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Fox Cuts Alec Baldwin Joke

EMMYS

Relating to News Corp. Phone-Hacking Scandal.

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Charles Sykes / AP Photo

It looks as though Alec Baldwin will not live long and prosper in the opening sketch of the Emmys this year. Baldwin was originally scheduled to appear in the opening video for the awards, but he pulled out after Fox cut one of the jokes involving the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal. Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy replaced him and the video was retaped without the offending line. On Sept. 17 Baldwin tweeted: “I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me News Corp. may cut the funniest line.” Fox claims that the joke was cut because they did want to be seen as making light of such a serious situation. Baldwin's tweets, however, didn't end there. As news broke of his segment being cut Sunday, he tweeted, "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."

Read it at Deadline