{alltv} Stars start their Emmy weekend in style

WEST HOLLYWOOD — TV's hottest commodities came out to kick off their Emmy weekend at Entertainment Weekly and Women in Film's pre-Emmy party Friday at the Sunset Marquis Hotel.

HBO actors were in full force at the bash, including most of the cast of True Blood. Picture-perfect newlyweds Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer beamed as they skipped the press line and bounced right into the romantically lit party. Hunks Joe Manganiello, Sam Trammell and Kevin Alejandro, as well as actresses Rutina Wesley, Carrie Preston and Lindsay Pulsipher, also came out to party. But none would spill about the show's Sept. 12 finale — except Trammell.

"There's going to be a cliffhanger," he joked. He did open up, however, about his conflicted character, Sam Merlotte. "I'm really happy that we got to see some of his darker stuff and that he can let loose and kick some (butt)."

Newbie Alejandro, who just completed his first season as the love interest of Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), said playing a gay character has been "a stretch," but it has been fun. He conceded that their first on-camera kiss was a bit tense. "After we broke the ice, it was good. It was silent and then, boom, it happened."

Three-time Emmy winner Jeremy Piven wore a leather jacket for the chilly California night and said playing manic manager Ari Gold on the long-running Entourage is a release.

"You just get to say all these things that you can't say in society," he says. "People are very gun-shy and politically correct. I get to go on these rants. It's my therapy." He also gets to smash plenty of electronics while filming, from phones to computers. "God bless our prop guy," he said with a laugh.

Oscar de la Renta-clad Kathy Griffin got some things off her chest about her "soon-to-be-husband" Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin. "I want him to be on Dancing With the Starswith Bristol," she said. "I think she'd say yes. I think we've seen her say yes before, if you know what I'm saying."

Friday Night Lights star and first-time Emmy nominee Connie Britton was more tight-lipped on the carpet — at least about her dress for the Emmys. "We just picked up the dress today at 3," said the actress, in a skintight white Laila Azhar dress. She wouldn't reveal the designer for Emmy night but said she was happy to just be in the building: "It's interesting to be inside something you've watched for so long."

Mad Men actress Elisabeth Moss isn't quite as new to the Emmy game: This marks her second consecutive nomination. She was radiant on the red carpet in a second-skin gray Herve Leger dress.

"I'm so, so happy with where she is right now," she said of her complex character, Peggy Olson. "She really represents the next generation of advertising and women."

Interestingly, Moss' ventures in advertising go beyond the Mad Men set. Eagle eyes can catch her in an Excedrin commercial running nationally that she shot five years ago and still gets a kick out of seeing. "I know a little about advertising, and it seems to be working for them," she said.

Her Mad Men co-star Bryan Batt had New Orleans on the brain: This weekend marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of his hometown. He and his partner live in the Big Easy, where they run a furniture store on Magazine Street. As for his closeted character, Sal, who has been noticeably absent this season, Batt has some good news.

"He's not dead. He's not in Central Park," he said. "I'm thinking he may be experimenting in the West Village."