Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh appeared to take a swipe at CNN’s Don Lemon in her historic Best Actress acceptance speech on the Oscars Sunday night time — however the host shamelessly ignored the dig on air Monday morning.
The 60-year-old Malaysian-born Yeoh turned the primary Asian actress and solely the second lady of color to win within the class for her groundbreaking function in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, the NY Post stories.
In her emotional speech on Hollywood’s largest stage on the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles Sunday night time, Yeoh, proudly lifting her golden statuette, stated: “This is proof that dreams, dream big, and dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you’re ever past your prime.”
The line, which drew raucous cheers and applause from the viewers, gave the impression to be directed at Lemon’s controversial current remarks about Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley’s age, which sparked a firestorm final month — and briefly sidelined the veteran CNN host regardless of his two grovelling apologies.
During Monday’s instalment of CNN This Morning, Lemon and his co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, aired a section concerning the Academy Awards and mentioned Yeoh’s trailblazing win.
“I thought it was particularly reaffirming especially for Asian Americans, American actors or just Asian Americans in the country,” Lemon stated, earlier than including, “I thought it was a really important and reaffirming moment for Asian Americans and I hope that you know they feel it in this country and that everyone does.”
CNN performed a portion of Yeoh’s speech, however not the half about ladies by no means being “past their prime.”
The panel additionally by no means mentioned her remarks.
Harlow then abruptly tried to wrap up the section, saying, “alright, so let’s move on” as she shot a look at Collins — whereas Lemon sat between the 2 feminine presenters, staring expressionless into the digital camera.
Yeoh’s barbed comment didn’t go unnoticed on social media, the place many commenters rapidly picked up on the obvious taunt.
“Nice sly dig at Don Lemon’s ‘past your prime’ line, #MichelleYeoh!!!” journalist Robert A Georg tweeted.
Another person remarked with glee: ““Lololol @donlemon just got his ass handed to him to by Michelle Yeoh. So deserved. Lol.”
A 3rd quipped: “Has anyone checked on #DonLemon?”
Monday’s on-air change got here simply weeks after Lemon was yanked off the air after accusations of sexism and ageism.
While discussing the previous South Carolina governor’s nascent marketing campaign to unseat the 80-year-old President Biden throughout a Feb. 16 broadcast, Lemon, 56, opined that she shouldn’t be speaking critically about different politicians’ age, being a girl over 50. “This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable,” Lemon stated on the time.
“I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
After Harlow, 40, known as him out for his outburst, Lemon tried to stroll again his feedback by claiming that they didn’t mirror his private beliefs.
“That’s not according to me,” he stated. “It’s like, prime. If you look it up. If you Google when is a woman in her prime, it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s.”
Harlow ended up storming off the set in a match of anger, and Lemon later made a slipshod try to rectify the scenario by publicly acknowledging that his feedback had been “inartful and irrelevant.”
Lemon’s sexist tirade swiftly drew fireplace from each aspect of the aisle and was adopted by a reprimanded by CNN CEO Chris Licht and a three-day from “CNN This Morning” for the beleaguered host.
Lemon was again on air on Feb. 22 after reportedly present process “formal training” and penning a mea culpa on his Twitter web page: “To my network, my colleagues and our incredible audience — I’m sorry. I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better. See you soon.”
This article initially appeared within the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.
Source: www.news.com.au
