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By Conan O'Brien Scoop contributors: Ting Yu, Greg Adkins, Jennifer Wren, Rachel Biermann, Champ Clark, Mark Dagostino, Walter Gibbs, Julie Jordan, N.F. Mendoza, Linda Trischitta -- People Weekly -- September 30, 2002 The star of Late Night with Conan O'Brien will not only host the Emmys on Sept. 22, he's also a nominee: Late Night is up for outstanding writing for a variety, music or comedy program. Scoop caught up with the really tall funnyman and asked him Six Key Questions. True or false: It's an honor just to be nominated. I won an Emmy as a comedy writer on Saturday Night Live in 1989, so I have one of them, and that takes all the mystique away. It turns out that they're made of balsa wood and then spray-painted. And you can tell they recycle them. Mine says "Conan O'Brien," but when you hold it up to the light you can see lettering underneath that says "Robert Guillaume ... for Benson." How does this gig differ from Late Night? People will be watching--intelligent people who are wide awake. I'm used to people who are taking medication late at night and people recovering from some kind of wound who can't sleep. You've been nominated seven times for the writing on Late Night but haven't won. Why is that? We're in this insane category where sometimes we'll lose to a show that makes sense, and sometimes we'll lose to a PBS special on working with disabled children. I'll be like, "What? Well, I guess that beats my interview with David Hasselhoff." Can anyone host? You just check a form on your tax return that you want to host the Emmys. Sure enough it came through. People just don't think to check that box. How are you going to keep the show short? I'm going to start throwing awards to people in the audience. The winners drag it out: Kissing everyone in your aisle, deliberately walking slowly up to the podium. So I'm going to get one of those tennis ball machines and start feeding Emmys into it. Is this a career highlight? This is definitely the biggest thing I've done. After this I'll be like the American Idol kids and do a mall tour. COPYRIGHT 2002 Time, Inc. |