Michael Douglas, winner of the trophy for best actor in a miniseries or movie for playing Liberace in HBO’s Behind The Candelabra, closed his speech with a reference to his son Cameron who is serving a lengthy prison term for various drug crimes.
The actor said he hoped “they allow me to see him soon”.
It came in a no-holds-barred speech, which saw Michael Douglas cover everything from smutty jokes to thanking his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones for “her support”, despite their separation.
Backstage, Michael Douglas explained it will be another year before he can visit 34 year-old Cameron.
“I’m questioning the system,” he said.
Michael Douglas won Emmy award for best actor in a miniseries or movie for playing Liberace in HBO’s Behind The Candelabra
“At first I was certainly disappointed with my son, but I’ve reached a point now where I’m disappointed with the system.”
Cameron Douglas was convicted in 2010 of selling methamphetamine.
A judge nearly doubled his sentence after he was found guilty of repeatedly breaking prison rules by arranging to get drugs.
Cameron Douglas is scheduled for release in 2018.
“If you happen to have a slip, they punish you,” Michael Douglas said.
“In my son’s case, he has spent almost two years in solitary confinement.”
Michael Douglas said he’s optimistic Attorney General Eric Holder might change laws involving non-violent drug offenders.
From the stage, Michael Douglas also thanked his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones “for your support”.
That was an attention-getter following the announcement last month that the couple was taking “some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage”.
Catherine Zeta-Jones did not accompany her husband to the Emmys. She was in China this weekend.
Apart from his emotional moments, Michael Douglas also let a few jokes slip out.
“This is a two-hander, and Matt, you’re only as good as your other hand,” he jokes, referring to co-star Matt Damon, who was also nominated for the gong.
“So I can say you were magnificent. You really deserve half of this.
“You want the bottom or the top. The top? I figure that.”
Michael Douglas and co-star Matt Damon also took to the stage during the awards show where they paid tribute to Liberace and introduced a performance by Sir Elton John.
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Cameron Douglas, the drug-addict son of Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas, has suffered severe injuries, including a broken leg and fingers, after being attacked in prison.
Cameron Douglas, 34, who is doing time for years of drug use and dealing, was apparently attacked after an unnamed New York crime boss put a $100 bounty on his head for being a “rat”.
During a 2010 bail hearing, Cameron Douglas’ psychiatrist inadvertently revealed that his client had snitched to the police about his drug suppliers, David and Eduardo Escalera, during his original sentencing hearing.
Cameron Douglas’ testimony against the dealers helped get him a five-year, rather than 10-year, sentence. But last year he was sentenced to an additional four and a half years for smuggling in heroin and a prescription narcotic while at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Pennsylvania.
“He broke his femur, which is hard to snap, and had to have a rod inserted,” a source told The New York Post.
Cameron Douglas, the drug-addict son of Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas, has suffered severe injuries, including a broken leg and fingers, after being attacked in prison
Speaking publicly about his son, Michael Douglas said in 2010 that he thought prison might be a “blessing in disguise” for his wayward son. He assumed blame for “being a bad father” but said that without prison intervention, Cameron “was going to be dead or somebody was gonna kill him. I think he has a chance to start a new life, and he knows that”.
During last year’s sentencing for smuggling drugs into prison, Cameron Douglas told the court that he was “ashamed” of what he had done.
Judge Richard Berman branded him “reckless, disruptive and non-compliant”.
He banned Cameron Douglas from receiving family visits for two years and said he must immediately undergo drug treatment in prison.
The judge’s sentence was twice as long as had been requested by prosecutors and Richard Berman told Cameron Douglas he had “blown the biggest opportunity of his life”.
Cameron Douglas had also written to the judge to tell him that he was “saturated in my own shame and penitence”.
In the letter Cameron Douglas asked the judge for “the opportunity to build myself and gain the tools I need to shape my future”.
“I feel so strongly, for the first time in my life, that I am truly ripe for positive reform and real achievement.”
In prison Cameron Douglas has been working as a weekend orderly in a housing unit earning $1.65 per month. He is not eligible to be released until 2018.
