If you think the Entertainment Weekly crams an amazing amount of celebrities into the pages of the magazine each week, you should have seen how many stars were packed into the pop culture bible’s pre-Emmy Party at the hot, hot, hot Cabana Club just off of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, where stars like Eva Longoria and Hilary Duff rocked the night away on the night before TV’s biggest day.
On the red carpet, video monitors made a series of EW covers come to live with motion and 3-D effects while dozens of stars–many of whom graced said covers–packed the arrivals line for hours hoping to make their way in to the week’s hottest pre-Emmy bash.
As Patrick Dempsey strolled by with his Grey’s Anatomy co-star Ellen Pompeo on his arm, Desperate Housewives‘ James Denton revealed a secret about Dempsey, who recently beat Denton out as Inside TV‘s “Sexiest Man on Television” and ranks high on his wife’s list of who she would get a pass to cheat on him with.
“I know exactly who is on her list because she talks about it,” said Denton. “She loves Patrick Dempsey. She loves Matthew Fox. She’s big on Mark Valley from Boston Legal. They’re all on ABC. At least Patrick’s a good guy. There was a guy on a plane next to me, and we were getting off the plane and he said to me, ‘Hey, nice show. My wife is in love with you.’ I was sitting next to Mark Valley going to this ABC thing and I said, ‘That’s all right. My wife is in love with him.’ It’s always someone else.”
Denton had a plan to soothe any Emmy nerves in the hours before the ceremony: “Watch the Colts. The Colts are on at 10 am. So that’s 10 am to 1 pm and then the car will pick us about 2. So that’ll just be about perfect for me.” Also gridiron-minded was sexy, Armani-clad Gabrielle Union, who planned to limit her pre-Emmy prep time in favor of football. “If it wasn’t like the second week of the NFL I would probably put more in, but I’m so much more into watching my Minnesota Vikings and my Lions then doing makeup tomorrow,” Union giggled. “I just want to look decent and not be made fun of and also get to watch my NFL teams play.”
Rescue Me Emmy-nominated Denis Leary claimed he had a slightly different plan for putting together his Emmy day ensemble. “I’m wearing a dress. Yeah. I said, ‘A tux is just too boring.’ So my wife is wearing a Vera Wang, and I’m wearing a Vera Wang as well. Why not? Why do the women get all the best dresses?
I told The George Lopez Show‘s Constance Marie that every time I’ve seen her leading man since his kidney transplant, he looks healthier and healthier. Did George Lopez get a new lease on life? “Oh, completely,” said Constance. “He was toxic before, and now he has so much energy and he has so much drive and he’s really about giving back and being able to spend more time developing our characters and writing and producing, and he’s actually going to direct one of the episodes as well this year.” So is Lopez‘s pal Robert Rodriguez, Constance confirmed.
Frankie Muniz brought his new fiancé Jamie, whom he met in New Orleans while making the film Stay Alive there prior to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. “We were there the day before the storm hit,” said Muniz. “She’s born and raised there, but we got her out. Her family is safe and all of her friends are safe. She lost all of her personal belongings. But she has a credit card still.”
The West Wings‘ Teri Polo was sneaking glances at John C. McGinley when she told me which show she was most rooting for at the Emmys: “Scrubs. I love that show. I think that they are so great. I would love to visit that show.” She playfully started calling out Scrubs! Scrubs! in hopes of attracting McGinley‘s attention, but then turned pink when I hauled him over and introduced them.
If Polo thought she was a Scrubs booster, McGinley topped her with his sparkling un-Dr. Cox-like praise for his co-star Zach Braff. “I think that he’s been doing the best job as a leading comedy guy in TV,” said McGinley matter-of-factly. “He makes John Ritter-like choices which are bold and he’s not afraid to look like a buffoon to sell the joke–which most people won’t. He’s a really talented young kid and he’s going to just explode. He is exploding.” He did show a more Cox-like side when I asked if he thought the inclusion of Desperate Housewives in the comedy category threw off the competition. “Yes. Especially since it’s not funny. How bad does that throw off the category, having shows in it that aren’t funny?”
Shannon Elizabeth was ready to spill the secrets of the white Pamela Dennis gown she’d picked out for the Emmy ceremony the next day. “It’s kind of classic and simple and sweet. It’s not too over the top in any way, and I thought that it was really elegant.” How long does it take to get ready for a big red carpet event like that? “Hours and hours and hours. Way too long for the amount of time that you are at the event, usually.” And had she ever suffered an embarrassing mishap on the red carpet? “I think that I’ve had a strap break before, and I’ve had to kind of like go off to the side and pin it up.”
“I’ve been in rehearsal every day, four hours a day,” said Dancing With the Stars‘ Kelly Monaco of her preparation for her upcoming rematch with rival John O’Hurley. Is it a friendly rivalry, or something more cutthroat in the competition? “The banter is what it is to make good TV,” she reassured me, but “John is very determined and he wants to win this and everyone knows that. We did a promo two days ago together and he said that he’d been rehearsing seven hours a day. I said, ‘You are f***ing nuts.’ Wow. If I have an extra seven hours in my life, maybe I would be like half of a normal human being right now.”
Fran Drescher, who looked smokin’ hot in her Dolce & Gabanna corset dress, came solo. “I’m not seeing anyone, so why should I come to a party when I could possibly meet someone,” she said in her familiar honk. “People always want to set me up with someone and I go ‘Can I google them?’ That’s like the celebrity Internet dating.”
Smoky-voiced Jaime Pressly, of the newly-minted sitcom My Name Is Earl with Jason Lee, had just returned from a three-month trip to Shanghai to work on her own fashion line J’Aime, where she went on a major shopping bender. “I got so much stuff. Gucci stuff fits me really well, and so I always buy a lot of Gucci stuff–especially their shoes. Dior was all shoes. I came back with like thirteen pairs of shoes. My business manager called and said, ‘Jamie. What’s all this on the Amex?’ I said, ‘I have a lot of press coming up that I have to do. It’s all a write off.’ He said, ‘Jamie. You’ve written off enough for the next four years. Could you please stop?’ I said, ‘Whatever. It’s all going to get used. I need it.’
The O.C. papa Peter Gallagher was thinking far beyond Emmys, mentally preparing for his new side career as a singer, which was somehow causing him to think he might need to hire a personal stylist. “I sang on the show last year and I got a deal. It’s coming out in November,” he explained. “I’ve got to do all these performances and talk shows and I’m just thinking ‘God, that’s too much wardrobe in too short amount of time.’ I might need a highly trained professional yet.”
Also joining in the EW bash were an eclectic assortment of celebs: Arrested Development‘s Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Tony Hale; The Shield‘s Glenn Close and CCH Pounder, Doris Roberts and Mariska Hargitay were among the Emmy nominated invitees, while Wilmer Valderrama, Ioan Gruffud, Jane Seymour, Lacey Chabert, Nick Cannon, Elizabeth Rohm, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Survivor couple Jeff Probst and Julie Berry, Monkee Mickey Dolenz, Neil Patrick Harris, Shane West, Dylan Walsh, Carson Daly, Marlee Matlin, Brooke Burke, Andrea Parker and Jessalyn Gillsig also filed into the fete.
