Hayden Panettiere Goes to Washington; Alec Baldwin Takes on Fox

Ray Gustini
Hayden Panettiere Goes to Washington; Alec Baldwin Takes on Fox

Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Tracy Morgan's engaged, Fox defends cutting Alec Baldwin's phone-hacking joke from the Emmys, and Hayden Panettiere lights up D.C.

  • Fox is defending its decision to nix Alec Baldwin's joke in a pretaped Emmys skit that referenced the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal. The network According to Variety, the network "emphasized that the decision to delete the line was made because the net didn't want to be seen as taking the scandal lightly" and ended up replacing Baldwin with Leonard Nimoy "out of courtesy" after the actor requested his entire appearance in the skit be removed. [Variety] 

  • On the red carpet  at the Emmys last night, 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan confirmed that he and girlfriend Megan Wallover are engaged. According to Morgan, he proposed six months ago in San Francisco. Wallover added, "It wasn't anything crazy. He was on bended knee." [US Weekly]

  • Friends With Benefits costars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are pushing back against reports that Timberlake is the person featured in an explicit photo allegedly hacked from Kunis's phone. In a joint statement, reps for the pair said, "The insistence that there is any inappropriate correspondence between the two parties is entirely false... Mr. Timberlake would like us to make it clear that while he might write songs about putting things in boxes, he never has and definitely doesn't make a habit of taking any photos of them and sending them." [Us Weekly]

  • It was a whirlwind 48 hours in the nation's capital for former Heroes star Hayden Panettiere last week. On Thursday she met with Nancy Sutley, of the White House Council on Environmental Quality to discuss saving the whales. The next day, D.C. mayor Vincent Gray declared it "Hayden Panettiere Day" in the District, because she supports D.C. statehood. According to The Washington Post, she "resumed normal starlet activities" later that night, showing up for a "fancy party" at Lima nightclub. [The Reliable Source]

  • Director Terrence Malick was spotted at Austin City Limits over the weekend filming Christian Bale and Haley Bennett. No word on what the footage was for, though Movieline speculates it might have something to do with the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Malick wants to make. [Movieline]

  • Two months ago, Journey guitarist Neil Schon and former Playboy playmate Ava Fabian got married in Paris. Now he's reportedly run off with White House gatecrasher Michaele Salahi. Like Salahi's husband Tareq, Fabian's not thrilled with the situation. "This is very painful for me. I'm very hurt," she told TMZ. Would she ever consider reconciling with Schon. "Um, no," she said. [Gatecrasher via TMZ]

  • It's musical publishers at Conde Nast, where GQ publisher Pete Hunsinger is becoming publisher and president of Golf Digest Companies. The GQ job is being filled by Conde Nast Traveler publisher Chris Mitchell. His job goes to Brides' publisher Carolyn Kremins. [Ad Week]