...so Alec Baldwin boycotts Emmys

Alec Baldwin boycotted last night’s Emmy awards after a joke he made about phone hacking was censored from the broadcast.

The 30 Rock star had recorded part of the opening video, but broadcaster Fox News – which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp – insisted it be cut.

The actor immediately asked that his appearance be dropped altogether from the ceremony, in which he had been nominated as best lead actor in a comedy.

He wrote on Twitter: ‘Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke. Which sucks because I think it would have made them look better. A little.

‘I understand NewsCorp killing that joke. If I were enmeshed in a scandal where I hacked phones of families of innocent crime victims purely for profit, I'd want that to go away too.

He later added a tweet which asked: ‘Are some companies #toobigtojail?’

A Fox spokeswoman said the reference was removed because News Corporation was taking the hacking allegations ‘seriously’ and did not want to appear to be making jokes about them.

Meanwhile, Modern Family was comedy's big winner at the last night’s ceremony.

The sitcom, shown here on Sky One, was named best comedy series, while Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen, who play on-screen husband and wife Claire and Phil Dunphy, won best supporting actor and actress.

Accepting her award, Bowen said: 'Oh my god, are you kidding me! I don't know what to talk about in therapy next week now! I won something!'

Earlier in the evening, Emmy host Jane Lynch, from Glee, joked: 'Welcome back to the Modern Family awards!'

Elsewhere, Jim Parsons from Big Bang Theory won best comedy actor; while Melissa McCarthy from Mike & Molly won the actress category, saying as she collected her accolade: 'Holy smokes. Wow, it's my first and best pageant ever.'

Gwyneth Paltrow was named best guest actress in a comedy series for her appearance on Glee, while Justin Timberlake won the male equivalent for Saturday Night Live.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won the outstanding music, variety or comedy award – the ninth year in a row it has taken that category.

Published: 19 Sep 2011