Alec Baldwin cut out of Emmys open

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leonard Nimoy was a last-minute sub for Alec Baldwin on the Emmy Awards opening because of a flap over a joke about News Corp.'s phone hacking scandal.

Alec Baldwin had taped the segment, playing a fictional president of the television academy, with show host Jane Lynch. But Baldwin asked that he be left out when Fox nixed the joke that referenced the hacking scandal in Britain involving the now-closed News of the World tabloid. Both Fox and News of the World are owned by News Corp.

Fox said the network believed it was inappropriate to make light of an issue being taken seriously by the company. The joke reportedly involved Baldwin on a telephone making reference to someone listening in on the conversation.

Baldwin was not at the Emmys because of a previous commitment to attend Tony Bennett's birthday party in New York. He tweeted that Fox killed the joke, "which sucks because I think it would have made them look better."

He also tweeted: "If I were enmeshed in a scandal where I hack the phone of families of innocent crime victims purely 4 profit, I'd want that 2 go away, 2."

Mark Burnett, who is producing the Emmys telecast, said, "There's nonstop drama, but everything is fine," when asked about the incident.

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AP Television Writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.