Fox Defends Cutting Alec Baldwin Phone-Hacking Joke from Emmys

Fox says it cut a News Corp. phone-hacking joke by Alec Baldwin from an Emmys skit to avoid being seen as making light of the scandal, Variety reports.
Baldwin was set to play a fictional network television exec in the opening bit, in which he was to make a crack about News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch and the ongoing phone-hacking scandal in the U.K. Fox, which is owned by News Corp., said it decided to ax the joke because it took the hacking allegations very seriously.

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After the joke was cut, Baldwin asked to pull out of the skit, and the network agreed. He was replaced by Leonard Nimoy, who taped the bit without the joke."I understand NewsCorp killing that joke," Baldwin tweeted Sunday afternoon. "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."

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Baldwin, who's nominated for 30 Rock, will not attend the Emmys, as he will be at Tony Bennett's birthday celebration/auction in New York. He tweeted last week that he voted for rival Steve Carell (The Office). The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards airs Sunday at 8/7c on Fox. Tune in Monday at 8/7c for Kathy Griffin's Emmys Aftermath on TV Guide Network.