Modern Family and Mad Men Top Emmys; Winners Include Jane Lynch, Edie Falco and Al Pacino

Modern Family and Mad Men took top honors at the 2010 Emmy Awards on August 29, winning Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series, respectively. The ABC comedy hit split the evening’s prizes with its time-slot rival Glee, which was the centerpiece of a hilarious opening sequence in which host Jimmy Fallon sang "Born to Run" with a motley collection of Glee Club wannabes that included Tina Fey, Jorge Garcia, Kate Gosselin and a rocking Jon Hamm.

In addition to Best Comedy, Modern Family won Emmys for best writing and for Eric Stonestreet as best supporting actor. Glee creator Ryan Murphy won the Emmy for best director, and Jane Lynch took home the best supporting actress Emmy for her performance as Sue Sylvester. (In her giddy acceptance speech, Lynch praised her parents for "raising us to the sounds of musical theater.") Neil Patrick Harris had previously been announced as a double Emmy winner for his guest role as Bryan Ryan in Glee and as host of the Emmy-winning 63rd Annual Tony Awards. The Tony telecast also won a best writing Emmy.

Theater vets who took home Emmys included Edie Falco for Nurse Jackie, Al Pacino (Broadway-bound in The Merchant of Venice) for You Don’t Know Jack and Claire Danes for Temple Grandin.

Although Lea Michele didn’t win an Emmy for Glee, she was a star of the red carpet in a strapless navy Oscar de la Renta gown and Lorraine Schwartz necklace. Noting that Emmy day was also Michele’s 24th birthday, pre-show host Billy Bush presented her with a cupcake in a jar, which she pronounced both “ghetto” and “cool.” Michele had an aisle seat with her boyfriend, American Idiot actor Theo Stockman. In a red-carpet interview with the TV Guide Channel, Glee star and Emmy nominee Matthew Morrison revealed that he styles his distinctively curly hairdo with Lubriderm lotion and said his top choice of a song to sing on the coming season of Glee is Coldplay’s “Vida La Vida.”