Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short served as the first presenters for the 2024 Emmy Awards, and their banter did not disappoint!
The Only Murders in the Building co-stars were clearly excited to announce the first winner of the night, but before that they started to talk trash about each other. But Selena's joke was the best!
While presenting the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (won by Ebon Moss-Bacharach for “The Bear”), Gomez, 32, affectionately dissed her co-stars, saying Martin, 79, and Short, 74, were “soon to be” childless Catwomen.
The three of them just couldn't manage to keep it together.
“The Emmys! What a magical night, I have a hard time remembering everyone's names,” Gomez teased. “And pretend I've seen their show,” Short interjected. “If I see an actor I don't know, I just say, 'I loved that scene with Nicole Kidman,'” Martin said. “Nine times out of 10, I'm right!”
Then they joked with each other.
“And Steve, let me say it would be an honor for me to work with somebody who could fall down and not get up,” Short told Martin, to which Martin replied, “And let me say it would be an honor for me to work with somebody like a former women's tennis champion.”
Selena, who had to calm down from laughing so much, delivered one of her most iconic lines.
“And it's such an honor to work with two men who are the furthest thing from a childless Catwoman,” she teased.
All three stars were nominated for Emmys tonight.
Gomez is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, her first Emmy nomination, while Martin and Short are competing for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Selena's comments about being a childfree, cat-loving woman were not unexpected.
J.D. Vance, former President Donald Trump's running mate, first coined the now-viral phrase.
In resurfaced footage from a 2021 interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed the Democratic Party is run by “a bunch of childfree, catty-cat women who are miserable about their lives and the choices they've made,” and “so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Several Americans, including many of their favorite celebrities, disputed this statement.
Jennifer Aniston responded to Vance's comments.
“I honestly can't believe the next vice presidential candidate of the United States would say something like this,” the “Friends” actress, 55, wrote on Instagram in July, shortly after the video circulated.
“All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I hope your daughter is lucky enough to have children of her own one day.”
The 10-time Emmy nominee also responded to Vance's 2-year-old daughter.
“I hope she doesn't have to turn to IVF as a second option,” Aniston wrote, “because now you're taking that away from her too.”
Gomez isn't the only celebrity to have spoken out about being a “childless, cat-loving woman.”
“Murphy Brown” actress Candice Bergen, 78, also mocked the vice presidential candidate.
Bergen said of her signature sitcom: “In one famous scene, when Murphy was pregnant, my character was being attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle, and he decided to attack my character, who is a single mother. Today, a candidate would never attack a single mother, so, as the saying goes, that's it for me. Meow.”
The 76th Emmy Awards, hosted by father and son Eugene and Dan Levy, is a nostalgia-themed awards ceremony, so Bergen won't be the only iconic TV star taking to the stage to honor beloved sitcoms from decades ago.
