An Access Hollywood reporter asked music icon and actor Ariana Grande a question that many shocked internet users thought was a major breach of social etiquette.
On Sunday, Grande represented team Wicked alongside castmates Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, and director Jon M. Chu at the 82nd Golden Globes.
Grande was nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture category in the first of the two-part film adaptation of Broadway's Wicked, which won the Globe for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.
The "Thank U, Next" singer who received critical acclaim for her performance as "Galinda—"or Glinda, the Good Witch" in Wicked—ultimately lost out to fellow nominee Zoe Saldaña for the musical crime comedy film Emilia Pérez.
While the evening's memorable highlights included Grande presenting an award with her Wicked castmates and even recreating the viral "holding space" meme on stage with Erivo, social media users were slack-jawed by one interaction Grande shared with a Hollywood Access reporter on the red carpet.
When the host asked Grande to identify the first person she called after finding out she was nominated for a Globe, the actor said:
"Oh, my goodness. Well, my mom…"
The host interjected by asking Grande:
"Your grandmother still alive?"
Grande graciously confirmed that her recently-turned 99-year-old “Nonna,” Marjorie Grande, was still with us and that she was the next person Grande called to share the nomination news.
Here's a clip of the interaction shared by a bewildered user on X (formerly Twitter), who captioned it with:
"THIS IS SICK???????#]%{^{*{+"
The user followed up with "Why would she ask it like that," and "referred to the host's ignorance about the 99-year-old becoming the oldest person to chart on the Hot 100 after Grande featured her on the track "Ordinary Things."
Others voiced their vexation by asking the same questions.
Many fans are well aware of Grande's close relationship with her beloved Nonna.
In late November, the singer flew out to her hometown of Boca Rotan, Florida, for 24 hours so she could take her Nonna to see Wicked at the movie theater Grande frequented while growing up.
A viral clip Grande posted showed Nonna beaming watching her precious starlet lighting up the screen during the musical number "Popular."
It was a full circle moment as her Nonna took Grande to see Wicked, the Broadway musical, in 2003 when Grande was ten years old.
