Edie Falco, the white-hot actress who played the pained, neglected wife in Broadway's Side Man in the 1998-99 season, took home an Emmy Award Sept. 12 for her television performance as a mob wife on HBO's "The Sopranos."

The actress, who also appears as a prison guard on HBO's "Oz," was one of several stage stars who won Emmys on the Sunday broadcast of the 51st annual awards show honoring the best of the American TV industry. Falco won in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

The 1998 Tony Awards, hosted by Rosie O'Donnell, won as Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special (O'Donnell was thanked for bringing a national, populist audience to the work of the Broadway theatre community). Paul Miller won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Variety or Music Program for the 1998 Tonys.

Tony Award-winner Martin Short (Little Me) introduced the Variety-Music-Comedy segment, carrying his own Tony in hand and spoofing the industry with the suggestion that there is only a thin cultural line between Death of a Salesman and "Xena: Warrior Princess."

Debra Monk, the Broadway actress who appeared in Steel Pier and co-authored Pump Boys and Dinettes and Oil City Symphony, won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for "NYPD Blue." In the series, she plays the alcoholic wife of Det. Andy Sipowitz (Emmy-winner Dennis Franz). Monk is expected to star in Lincoln Center's 2000 revival of The Time of the Cuckoo this season. John Leguizamo took home the Emmy for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program, for the TV adaptation of his New York hit, Freak, his raucous tour of the Hispanic-American experience.

Nominee Ian Holm went home Emmy-less for the lead performance in the PBS broadcast of "King Lear." Stanley Tucci won (for HBO's "Winchell") in the category he shared with Holm, Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.

-- By Kenneth Jones