Michelle Yeoh appears to take aim at CNN’s Don Lemon during Oscars speech
Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh appeared to take a swipe at CNN’s Don Lemon in her historic Best Actress acceptance speech at the Oscars Sunday night — but the host shamelessly ignored the dig on air Monday morning.
The 60-year-old Malaysian-born Yeoh became the first Asian actress and only the second woman of color to win in the category for her groundbreaking role in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
In her emotional speech on Hollywood’s biggest stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles Sunday night, Yeoh, proudly lifting her golden statuette, said: “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 audience, seemed to be directed at Lemon’s controversial recent remarks about Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley’s age, which sparked a firestorm last month — and temporarily sidelined the veteran CNN host despite his two groveling apologies.
During Monday’s installment of CNN This Morning, Lemon and his co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, aired a segment about the Academy Awards and discussed Yeoh’s trailblazing win.
“I thought it was particularly reaffirming especially for Asian Americans, American actors or just Asian Americans in the country,” Lemon said, before adding, “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 played a portion of Yeoh’s speech, but not the part about women never being “past their prime.”
The panel also never discussed her remarks.
Harlow then abruptly tried to wrap up the segment, saying, “alright, so let’s move on” as she shot a glance at Collins — while Lemon sat between the two female presenters, staring expressionless into the camera.
Yeoh’s barbed remark did not go unnoticed on social media, where many commenters quickly picked up on the apparent taunt.
“Nice sly dig at Don Lemon’s ‘past your prime’ line, #MichelleYeoh!!!” journalist Robert A Georg tweeted.
Another user remarked with glee: ““Lololol @donlemon just got his ass handed to him to by Michelle Yeoh. So deserved. Lol.”
A third quipped: “Has anyone checked on #DonLemon?”
Monday’s on-air exchange came just weeks after Lemon was yanked off the air after accusations of sexism and ageism.
While discussing the former South Carolina governor’s nascent campaign to unseat the 80-year-old President Biden during a Feb.16 broadcast, Lemon, 56, opined that she should not be talking critically about other politicians’ age, being a woman over 50.“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable,” Lemon said at 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, called him out for his outburst, Lemon tried to walk back his comments by claiming that they did not reflect his personal beliefs.
“That’s not according to me,” he said. “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 fit of anger, and Lemon later made a clumsy attempt to rectify the situation by publicly acknowledging that his comments were “inartful and irrelevant.”
Lemon’s sexist tirade swiftly drew fire from both side of the aisle and was followed by a reprimanded by CNN CEO Chris Licht and a three-day from “CNN This Morning” for the beleaguered host.
Lemon was back on air on Feb. 22 after reportedly undergoing “formal training” and penning a mea culpa on his Twitter 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.”
