You go ahead and clock it for yourself and settle The Great Emmy Debate of the TV season: Is Ellen Burstyn's role in "Mrs. Harris" merely 14 seconds or 9 seconds long? You can see it at the What I'm Watching blog CLICK HERE!

Surely, it's the shortest performance ever up for a top Emmy and, obviously, it's the most notorious, but media accounts give conflicting accounts of its duration.

Since a few seconds matter, we need to count them up correctly. How long do you think it is?

What makes this nomination all the more notorious this year is that Emmy bashers are wailing away at it as one more example of how dumb Emmy voters are — in addition to failing to give top noms to "Lost and "Desperate Housewives." But bashers who say that only betray how truly dumb they are, frankly. The new voting system they lambaste for failing to hail "Lost" and "Housewives" was instituted to stop fiascos like the Burstyn nom. The new voting system employs judging panels that inspect all nominee finalists closely. It didn't cover the categories for supporting actors in TV films. That was determined by the same popular vote that traditionally picks all Emmy nominees.

The reason "Lost" and "Housewives" got snubbed was because their producers and actors submitted lousy episodes to Emmy judges. In short — it was their own fault. If the TV academy scraps the judging process in the future, it will only spawn more Burstyn-type fiascos.

Emmy bashers can't have things both ways.

Photo: Ellen Burstyn portrays a former lover of slain diet doctor Herman Tarnower in "Mrs. Harris."
(HBO)