Backstage Report: Cryer Sweating Win, Chenoweth Still Mourning Daisies

Winners dish about their big night, backstage at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards

Jon Cryer's hot. Kristin Chenoweth's emotional. And Amy Poehler's a trouble-maker.

The night's backstage doings—and sayings—at the 61st  Primetime Emmy Awards:

5:35 p.m.: Jon Cryer is amped—and being lit for "his bit." As you know, if you're watching the telecast, the show cut back here live to the press room. Because, you know, there's nothing more exciting than Reporters! Sitting! Typing! Occasionally asking an actor what he's wearing—and why!

• The bit doesn't happen for a bit, so I ask Cryer what kind of sweater vest he's wearing—and why, good Lord, why! It's a Moschino, the Two and a Half Men man reports. It was featured in a magazine ad that caught his eye. And it's hot. As in, really, it's hot.

• Cryer loves talking about his hot vest. When another reporter asks why this was his breakthrough year, he chalks his win up to, "Wearing a sweater vest on one of the hottest days of the year—it forced me to sweat and really earn this."

• For those keeping score at home, Cryer is now the 2,578th consecutive award-winning actor who "did not think [he] was going to win at all."

• Cryer finally does his bit. As you know, if you're watching the telecast. And as you may also know, it didn't get much in the way of laughs. Says Cryer after the camera light goes off: "So, that was the bit. I hope it was worth it."

• Working with a former party animal isn't as exciting as working with a current party animal. Cryer reports: "I am working with Charlie Sheen during the most boring part of his lie, and I hate it.

• Kristin Chenoweth is on the verge of tears—still. "No, I wasn't expecting to cry [during her speech]," she tells us haltingly. "I wasn't expecting to win."

• Chenoweth is in genuine mourning for Pushing Daisies, and I gather Pushing Daisies fan know the feeling.

• Asked if she'd like to next add an Oscar to her award-show collection, Chenowith gives the only truthful answer: "That wouldn't suck."

• The "2009" specs modeled by Chenoweth during the telecast were stunning, and I, of course, have to know where she got them. Amy Poehler, she tells me. Elaborating on her remarks from the telecast, Chenoweth explains that Poehler goaded on her fellow Emmy nominees a pre-Emmy party last night: "We're the funny girls," Poehler told them, per Chenoweth. "We have to do them."

• And, yes, Vanessa Williams not wearing glasses was part of the joke, Chenoweth assures us.