#The stars are preparing for the Emmy Awards

Stars prep for Emmy night

Emmy nominated for HBO’s thriller “The Undoing,” Hugh Grant plays a ratty doctor married to Nicole Kidman.

He says: “I know Nicole 25 years. While I was making romantic comedies she was making important films. I was intimidated as I was by Meryl Streep. Nicole made things easier and made me look better than I am.”

More. Now it’s an Emmy nomination for Disney’s orcas in “Secrets of the Whales.” Sigourney Weaver held her breath six minutes underwater for “Avatar 2” then surfaced to voice over.

Sigourney: “When executive producer Jim Cameron asked me to narrate I was thrilled. I’ve spent time with Jim underwater. He’s part ‘Mer-man.’ Loves the ocean and has an admiration for whales. You really feel like a whale by the time the film ends.” Yeah, OK.

Kate Winslet. Also nominated. She weathered the Titanic sinking but says “Mare of Easttown” nearly drowned her because there was mental health within the story.

“Audiences were vocal with their reactions and personal connections. Playing her came at a cost. Shocked me and been surprising what a hard time I had unraveling myself from the character. Never had such a difficult time of that before in my life. So we’ll see if we can do more episodes. To be honest with myself emotionally, I have to consider if I honestly have it in me.”

Another Emmy nominee’s Jean Smart, the wisecracker in “Hacks,” says: “My character’s closest to Elayne Boosler.”

Onetime “Tonight Show” regular Boosler answered: “I’m thinking of suing Jean Smart. I can’t believe she’s using my name to further her career. I look forward to my name mentioned at least 11 more times. Few know this, but Jean Smart based her character in ‘Mare of Easttown’ on me.”

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Beauty, not beast

Because of Showtime’s four-part documentary on me that starts Sunday, the Daily Beast just wrote about me. Its article even reports that I requested the writer’s personal phone number. They added that it was probably to call and snarl about what I didn’t like in it. No. The writing’s great. I now worry the New York Post editor-in-chief could fire me and my replacement’s the Daily Beast reporter Tim Teeman.

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Girdles begone

Franca Roefaro, senior account manager for Tommy John: “Even underwear’s changed these days. Now it’s comfort-driven. Easy bras. No poking wires or fabric that sticks to you. No slipping straps. And gone is the pinching, bunching and pulling. Buttery textures. Soft material. Extra sizes. It’s partly COVID. Staying home, eating, being couch potatoes and also more of today’s working out ethic.”

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NY still too big to fail

At Westchester’s Winged Foot Country Club, Donald threw kind words for Congressman Lee Zeldin, who voted against the federal aid package enabling New York eateries and theaters to survive the pandemic. Said he felt Zeldin — who reps Suffolk County — had an outside shot at winning the governorship. Please. I have a better chance of winning the Miss America contest.

Also, enough already with the B.S. about “hollowed out” New York. Per the new census, NYC added 600,000 people (equivalent to Miami’s entire population), our real estate values spiked upward and you can’t find an apartment.

Also. In 1905, the Supreme Court held the government’s right to “reasonably infringe” on personal freedom during a health crisis by fining those who refused vaccinations. Thus, smallpox disappeared. Now, with anti-­vaxxers, a new wave of the pandemic’s spreading from alligator-heavy Florida deep into the heart of Texas.

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Everyone should stop making jokes about our town. It’s enough. I myself am not worried about crime in the streets. In my neighborhood they make house calls.

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.