Celebrities participating in the 76th annual Emmy Awards on Sunday on ABC surprisingly steered clear of presidential politics this election season, despite a couple of jabs directed at vice-presidential candidate JD Vance and his past ‘childless cat lady' remarks that were taken out of context and overblown by the left.
Within the first 10 minutes of the show, singer and actress Selena Gomez took a veiled swipe at Vance while directing a joke at her Only Murders in the Building co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short, calling them “childless cat ladies.”
Martin Short: And Steve, let me just say what an honor it is for me to be working with someone who looks like he's fallen and can't get up.
Steve Martin: And let me say what an honor it is for me to be working with someone who looks like a former women's tennis champion.
Selena Gomez: And let me say what an honor it is work with two guys who are this far away from being ‘childless cat ladies.’
Actress Candice Bergen also got her claws out, going after Vance with another cat lady jab while presenting the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series:
Candice Bergen: I was surrounded by brilliant and funny actors, had the best scripts to work with and in one classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother.
Oh how far we’ve come. Today, a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids.
So as they say, my work here is done. Meow!
Aside from the cat lady jokes, there was no mention of the presidential candidates or even the current sitting president, Joe Biden, which is rather surprising considering how politically vocal celebrities were during the former President Donald Trump's administration.
While the speakers were mum on presidential politics, they weren’t mum on identity politics, as it was center stage throughout the 3-hour show.
Actor John Leguizamo attempted to take a dig at Republicans, who take issue with forced ‘DEI’ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives, by sarcastically saying he was a Hollywood ‘DEI’ hire. Leguizamo, who was born in Columbia, then went on a rant about the historic lack of diversity in Hollywood and the stereotypical roles assigned to Latino actors.
While the actor celebrated progress related to the matter, he still called for Hollywood to do more to tell the stories of ‘excluded groups’:
John leguizamo: Hi, I'm John leguizamo. I'm one of Hollywood's DEI hires. That's right, DEI. The D is for diligence. The E is for excellence. The I is for imagination. Everyone in this room tonight has dedicated their lives to diligence, excellence, and imagination. And we are all DEI hires. What a beautiful and diverse room this is tonight. When I was growing up in Jackson heights, queens, a scrawny little wannabe gangster, you're not from queens, don't lie, I didn't even know that people like me could be actors. At fifteen, I didn't know the word representation. Actually, there were lots of words I didn't know back then. But I saw a lot of brown face. I saw Marlon Brando play Emiliano Zapata in "Viva Zapata," and Al Pacino play Cuban gangster Tony Montana, and Natalie wood play a Puerto Rican beauty named -- ♪ Maria ♪ everybody played us except us. I didn't see a lot of people on TV who looked like me. Of course, there was Ricky Ricardo. "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do." I know some of you remember the Looney Tunes cartoon mouse and his lethargic, useless sidekick, Speedy Gonzales, "The fastest mouse in all Mexico," and his lethargic, useless sidekick Slowpoke Rodriguez. "Sorry, Senior Pussycat. I can't play with you no more. It's time for my siesta." That's how we saw ourselves, because that's all we saw of ourselves.
Someone should alert Leguizamo that it’s not 'racist' Republicans calling the shots when it comes to script writing and role casting in Liberal Hollywood. Just sayin'.
Speaking of casting, Nava Mau apparently made Hollywood history by being the first Latina Trans nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for a role played in Baby Reindeer. Mau didn't actually win the category, but received significant praise and recognition from liberal media.
Baby Reindeer's Nava Mau shares a powerful message for transgender representation at the #Emmys. 💖 pic.twitter.com/sWHWw2tD5W
— E! News (@enews) September 15, 2024
