The early highlight of tonight’s 63rd Annual Emmy Awards came when Rob Lowe and Sofia Vergara began announcing the nominees for the Best Actress in a Comedic Series nominees. After some mildly painful banter between these two ridiculously good-looking human beings, the two introduced the first of the category’s five nominees, Amy Poehler. Instead of sitting in her chair and nodding at the camera politely, Poehler got up from her seat and boldly strode on stage. For a moment there, it looked like a totally spontaneous incident, like Poehler was perhaps doing a bizarre nod to the opening moments of Zoolander, when Derek Zoolander mistakenly accepts the Male Model of the Year Award. Had Amy Poehler lost her marbles?
As it turns out, no. What at first glance seemed like something shockingly spontaneous turned out to be planned from the get-go, as the other nominees—Edie Falco, Tina Fey, Laura Linney, Melissa McCarthy (who ended up taking home the Emmy) and Martha Plimpton—took to the stage in a show of female solidarity that we can only assume was a response to the whole “Are women funny?” controversy that’s been raging on the internet over the last year or so. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon executive producer Mike Shoemaker confirmed that the moment was pre-planned on his Twitter feed, writing “My brilliant friend Amy Poehler pulled that whole thing together. What a great moment.”
But was it actually a great moment? Well, for what it’s worth, we thought it was a pretty outstanding moment. It was bold, it made a statement, it shook up an otherwise blah show, Amy Poehler is a freaking LEGEND, and really, so what if it was an act that of “defiance” that Emmy producers actually knew about in advance? However, we can also see the flip side of the coin, too: What made these five ladies think that THEIR category was any more special or important than the rest of the night’s nominees, and therefore particularly deserving of a standing ovation? We’ll leave it up to you guys to decide if in our poll below.
[Photo: Getty Images]
