it would have made them look better. A little."
According to the Daily News, the segment showed Baldwin talking on the phone, then calls out Rupert Murdoch for listening in on the conversation.
Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Baldwin, a nominee in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category for his role on "30 Rock," will not be attending the ceremony.
"I understand NewsCorp killing that joke," he tweeted on Sunday, adding, "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."
According to the Associated Press, Fox said it believed the joke was inappropriate to make light of an issue being taken very seriously by the company.
