You name it, they thank it

By GREG DIXON

The awards acceptance speech has a long and unlovely history. Who can forget - well, those of us who saw it anyway - the appalling drivel that escaped Sally Field's gob when she won an Academy Award for Places In The Heart one night in 1985.

"I won, I won, I won," she gushed like some unloved eight-year-old given a sweetie. "I can't deny the fact you like me. Right now, you like me, you really like me."

Well not that much, apparently. She hasn't been nominated since.

In more recent times we've been treated to the sight of Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry blubbing like little babies at the Oscars. And then there was the year Cuba Gooding jnr, having won for Jerry Maguire, said "I love you" more than a dozen times as he started his thank-you list with the Lord and worked his way down to a mere demi-god, Tom Cruise.

All this should be enough to keep me well clear of gong shows. But already, inevitably, as per, I have booked a seat on the couch for tonight's delayed screening on TV3 of the grandly titled bash for television, The 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

And I will sit down in anticipation of hearing yet another of those please-god-make-them-stop speeches. Sarah Jessica Parker, overlooked for years as best comedy actress, finally got her gong and was reported as doing a a Sally Field, thanking "my family, my friends, my agent, my lawyer, my business manager, my publicist - and passers-by who always wanted the best for me." Pass the bucket.

However, the show does contain one entertaining and humble thank-you, from Drea de Matteo - the now-deceased Adriana on The Sopranos - as she received the outstanding supporting actress (drama), statuette.

"Okay, I have nothing to say," she said. "There are so many people that are responsible for this. But if I even try to thank any of them right now I might puke, choke, cry or die."

Bravo. If they were handing out awards for awards speeches, such a gong de Matteo would surely get. Capiche?

But this year's Emmys will be a pure pleasure for another reason. After five years of being nominated for best television drama at the Emmys, The Sopranos has finally won an award.

Winning the best drama statuette is significant. The Sopranos is the first non-network drama - it's an HBO or cable show - to take the award in the Emmys' long history.

This suggests that HBO, which also won big this year for the mini-series Angels In America and has been setting benchmarks for small screen quality for years, is not only producing the best drama on United States television but that the industry has finally swallowed its pride and admitted it.

There will be some who - because of the sex, violence and language - will suggest that the win by The Sopranos is yet another sign of civilisation's impending disappearance around the U-bend. I say, fugetaboutit.

The books have finally been opened and The Sopranos has finally been given what it deserves. But then, as all good Italians and The Sopranos fans know, col tempo la foglia di gelso diventa seta - time and patience change the mulberry leaf to satin.