Yes, Stacy Haiduk (who plays Mary Jane Benson/Patty Williams a crazy woman who believes her dead cat is still alive after losing her mind a bit by changing her entire face in order to stalk and seduce Jack Abbott on Y&R) brought a stuffed cat with her as her date to the Daytime Emmys … but it’s okay cuz her crazy-ass character on the show made that stuffed cat a star! While there were a lot of awards handed out last night, the big enchilada went to The Bold & The Beautiful. After the jump, check out a few photos from the show itself and a few photos of some of the winners posing with their new Emmys in the press room after the awards were handed out — plus, read all about B&B’s big win which was 22 years in the making …

After 22 years on the air, “The Bold and the Beautiful” finally won its first victory as best drama series when the Daytime Emmy Awards were bestowed at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. It had been nominated for the top Emmy several times, but many award gurus believed it might never win, being a half-hour program competing against one-hour rivals. Another big shock at the Daytime Emmys was the victory by “The View” for best talk-show host, a category that has never been won by a multiple-host program over more than 35 years. Historically, there’s a strong bias in favor of single-host programs winning in the separate category as best talk-show too, but “The View” did manage to break that jinx once — in 2003 when it tied with “The Wayne Brady Show.” This year Emmy watchers were outraged that “The View” wasn’t nominated for best talk show, only reaping a bid in the host race. Its stars, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters didn’t bother to travel from New York to Los Angeles for the ceremony. “We’re accepting it on their behalf,” presenter Jennie Garth said when no one appeared at the podium to claim the statuette for best hosting. However, co-presenter and “90210″ costar Lori Loughlin warned, “We’re not giving it back!” There were lots of first-time winners at the Daytime Emmys, including Tamara Braun (”Days of Our Lives”) as best supporting actress and “Days” co-star Darin Brooks as best younger actor. Accepting his trophy, Brooks got bleeped by TV censors, then gushed, “Ooo, did I swear? I knew that was going to happen!” That “Days” reaped two acting honors surprised many Emmy watchers. The program is often shrugged off by the conservative TV industry at awards time because it skews to a young, hipster demographic. First-time champ Vincent Irizarry (”All My Children”) shared the laurels for best supporting actor with another rookie victor, Jeff Branson (”Guiding Light”), who acknowledged cancellation of his program, gasping, “72 years! I give this to all of us.” Another first-time champ was Julie Berman (”General Hospital”), who exclaimed as she claimed the younger-actress trophy, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! This is so scary. I haven’t shaken this much since I auditioned for this part!” Among repeat winners was Christian LeBlanc (”Young and the Restless”) as best actor. Susan Haskell (”One Life to Live”) won best actress for the first time, but previously triumphed in the supporting-actress race back in 1994. “Rachael Ray” proved that its upset victory over “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” last year as best talk show (entertainment) was no fluke. After Ellen’s program won the talk-show category four years in a row, Rachael’s yakfest took its second consecutive victory … The evening included a heartfelt farewell to the canceled “Guiding Light.” Betty White introduced the video tribute, saying, ” ‘Guiding Light’ started off on radio in 1937 and, in 1952, it became the first soap opera on TV and to this day it has become the longest-running drama in TV and radio history. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.” The ceremony included a grandly staged tribute to “Sesame Street” upon its 40th anniversary, which came at a curious time in its awards history. For decades, “Sesame Street” so dominated the race for best children’s show that, in 1995, TV academy spun off a separate category for pre-school children’s shows just to get it out of the way and let other juvenile programs share the gold. Ever since that new category was hatched, “Sesame Street” romped through it too — except this year when it was beaten by “Between the Lions” on Saturday night at the Creative Arts ceremony.

And here are a few of the winners:

CBS had themselves a great night … I have to say, I am very happy that B&B finally won the big prize. Having spun off from Y&R 22 years ago, B&B was the little half-hour show that could … they really brought out all the stops last year and deffo deserved their win. Congrats and love!! As for the rest of the awards handed out at the 2009 Daytime Emmy Awards yesterday, you can click HERE to see who else took home awards. Did any of your faves win?

[Photo credit: Wireimage; Source, Source]

Even tho these pics are sooooo bad (seriously, so bad!) I’m glad to see that both Cloris Leachman and Toni Braxton are bringin’ the fierceness. I dunno how the hell Lance Bass got talked into wearing his outfit — I thought for sure his days of being bullied into wearing horrible outfits to entertain the public were over … guess not. And can I just say that Ted McGinley who has been a TV hottie since the early 70’s still looks pretty damn good. Geeze, that man must have a deal with the devil … how is it that he can still look hawt after ALL THESE YEARS. Pact with the devil, I’m convinced. I’m not a big fan of this show but they managed to cull together a pretty interesting cast this season. I’m not sure who’s gonna pull out the win in the end … but I do know that Susan Lucci won’t be going home with the trophy (I’m sure it was an honor just being nominated … er, asked to be on the show). I might have to actually watch this season … despite these horribly bad promo pics.

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