Actress Jessica Hecht's Emmy night comes down to the dress

Jessica Hecht, the "Special" actress, inherited at least a couple of things from her mother: "I'm lucky to be sample size. My mother gave me many gifts and this was a very specific one."

That, she laughed, and "a lot of neurosis."

Being a size 2 came in handy as Hecht was deciding on just the right red carpet look for her big night Sunday at the creative arts Emmys, to air Saturday on FX ahead of the main slate. She didn't win, but she had a ball picking out a dress.

Jessica Hecht arrives at night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard ShotwellInvisionAP)

For fashion assistance, she headed straight to Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre, a nearly 2-year-old collaboration between the Frenchman who styles first lady Melania Trump, and Nicolas Caito, a compatriot and veteran patternmaker.

While creative director at Carolina Herrera, Pierre dressed the 54-year-old Hecht a couple of times. For the Emmys, he offered several options on her fitting visit to the fledgling brand's airy studio, where workers cut and sewed at high tables as others tapped on their laptops nearby. Of three dresses, one stole Hecht's heart and had her beaming on the red carpet.

It was a bicolor column gown with an empire bodice in peony pink silk and wool, and a skirt in black silk crepe. Skeletal lines in silk pique applique, in an ultramarine blue inspired by a painting by the post-war French nouveau realist Yves Klein, adorned the front, from just below the neck to just above the hem.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre sketches a dress design for Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

A side slit wasn't too daring and offered movability.

"The cut is perfect," Hecht told Pierre and Caito as she inspected herself in a full-length mirror, gently touching the fabrics as she practice-walked in a pair of comfortable black heels she had brought along. "I could eat a dinner in this dress. When you stop breathing, it's the worst."

And the other options? There was a sporty, sleeveless, bright red trench-style with buttons, and a sexy navy gown with a full skirt. The blue was off the shoulder with tight sleeves that stopped at the elbows. Cutouts in the underarms lent comfort and mobility. It had a riot of three-dimensional line applique up top that extended off the dress at the neck. And it had a train.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, left, fits Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht with a dress for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

Hecht wasn't looking, in particular, for a train. The black just skimmed the ground.

Pierre quoted Coco Chanel as he listened to Hecht's short but sure reasons for loving the black.

"Mademoiselle Chanel always said if you spend more than 10 minutes to describe a dress, it means that the dress is wrong," he said. Hecht needed far less.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, center, and Nicolas Caito, right, fit Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht with a dress for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

There's a word in Yiddish that Hecht's mother uses "to describe a dress that has too much going on, which is ungapatchka," she told Pierre.

Hecht wasn't interested. She wanted simple elegance, from her planned chignon hairstyle and simple jewelry to the shoes she hand-carried from the Upper West Side.

"The simplest shoe is the best, I think. Unless you're 20," she said.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, a dress designed by Herve Pierre, meant for Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, hangs at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

Hecht said it was important that her dress honor the tone of "Special," the show for which she was nominated. It's a short-form Netflix series based on the memoir of Ryan O'Connell, who stars, writes and executive produces the first season. O'Connell, who is gay with mild cerebral palsy, decides to leave home for the first time, along with his loving, ever-attentive mother, to strike out on his own. Hecht deftly plays the mom, Karen Hayes, in the eight episodes of 15 or so minutes each.

"In some way, I want to reflect the integrity of the show," Hecht said of her Emmys look. "There's something quirky and kind of sensitive about the show that I wanted to find in the dress."

Hecht extolled the virtues of the pockets on the red and blue gowns. The black was bereft, but it wasn't enough to knock it out of first place.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, left, fits actress Jessica Hecht, for dresses for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmys, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

At awards ceremonies, Hecht said, "people have a whole way of being." In the black, she said, she could be the "mystery to define that dress."

A mother of two, including her Emmy date Stella, Hecht said it would have been "nerve-wracking" to wear a dress that put her on display, required tape in strategic spots, or screamed for special undergarments.

Of the splashy look so many celebrities go for on red carpets, she said: "The wow factor is always exciting for the viewer but you sort of wind up comparing who was blingiest, and that to me is sort of not the point of the event. I'm more interested in seeing the person underneath the dress. The wow factor is maybe great when you're under 30."

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, right, and Nicolas Caito fit actress Jessica Hecht, for dresses for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmys, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

The navy had a bit of wow. She said it would be great in a film, especially if one is dramatically running away, which she was not.

The new series isn't Hecht's first turn at television. She's perhaps best known for supporting roles in "Friends" and "Breaking Bad." The lesbian wedding of her character, Susan Bunch, to Ross' ex-wife, Carol, made a "Friends" splash in 1996.

As an Emmy nominee, Hecht said she was most nervous about what she was going to wear because, "I didn't want to be self-conscious. At this stage in my life, it's like a great party. I wasn't really thinking anything like this would happen."

Pierre dressed Hecht for the Tonys seven or eight years ago.

"I just loved the way he thinks. He makes all these incredible references to art, which makes me feel elevated," Hecht said.

She loved the hint of the "perfect" blue hue in the line embellishment on the gown she chose. It made her feel as if "she's been dropped into this beautiful simple painting that I can inhabit and not think too much, and that's my whole goal."

And what would her "Special" character, Karen Hayes, have to say about her choice?

"She would think it was really unique," Hecht said. "She'd be thrilled because I chose something different."

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.

The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.

Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.

Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.

Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.

A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)