SUSAN LUCCI was nominated for a Daytime Emmy 19 times before finally winning one for Best Actress in 1999. And for a minute it seemed as if she had won her second at this May's awards show. That wasn't the case. It was all a backstage mishap in what had to be an embarrassing moment for the "All My Children" actress.
ET caught up with Lucci for the real scoop at Blondie's Sports Bar in Manhattan, where she was bartending to raise money for the families of fire-fighters from Engine 40/Ladder 35 and Engine 74, who were lost on 9/11.
"What happened was an honest mistake," the soap diva told ET.
When the winner was announced (SUSAN FLANNERY, "The Bold and the Beautiful"), Lucci was backstage and couldn't hear the name. But both the Daytime Emmy cameraman and stage manager thought they did, and urged her to go out on stage.
"I was getting cued," she continues, "but I never heard my name. I was glued to my mark and I couldn't move. They said, 'It's you!" I said, 'Isn't it Susan Flannery?' They said, 'No, it's you, it's you.'"
Then Lucci heard the "All My Children" music in her headset, which meant the control room goofed up, too! "At that point, I thought, 'Okay it must be me,'" she explains. "I took a few steps out, and I could see Susan Flannery coming toward the stage, so I thought, 'Probably not,' and went back."
Lucci believes that everyone backstage legitimately thought they heard her name. Since then, the producers from DICK CLARK Productions have called and apologized -- and their apology was accepted.
P.S. Lucci sends her congratulations to Flannery, this year's winner for Best Actress.
Catch tonight's episode of ET for more on the Daytime Emmy flub. And watch as Lucci fans belly up to the bar at Blondie's.
July 1, 2002.