An Early Red Carpet Encounter

Showed up early at The Shrine to check out the happenings on the red carpet. But the most famous person around was Debbie Matenopolis from E! network. I wanted to ask her about the whole Star Jones thing and if she thought Rosie was gonna give Barbara Walters a nervous breakdown but she was getting ready to go on live on the East Coast.

So, I looked around the stands and I found this beautiful 13-year-old girl and her family: Dana Jordan from Washington DC. Dana is suffering from a form of bone cancer and the Make A Wish Foundation wanted to make her dream come true which was to come to the Emmys! Dana’s make-up was professionally done and she had on turquoise spaghetti strapped dress and gold slippers. I’m not a fashion expert but I say Dana is the prettiest girl here tonight.

I asked Dana who she wanted to see up-close and she had a quick answer: Everybody!” She also loves “The Office” so will be looking out for Steve Carell and hopes some of the kids from “High Scholl Musical” traipse down the red carpet.

Dana, at the Emmys with her parents William and Margaret, is hitting Universal Studios tomorrow before she and the family go back home.

Backstage at the Emmys: Take 1

Well, back here in this air conditioned tent which is more pleasant that I thought it would be. Just got into a tussle with The Hollywood Reporter folks because I snagged one of their internet connection, Thot it was mine…sheesh.Turns out I don’t have one, Two big guys in tuxes, looking very serious, walked up to me and said: “Can you PLEASE disconnect immediately?” Geez, didn’t their mommies teach them how to share? So, I gotta use a dial up connection and had to have our tech guy talk me through it. This is after a 40 minute power outage AT OUR TABLE ONLY. I’m so glad I came early for all of this fun.

Before the H.Reporter peeps started yelling at me, I’ chatted with awards expert Tom O’Neill about what he thought would happen during the telecast. He says: “I think (host) Conan Obrien has a tough job to make teloevision’s biggest night fun. The other networks have counter-programmed, no one’s clearing the airwaves like they used to. ABC is airing the first “Pirates” movie, HBO is airing a season finale.”

And he didn’t even mention that CBS is airing a fresh episode of “Big Brother 7.”

Goodie bags bite back

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Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Ray Liotta, Candice Bergen — they’re the latest in the growing list of presenters for the 58th annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Aug. 27. They’re also the stars most likely to be speed-dialing their accountants today in light of word from the IRS that award-show gift bags are considered taxable income. So all those preciously packaged free spa weekends, free Botox certificates, free cell phones, free sunglasses and free SUVs will come with very unglam tax declaration paperwork. Yuck. It’s only a matter of time before the stars say keep the swag, show me the money instead. Kinda makes you long for the good old days when celebs graciously appeared on awards shows in exchange for shameless self-promotion.