Debra Messing's Breast Defense at Tribeca Film Festival
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
FULL OF GRACE Messing
Debra Messing, Grace from NBC's Will & Grace, will milk a fart joke for all it's worth, but she'll be damned if she's strapping on false boobs for her network.
During a "Tribeca Talks" panel on Sunday in Manhattan, part of the Tribeca Film Festival, Messing joined Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee, SNL's Rachel Dratch, Curb Your Enthusiasm's Susie Essman, and VH1 regular and Notes from the Underbelly star Rachael Harris to discuss why women, are—despite Vanity Fair and Christopher Hitchens's recent proclamations—funny.
During discussions about the differences between male and female comedy, Messing described a Will & Grace episode where she played up her character's gas-passing by fanning her long dress. The studio audience was in stitches, but director Jim Burroughs told her to go back and reshoot the scene without, well, raising so much of a stink. "He said, 'Grace can't fart,'" Messing recounted.