After jesting about Rihanna’s long-awaited album and the controversy that kept the Golden Globes off broadcast TV last year, 2023 Globes host Jerrod Carmichael took a moment to make a swipe at Kanye West.

Quieting the crowd after a commercial break, the comedian spoke directly to legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg. “I want to take out a second to shout out Steven Spielberg, who is here,” he said. “It’s an honor sir. Congrats on The Fabelmans. I actually saw it with Kanye and it changed everything for him,” he continued as the audience exploded with laughter. “That’s how good you are. You changed Kanye West’s mind.”

Spielberg, for his part, laughed and raised his hands in prayer and looked up to the sky, as if to say, “if only.” The Fabelmans is the director’s semi-autobiographical 2022 film about a young boy born to Jewish parents in New Jersey who falls in love with cinema (Spielberg himself is Jewish). West, as nearly everyone is aware at this point, has been on a months-long diatribe* spouting antisemitic tropes and hate speech.

*Editor’s Note: After an Oct. 8, 2022 tweet in which he announced he was going “death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people,” Kanye West (Ye) has repeatedly doubled down on antisemitic hate speech, even going so far as to praise Hitler, a man responsible for the systematic murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust. This arrives at a troubling time when antisemitism is on the rise, with the Anti-Defamation League noting a 34% year-over-year increase in antisemitic incidents (assault, harassment and vandalism) in America in 2021. Many companies have cut business ties with the rapper/fashion designer, while numerous musicians, friends and politicians have condemned his comments.

Rihanna graced the 2023 Golden Globes with her sparkling presence during the Tuesday (Jan. 10) awards show. And while she didn’t walk away with a Globe, she did give three high-profile fans a chance to shoot their shot at having a moment with the superstar.

While presenting at the 80th annual Golden Globes, Niecy Nash took a moment to let Rihanna know she was her muse for spooky season. And it just happened to be the exact moment she had all eyes and ears in the room laser-focused on her.

As the presenter for the award for actress in a television series – musical or comedy, Nash waited until all the nominees – which included Selena Gomez for her starring role in Only Murders in the Building – were listed off to make a joke, keeping the nominees on edge as she basked in the glow of Bad Gal RiRi.

“Rihanna, I love you and I dressed up as you for Halloween. I just had to say that,” Nash said before revealing that Quinta Brunson was the winner for Abbott Elementary. “Had to take my moment.”

Later in the show, presenter Billy Porter piggybacked off Nash’s moment, saying, “If I believed in Halloween, I would have dressed up as Rihanna as well.”

Following a commercial break, Carmichael followed Nash’s lead too, not letting his chance for a moment with Rihanna go to waste. “Only because I see Rihanna is here, I’m going to say something very controversial I will actually get in trouble for,” the Globes host stated. “Rihanna – you take all the time you want on that album, girl. Don’t let these fools on the internet pressure you into nothing.”

As fans of the nine-time Grammy winner joke about relentlessly online, Rihanna has not released a studio set since the Billboard 200-topping ANTI in January 2016. More recently, however, she released the single “Lift Me Up” as part of her involvement in the soundtrack to 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. “Lift Me Up” was nominated for best original song, motion picture, but lost to “Naatu Naatu” from the action film RRR.

For her part, Rihanna laughed good-naturedly at the jests.

And she’s hardly been idle. Rihanna will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 12, less than a year after giving birth to her first child with A$AP Rocky in May 2022.