Ex-`Friends' Producer Says Cast `Might As Well Get It While They Can'

PASADENA, Calif. - Betsy Borns' wedding is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 8, the same day she could win an Emmy as a former producer of NBC's "Friends."

But "somehow I just can't see accepting an Emmy in my wedding dress at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion," joked Borns, 36, who'll instead be with groom Jonathan Shapiro and about 300 guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "I mean, what would the acceptance speech say? `Thanks, guys, but gotta run. The honeymoon starts in an hour'?"

The Emmy bid comes as part of an outstanding comedy nomination for her work last season on "Friends" - the NBC Thursday night hit on which the honeymoon is definitely over.

The six cast members - David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc - threatened a mass strike if Warner Bros. studio didn't increase each of their salaries from $40,000 per episode to $100,000 per episode. The contract dispute came on the heels of boasts by Warner Bros. executives that syndication sales of "Friends" generated profits of $4 million per episode.

Borns, who believes the salary dispute will be settled somewhere in the middle, doesn't begrudge her former co-workers their demands. She wrote such popular "Friends" episodes as the one with Phoebe's bizarre "Smelly Cat" song.

Go for it

"The lifespan of an actor is short in Hollywood," said the tall, slender producer, wearing a black ruffled pillbox hat, a shirt adorned with cats, and black slacks during a poolside interview. Mindful of fitting into that wedding dress, she merely picked at a breakfast fruit plate.

"You can only be famous for being funny and beautiful for about seven years at the max," said Borns, a former producer for "Later with Bob Costas" and executive with Fox Broadcasting and the Comedy Channel. "They might as well get it (high salaries) while they can.

"But the public probably doesn't have much sympathy for someone who cracks jokes for a living and thinks they can't get by on $40,000 per episode."

Borns stressed that her "Friends" experience was a delight - no actor tantrums or ego trips - especially compared with three seasons writing for temptuous taskmaster Roseanne's ABC sitcom. "Maybe I got out at just the right time," she mused.

She went for it

Borns left "Friends" three months ago to work for the Mouse. She has a lucrative two-year development deal with Disney Studios to create her own sitcoms.

Like the "Friends" cast, she felt time breathing down the back of her neck: "You don't see too many comedy writers over 40. I just have this vision of these writers in their 50s, 60s and 70s, locked behind bars in some basement somewhere, telling old Fibber McGee jokes."

Her new office is on Dopey Drive - "Somehow that seems appropriate" - on the Disney lot in Burbank. She works in the same animation building that once housed Walt Disney's office, and her window looks out on what is affectionately known by executives and visitors alike as "the dwarfs' building" - an impressive structure held aloft by giant statues of Dopey, Grumpy and company from Snow White.

Says Borns: "It's a little bizarre to work until 2 in the morning and look out the window to see Sneezy glaring at me."