Maggie Smith’s witty Emmys response
Dame Maggie Smith has hit back at Jimmy Kimmel after he mocked her for failing to turn up to the Emmy Awards.
The 81-year-old actress wasn’t in Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater to pick up her Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series accolade on Sunday night (09.18.16), prompting the host to joke he was going to put her prize in the "lost and found".
But Maggie has fired back with a witty response her ‘Downton Abbey’ character Violet Crawley would be proud of.
In a statement via Masterpiece PBS’ Twitter account, she wrote: "I was very astonished and pleased to win the award. I feel the Emmys have been overly generous to me.
"If Mr. Kimmel could please direct me to the lost and found office I will try and be on the next flight. Love, Old Maggie."
Maggie has now won four Emmys and been nominated for nine but hasn’t picked up any of the prizes in person.
Jimmy poked fun at her in his opening monologue, before it was known she would win another award on the night.
He said: "This year for the first time ever, you must be present to win. If we call your name and you’re not here to accept the Emmy goes to the next person on the list – it’s called the Maggie Smith rule.
"This, if you don’t know, is she’s been nominated nine times, won three times. How many times do you think she turned up to accept the award? That’s right, no times. This time she had a Sunday ceramics class she couldn’t get out of.
"When Maggie Smith finds out she’s been awarded with an Emmy she has the same reaction we get when we get Bed Bath And Beyond coupons in the mail. Right in the garbage.
"She goes to other awards! She went to the Oscars to get an Oscar. She went to the Tonys. She goes to the Soul Train Awards every year. But is she here in this audience tonight? I don’t see her. She’s Downton Absent, is what she is for the ninth time. What is wrong with us why do we keep nominating her? She’s treating us like the People’s Choice Awards.
"I have a message for you lame Maggie Smith if you’re bothering to watch. If you want an Emmy you better get on a plane and get your Dowager Countess ass over here."
When Minnie Driver and Michael Weatherly announced the star had won the award during Sunday’s ceremony, Jimmy jokingly grabbed the gong and said: "Maggie, if you want this, it will be in the lost and found."
