Before Sunday’s Emmys telecast, TV industry’s stars and producer are in round-the-clock social overdrive at parties, suites and precursor awards. Here are TheWrap’s top moments and sightings from around Los Angeles on Emmys weekend.
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Friday, September 18
1:27 p.m., Sunset Marquis Hotel: Matt LeBlanc and “Episodes”
LeBlanc with his writer/producer creative genuises, Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane, hitting the Sunset Marquis on Friday. (Wireimage)
I’ve seen this episode before!
Matt LeBlanc brings a pivotal scene from the recent season of his Showtime hit “Episodes” to life. On screen, he had to bribe his producers by taking them to a Golden Globes gifting suite to go swagging. On Friday, he brought his real producers to not one, but two gifting suites: Kari Feinstein at the Sunset Marquis and On3 at the London.
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6:47 p.m. Sunset Tower Hotel: Jeffrey Tambor, Monica Lewinsky, Laverne Cox, Eva Longoria, Christina Hendricks and More
Tambor, Alfre Woodard, and Laverne Cox at the Sunset Tower on Friday night. (Frank Micellotta/Picture Group)
Eat your heart out fashion week. The front row at the first ever TV Industry Advocacy Awards trumped you.
Emmanuelle Chriqui, Constance Zimmer, Jerry O’Connell, Beth Behrs, and Christina Hendricks – one half of the Advoacy front row. (Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup)
Inside the intimate (and schfitzy) Sunset Tower terrace, Jeffrey Tambor, Eva Longoria, Christina Hendricks, Alan Cumming, Alfre Woodard, Laverne Cox, Constance Zimmer, and “American Treasure” Jerry O’Connell are on hand to receive or accept honors for using their “platforms” to advance social causes. The Creative Coalition and TV Guide Magazine/TV Insider event’s second row is not bad either: “Transparent’s” Amy Landecker and the world’s most famous intern.
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7:32 p.m. Sunset Tower: Monica Lewinsky, while President Clinton is nearby in downtown
“I know what you are all thinking. What the hell is Monica Lewinsky doing here?,” she opens her presentation to Cumming.
“(Alan) will bravely suggest when to get out of your own way and when to steer clear of a new romantic interest…..if only I had met him a few years earlier,” Lewinsky cracks, landing big with the joke.
I’m obligated to mention that at the same time, President Bill Clinton was only a few miles away, celebrating the opening of the Broad Museum downtown.
Pals for 16 years: Cumming and Lewinsky. (PictureGroup)
That would and should be my only salacious beat in what Robin Bronk, the Creative Coalition, and TV Guide Magazine/TV Insider pulled off – a refreshing sanctuary from the back patting and navel gazing on an awards weekend that brought Beth Behrs, Constance Zimmer, Alfre Woodard to tears in discussing their philanthropic work within the safe confines of a curated, non-partisan gathering of creatives who care about more than their headshots.
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Pablo Schreiber, speaking for Tim Robbins who was on location with his own charity work with the Actors Gang Prison Project, spoke best for the group when he said, “I’m leaving here inspired.”
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Laura Prepon with Chris Daughtry; Prolific producer Ryan Murphy with Jessie Szohr at EW later on Friday. (Getty Images)
TV Guide will have all the highlights in a video stream at some point – like Beth Behrs admission that Christina Hendricks co-signed her Forever XXI wardrobe when she was shooting the “2 Broke Girls” pilot and living in a shared one bedroom apartment, Michael Schneider’s suggestion that Eva Longoria should convert her activism in response to Donald Trump’s Latino targeting in to a “Longoria/Tambor 2016” presidential ticket, and Constance Zimmer‘s tales of washing homeless feet before her big break.
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Packed butt-cheek to butt-cheek on wooden chairs like a school assembly, the intimacy of the two hours allowed for rare candor that you won’t see on the Emmys stage. The producers would be smart to keep this tone in the future as with the now proven talent and industry appetite for an event like this in this particular awards weekend window, the sponsors and industry machinery will be lining up to inflate the next “Television Industry Advocacy Awards Gala,” a mouthful of a name that became a recurring gag throughout the night.
Already an Emmy winner, Derek Hough’s hair got the whip, and now he does the “Nene”. Hough and Nene Leakes (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly)
10:01 p.m. Fig & Olive: The Dominance of “Orange is the New Black”
The invisible stamp to get in to the Entertainment Weekly’s party is a heart drawn on the inside of your wrist. It’s a smart way to control access without any clashing temporary tattoos showing up in photos. After agency parties and other commitments, this is where talent came to drink, smoke way less than normal, and relax.
The OITNB Couch is Front and Center: Uzo Aduba, Jackie Cruz and Laverne Cox (post wardrobe change). (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly)
10:38 p.m., EW
“Top Chef” nominee Padma Lakshmi breaks up a circle of “Orange is the New Black” toughie Lea DeLaria and Jesse Tyler Ferguson in the packed back room to take personal photos. This was just one instance of the social gravity of “Orange is the New Black” at EW’s bash.
Chelsea Fairless, Lea DeLaria, Padma Lakshmi and Taryn Manning holding down the opposite corner of the EW party. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly)
Due to their rare L.A. frequency (they shoot in New York), the quantity of cast members, and their outright popularity, the Litchfield women dominated this party. In one corner, the prime couches near the entrance and in the other corner in the back room, Taryn Manning and the aforementioned DeLaria.
Jessie Brewer and Tony Hale. (Mikey Glazer)
10:59 p.m., EW: Tony Hale excitedly scoops up an arm full of “American Horror Story” regular Jamie Brewer, the actress and Down Syndrome activist.
EW’s Henry Goldblatt gets the love from Jane Krakowski; Karina Smirnoff knows a special K when she sees one: Kat Graham. (Getty Images)
12:11 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning The lights are up at Fig & Olive, the DJ has wrapped, and some of the producers of the event have already headed out. What was the “Orange is the New Black” couch is still packed and remains a social hub. Outside on Melrose Place, fans and autograph hunters are still flooding the sidewalks, waiting for Taryn Manning.
Earlier…
Thursday, September 17
Thursday night, The Broad Museum Downtown: Gwyneth Paltrow, Eli Broad, Owen Wilson, and Billionairres
Gwyneth Paltrow, Owen Wilson, Michael Chow, and a contemporary take on the balloon puppet amongst the luminaries at The Broad on Thursday, September 17. (Ben Gibbs/Nick GinGold for The Broad)
As Emmy parties ramped up in West Hollywood on Thursday night, a flock of the heaviest hitters – contemporary artists, Oscar winners, billionaire philanthropists, and Ari Emanuel and Michael Lynton – opened Eli and Edye Broad’s new contemporary art museum with a black tie gala dinner. A 50 person orchestra performed to christen the museum that NPR called Broad’s “gift to Los Angeles.” It opens to civilians on Emmy Sunday, and it’s free.
Namesake Donors Eli and Edye Broad flank Tobey Maguire and Jen Meyer; Artist Damien Hirst; CA Attorney General Kamala Harris and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. (Ben Gibbs/Nick Gingold for The Broad)
Wednesday, September 16
9:22 a.m., Outside the Microsoft Theater, Home of the Emmys: Emmys Producer Don Mischer, host Andy Samberg, and TV Academy CEO Bruce Rosenblum
Telecast producer Don Mischer, host Andy Samberg, and Television Academy CEO Bruce Rosenblum on Wednesday morning outside the Microsfot. (Frederick Brown/Getty Images)
The morning after NBC’s Neil Patrick Harris/David Hurwitz/ITV premiere of “Best Time Ever”, I ask Academy CEO Bruce Rosenblum where the hyper cross-format live show would land for Emmy consideration next year. After a brief consult with Academy President Maury McIntyre, they decree probably “Variety Sketch”. That puts NPH against the likes of several Comedy Central shows: “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Key and Peele,” “Drunk History,” and Broadway Video’s “SNL” and “Portlandia.”
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Monday, September 14
6:50 p.m., LAX: The Emmy Statuettes
The Emmys arrive at LAX. (TV Academy)
100 Emmy Statuettes arrive in Los Angeles from the factory in Chicago on United Airlines flight 655. Their next stop? Some happy hands.
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