From “childless cat lady” jokes to calls to vote, the upcoming US presidential election loomed large at this year’s Emmy Awards.
Following Taylor Swift’s public endorsement of Kamala Harris, which mocked Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s now infamous “childless cat ladies” comment, both Selena Gomez and Candice Bergen also joked about the remarks on stage at the Emmys.
However, despite the political references running throughout the ceremony, there was no reference made on stage to the latest apparent assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
Gomez, sharing the stage with her Only Murders In The Building co-stars Martin Short and Steve Martin, introduced the first award of the evening.
“Let me say what an honour it is to work with two guys who are this far away from being childless cat ladies,” the 32-year-old joked.
The Bear star Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who collected a supporting actor award from the trio, thanked his parents during his acceptance speech, saying: “They’re taking such nice care of my cat.”
Later on, before presenting the award for best lead actress in a comedy series to Hacks star Jean Smart, Bergen reflected on her own sitcom Murphy Brown.
“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,” the 78-year-old said.
“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.”
She then added a “meow”.
Mr Vance has faced criticism over his comments in a 2021 Fox News interview in which he said the Democratic Party was run “by a bunch of childless cat ladies”.
After he was announced as Mr Trump’s running mate, the remarks were reposted by Friends star Jennifer Aniston who used the clip to criticise his opposition to a law making IVF a universal right, adding: “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States.”
Elswhere, Liza Colon-Zayas, who won an Emmy for best supporting actress for her role in The Bear, used her time on stage to urge people to vote.
“To all the Latinas who are looking at me – keep believing and vote, vote for your rights,” she said on stage.
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Accepting a supporting actor award for his performance in The Morning Show, Billy Crudup thanked his wife Naomi Watts, who was also nominated for Feud: Capote vs The Swans.
He made a point of highlighting that Watts, who is British and grew up in Australia, is “an immigrant”.
And while Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on Mr Trump was not mentioned directly on stage, presenter Jon Stewart, who won the award for outstanding talk series for The Daily Show, told reporters that “we live in a horrible moment”.
He added: “I think the one rule maybe we could all benefit from in terms of engagement is no shooting. No matter how mad you are, no matter who you don’t like, or who you hate, I believe instituting a no shooting policy would be the way to take things down a notch.”