Cher seems unbothered by Michael Douglas’ recent swipe at her 1988 Academy Award win. The 82-year-old acting legend dissed the singer/actress during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show last week, where he said he didn’t believe that Cher, 80, deserved to win a best actress Oscar for her role in the 1987 rom-com Moonstruck.
A representative for Cher reportedly responded to the diss in an email to Entertainment Weekly, in which they said, “Cher adores Michael Douglas.”
The polite response came after Douglas questioned Cher’s fitness for the prize on the Oct. 30 Norton show, where he appeared with his Fatal Attraction co-star, Glenn Close. “She should have won with Fatal Attraction,” Douglas, told Norton just weeks before Close is slated to receive an Academy Honorary Award at the Nov. 15 Governors Awards after eight Oscar nominations and no wins to date.
Douglas noted that Close, 79, earned her fourth nomination for her legendarily unhinged role as obsessed lover Alex Forrest in director Adrian Lyne’s erotic thriller; prior to Fatal Attraction, Close had been nominated for Oscars three years in a row for her work in The World According to Garp (1983), The Big Chill (1984) and The Natural (1985).
“Cher won that year,” Douglas noted as Norton said “Oh, wow.” Douglas, who took home best actor that year for his work in the finance drama Wall Street, seconded Norton’s surprise, responding, “I know, that’s what we all said.”
“Michael, be kind!” Close playfully chided her co-star, who dubbed the actress’ intense work in the film “one of the greatest performances of all time.”
In addition to her 1988 Oscar win, Cher was nominated for best actress in a supporting role for the 1983 nuclear whistleblower drama Silkwood and nabbed Golden Globe best actress wins for Moonstruck and Silkwood.