Jennifer Lawrence came in for criticism on Sunday (18 February) night, when she appeared to throw shade at Joanna Lumley at the Baftas, but the ‘Joy’ actress has insisted she wasn’t being rude.
As host, it was Joanna’s job to introduce each of the award’s presenters and while welcoming Jennifer to the stage, she gushed over the US star, proclaiming her to be “the hottest woman on the planet”.
When J-Law then made her on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, she said Joanna’s words were “too much”, prompting a flurry of tweets accusing her of rudeness.
Speaking on Ronan Keating’s Magic Breakfast Show on Monday (18 February), Jennifer told her side of the story.
“So backstage, Jennifer and I are both about to go out,” she explained. “And I’m like, ‘just adjective after adjective. Tall, beautiful, just say I’m this and that’.
“And she was like, ‘Alright, darling!’, and then she goes on stage. So it was an inside joke.
“She went on and said all these really nice things about me and then when I got up to the podium, I was like ‘that was a bit much’. [Because] I just spent all backstage telling her how to be really nice to me.”
So there you go people, nothing to see here.
Joanna was hosting the annual ceremony for the first time and divided viewers with her presenting efforts.
While the TV legend was as charming as ever, it’s fair to say some of the jokes and one-liners in her script fell a little flat.
‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ was the big winner, taking home five awards including the Best Film and Best Actress accolades, and other winners included I Tonya’s Allison Janney and ‘Get Out’ star Daniel Kaluuya.