What's the most fun for you about playing Cuddy?

Working with Hugh Laurie, who's an incredible actor. And I like being on a show that is smart and funny and that I am not embarrassed at being on. It's fun to have the same job for a few years, to develop a character. I enjoy my outfits, although my shoes aren't the most pleasant thing to experience.

James Denton is on guitar. Hugh Laurie mans the keyboards. And Greg Grunberg is wailing on drums. ...

The name of the group: Band From TV. ...

And it's all Grunberg's creation.

The band started a few years ago when the actor was asked to play at the House of Blues with a couple of celebrities. When he saw the interest it generated, he decided that putting a band together would be a great way to raise money. ...

Laurie, dancing and making faces, is the clown of the rehearsal. He tells Grunberg he wasn't sure of what songs they were going to be playing.

"I went to iTunes and downloaded all songs in C major," Laurie cracks.

"I threatened to play a man who had an even bigger limp than he does. I'd have been dragging my leg down corridors."

But he still thinks moving his family would be pointless. The former BLACKADDER star says, "I'd never have time to see them anyway. It does sometimes seem more than I bargained for and it was a big mistake not to read the contract before signing, but it's not coal-mining."

The figure skulks onto the stage; Jack tackles him, wrestling the hood from his head, revealing ... Kiefer Sutherland.

"You don't understand!" Sutherland bellows. "I've been nominated five years in a row and have nothing to show for it! I knew I wouldn't win if Hugh Laurie was nominated!

"So I called Chloe, impersonating you, and asked her to download the Emmy mainframe into my PDA," the anguished Sutherland continues.

"All my acting on that show is shouting into cell phones, shooting people in the thigh and responding to depressing information with a dark expression!

"I manipulated votes — so what?" Sutherland adds. "So Kevin James gets a nod; so seven lead actresses from canceled shows get nominated; so that lame 'Will & Grace' gets 10 nominations! That's a small price to pay to ensure my own corporeal glory!"

"You're insane," hisses Bauer.

Blustery outrage: As everyone says, where's Hugh Laurie for "House?"

The strangest omission? Hugh Laurie was not nominated for playing the title role in House, although this Fox series is in the running for top drama. How did that happen? Laurie is the show.

O'Brien has a bit of controversy at his disposal this time. A new Emmy voting procedure resulted in several curious omissions among nominees. Besides "Lost," they include snubs of Edie Falco and James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos" and Hugh Laurie of "House."

Omitting Laurie is especially preposterous. He's virtually the whole show in "House," which did get a best drama series nod. So how do you leave its namesake doctor out of the Emmy picture while gifting Martin Sheen of "The West Wing" with a sixth lead actor nomination?

Lead actor, drama: No Hugh Laurie (House), no James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), no Michael Chiklis (The Shield), but Martin Sheen, a non-presence last season on The West Wing, gets one final chance at the elusive Emmy. This is a joke field. Maybe the diminished competition will put the very deserving Kiefer Sutherland (24) over the top.

The fact that "Lost" was neglected is outrageous; the fact that Hugh Laurie ("House") and Edie Falco ("The Sopranos") were overlooked is ridiculous; the fact that Alfre Woodard was nominated yet "Desperate Housewives" was not is plain goofy.

No nomination for Hugh Laurie for "House"? (Yet the series is up for Outstanding Drama? What gives?)

Who should win: What, no Hugh Laurie (House)? Leary deserves recognition for great work in Rescue Me.

Besides affecting an American accent that puts Michael Caine's to shame, Hugh Laurie manages to be both abrasive and lovable, like a cactus crossbred with a teddy bear. House is a character that could only exist on television, because I can't imagine anyone like that in the real world wouldn't have been beaten to a bloody pulp by now. Of course, he has been smacked and shot with a gun, but I still maintain he would been hit and shot a lot more if he existed outside of the TV world. It's that distance that makes House so much fun to watch.

“I haven’t identified a single word that is pronounced the same in America as it is in England,” the 47-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 25 issue. “And that can really take you out of the moment, having to constantly listen to yourself and check your accent. It makes it harder to immerse yourself in the scene.

“It’s as if you’re playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon. I moan about it a lot.”

TV Guide.com reports Philadelphia's David Morse ("Hack") will guest-star in a multi-episode arc of Fox's "House" this season, playing a police officer Hugh Laurie's character gets on the wrong side of.