Alan Alda was stunned when he won his sixth Emmy last month (AUG06), because he was so sure he wouldn't that he went on a family holiday to Europe and skipped the ceremony. The actor decided to go ahead with plans for a family vacation, even after learning the ceremony had been moved to August from its traditional slot in September. He talked about his win today (07SEPT06) on US talk show LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY saying, "I'm so thrilled by this. I'm so happy. "I swear to God, if I were Tom Cruise and you were a couch, I would jump up and down on you! It made me so happy and I couldn't be there. "My daughter planned a trip to Europe months and months ago and it was her children's first time seeing Europe. I didn't want to miss that. "I knew that in August they didn't have the Emmys, so we'd be safe. Then they faked me out, they put it in August and I had to make this terrible choice between the lives of these dear little grandchildren and going to the ceremony. "We're in France and it's the middle of the night when they give out the award, so I'm like "I'll find out in the morning'... "So I had to get up in the middle of the night, so I'm coming back and I see on the computer all these emails coming in and I think, 'Wait a minute, I don't think they're all saying tough luck...' "I found out at 3:30 in the morning that I had won! We have a granddaughter whose name is EMMY and we had been playing card games all day long that day. "So I wake up my wife in the middle of the night and I say, 'I won the Emmy!' She's still half asleep and she says, 'You beat Emmy at cards?'"