A Patch of Blue

NYPD Blue no longer has a lock on next year's Emmy for Best Butt Shot. In a sneeze-and-you-missed-it scene on the Oct. 10 episode, ER's resident doll Noah Wyle bared his assets when a fellow resident (Omar Epps) injected Dr. Carter with a drug to settle his nausea. ''It was meant to be a gag around my getting the shot and hiding the needle from Dr. Benton [Eriq La Salle],'' says Wyle, who was originally supposed to take it in the arm. ''But the gag never worked, so what you were left with was me getting a shot in my butt.'' Though a spokesman from the show declined to comment (and NBC logged no complaints), Wyle says the rear-revealing decision was entirely ''spur- of-the-moment. I was inspired to be daring — but I didn't realize how far I'd pulled my pants down.'' In our opinion, not far enough.