Alec Baldwin Opts for Tony Bennett’s Birthday Party Instead of Emmy Awards

Alec Baldwin was scheduled to appear at the 63rd Emmy Awards last night, but the 30 Rock star never showed. It was initially reported that Baldwin decided to skip the Emmys after a joke about Rupert Murdoch was cut from one of his sketches, but it turns out, Baldwin just wanted to attend Tony Bennett’s birthday party.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Baldwin had agreed to host Bennett’s birthday gala long before the Emmy Awards were scheduled. Baldwin told reporters last night at the party:

“I didn’t skip the Emmys because of that (Murdoch joke)… I skipped the Emmys because of this (Bennett’s Birthday)… because I wanted to be here.”

But that doesn’t mean that Baldwin wasn’t upset about the pulled Murdoch joke.

Baldwin tweeted last night:

“I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me NewsCorp may cut the funniest line.”

And then:

“Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke. Which sucks bc I think it would have made them look better. A little.”

Fox said that the hacking scandal joke wasn’t cut by Murdoch himself or by NewsCorp, which owns Fox. The network said that it cut the joke because it made fun of a serious allegations surrounding the situation.

Do you think Alec Baldwin is telling the truth? Did he really miss the Emmy Awards to attend Tony Bennett’s birthday party? Or is he just trying to avoid a little scandal with the Fox Network?