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Producer of biker drama ‘Sons of Anarchy’ is uneasy rider after Emmy rant

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Kurt Sutter, creator of FX’s outlaw-biker drama “Sons of Anarchy,” thinks he may have driven over the line.

The writer and producer is rethinking his often outspoken blog in response to negative reaction to his rant over his show’s shutout in Emmy nominations, which also hurled an expletive at nominee Mariska Hargitay of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

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On his SutterInk blog, he expressed outrage over Emmy voters’ snub of “Sons of Anarchy,” which stars Katey Sagal, while taking what seemed a veiled swipe at dramas such as “Glee” and “Mad Men” that did score nominations.

“Let’s face it, kids, we are the dirty-faced outlaws who no one wants in their clean white town,” he wrote in a post titled “We Don’t Like Your Kind.” “We are too loud, too violent, too brash. We don’t sing, have pretty sets or wear retro suits. They admire us from afar, wish they could do what we do, then they pull back the shades and settle for the familiar and safe. They are lazy sheep.”

He thanked fans who expressed disapproval of the snub before saying, “I thrive of living outside the love circle. ... It fuels my bitterness, my over-inflated sense of self-righteousness and it makes me a more relevant artist.”

He continued, “It’s too easy and lazy to be angry” before adding in parentheses: “Mariska Hargitay, are you [expletive] kidding me?” Hargitay, who was nominated for outstanding lead actress in a drama for her role on the “Law & Order” spin-off, has won the award once and been nominated five times.

Many Emmy watchers predicted that Sagal, who plays the ruthless matriarch of a motorcycle gang in “Sons of Anarchy,” might score a nomination in the category. “Sons of Anarchy” is one of the most popular dramas on FX and has won raves and new viewers as it prepares for its third season.

In a later post titled “And That Was My Kinder Gentler Post,” Sutter, who is married to Sagal, sought to clarify his earlier statements.

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“So my response to the Emmy’s has somehow been spun into an angry rant,” he wrote. “I don’t know, maybe it was. But you should see the one I deleted.”

He said no disrespect was meant for the other nominees: “As I have said many times in this blog, I am a huge Glee and Madmen [sic] fan. I was one of the flock who voted for them.”

Sutter also expressed regret over his “frustrated comment about Mariska. She is a fine actress on a very popular show. It was just hard to contain my frustration about Katey. She’s my wife and best friend and I was ... hurt that she was overlooked.”

Sutter then got to the heart of the post --- that he may have gone too far.

“I’ve realized that I’ve carved out an unintentional niche for myself,” he wrote. “I’m the hot-headed, irrational, arrogant show-runner. I’m becoming to the blogosphere what Shawn [sic] Penn was to photographers in the 80’s. ... It’s clear that my instanteneous and forthright approach to blogging is being spit back in my face. I guess it’s the blessing and curse of notoriety. This mea culpa will probably be spun into something ugly as well.”

He added, “I’d probably be better off pulling the plug. ... It seems that I’ve already alienated a chunk of Hollywood ... or at least the members of the Television Academy.”

Sutter concluded by writing, “I’m gonna pull back, reassess and figure out the right thing to do ... for a change.”

-- Greg Braxton


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RELATED:

An Emmy snub for ‘Sons of Anarchy’s Katey Segal


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