With Sunday's 61st Primetime Emmys in the books, we know what all the winners had to say onstage - between Neil Patrick Harris killing it as the host with the most and a lovely performance by Sarah McLachlan - and SheWired now takes you backstage to hear what the winners had to say about their victories, next projects and Ellen DeGeneres.
Repeat best actress in a drama winner Glenn Close defended her ruthless attorney Patty Hewes backstage. "No, she's not evil. If Patty were a man, would you be saying that? I don't think as much."
Accepting the Emmy for outstanding comedy series, 30 Rock's Tina Fey said that the show -- which has featured notable guest stars including Oprah Winfrey and Jennifer Aniston -- has a new dream guest: Meryl Streep. "I think she would be a great love interest for Alec." Answering perhaps the most bizarre question from the press corps, Fey responded to Miley Cyrus' pole dancing at the Teen Choice Awards: I think she was just hanging onto the pole to not fall off the ice cream cart," Fey said to laughter. "I think working the pole is a rite of passage in Western culture."
Alec Baldwin, who repeated his win as best actor in a comedy for NBC's 30 Rock, joked that kissing guest stars like Jennifer Aniston and Salma Hayek is really work. "It's not like you're up in Big Sur in a nice bed somewhere with the waves crashing the shore and a crackling fire. Jennifer Aniston's got a plane to catch!" Baldwin, responding to a question asking if he could connect his teenage daughter with Twilight's Robert Pattinson given his pull on the show for casting guest stars, said he thinks the line might be long for the teen heartthrob. "I'm sure he has no shortage of shows that want him to come on, like Desperate Housewives. I'm sure those women would want to get their hands on him!"
Toni Collette, who collected the Emmy for best actress in a drama for Showtime's The United States of Tara, said the show's multiple personalities would respond differently to the victory: "Alice would polish it, T would flash her tits and Buck would say it's all shit," she said backstage.
Supporting actress in a comedy winner Kristin Chenoweth said she'd love to appear on Mad Men, The Office or 24 now that she's unemployed now that Pushing Daisies has been canceled. "I'm beyond thrilled that the Academy remembered our show. It was the most special experience of my career," she said.
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As for what's next, Chenoweth has a full plate: "I have a Glee episode coming on next week, which was a very big experience. I expect Jane Lynch will be accepting this award next year. I have concerts with philharmonics coming up everywhere and just wrapped two movies."
The singer-actress is looking forward to being a guest judge on American Idol's auditions and defended the addition of DeGeneres as Idol's fourth judge. "I'm sad that she (Paul Abdul) left, because I think she had a heart that the show loves. But I also think Ellen will fill the void. I think Ellen gets a lot of guff for not being a trained singer like myself," she said. "There's nothing wrong with her being on that panel. She represents a lot of America."
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24's president and best supporting actress in a drama Cherry Jones said backstage that the road has been cleared for a female president of the United States. "Fortunately, I think the glass ceiling has been broken with this last election, and I think the only reason Hillary Clinton isn't president is because a man named Barack Obama came out of the midst."
Oscar and now first-time Emmy winner Jessica Lange wanted to share the statuette with her Grey Gardens' co-star Drew Barrymore. "Working with Drew was one of those rare cases where it felt so true and it felt so real that it was magical from the beginning for me. It's like a certain kind of alchemy that happens between certain actors; it's not that common, so when it does happen you really feel blessed by the opportunity and we both recognize that and we worked beautifully together. We bonded in a way that you can't act, and I think that's what made the characters really sing," she said.
Best supporting actress in a miniseries or movie winner Shohreh Aghdashloo said she hopes the success of HBO's House of Saddam will bring "more shows that that shed more light on the injustices going on around the world, not just in the Middle East, but all around the world, especially Iran." The first-time Emmy winner was beside herself with emotion after being rewarded by her peers. "It means so much to me. Not only as an actor, you know how much it means to all of us actors. It's so precious from our own peers, but for me as a little girl from the Middle East who started this journey 30 years ago, I can't even relay my feelings anymore. It means a lot. It means I'm surrounded by people who do care about me, in a country who cares what I do and in an industry that has been very kind to me in the past five years," she said.
Michael Emerson, who collected his first Emmy for his role as the creepy and mysterious Ben Linus on ABC's Lost, said once the drama finishes its final season next year that he will split his time between Los Angeles and New York since wife Carrie Preston's show "True Blood" films here. "New York is always home, but because Carrie works here on a series, I think we'll spend half our time on the West."
American Idol director Bruce Gowers, who collected an Emmy in his fifth attempt for directing the singing competition, said adding DeGeneres to the judges' table would add excitement to the telecast. There will be a lot more fun on the show than there was before," he said. "Look forward to the unexpected because Ellen is doing the unexpected. I can see her walking into the audience like she does on her show."
Read more of Lesley's inside entertainment scoop here!
