LOS ANGELES — Although Matt Damon wasn't at the Oscars, host Jimmy Kimmel enlisted one of this season's most popular celebrities for the latest chapter in their long-running "feud."
As the 96th Academy Awards broadcast wrapped up late Sunday night, "Anatomy of a Fall" star Messi the dog was shown pretending to pee on Damon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was a blink and you'll miss it moment, but a subtle way for Kimmel to get a jab in at his "nemesis."
Earlier in the night, dressed in a big bowtie, Messi got his own seat at the awards. "Even though he’s a dog, he may have given the performance of a year in ‘Anatomy of a Fall,’" Kimmel said in the opening monologue.
While Damon appeared in best picture winner "Oppenheimer," he wasn't nominated for supporting actor. His co-star Robert Downey Jr. wound up winning that category anyway to take home his first Oscar.
Although Damon wasn't in the audience at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, he did attend the Vanity Fair post-Oscars party with his wife, Luciana Barroso, to celebrate the big night for "Oppenheimer" (which won seven awards).
In an interview last week, Kimmel joked to CNN that Damon "couldn't get a ticket" to the show. “It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. He asked if he could come and they told him, ‘Sorry – nominees only,” Kimmel described.
During his first Oscars hosting gig in 2017, Kimmel had the orchestra play Damon off the stage while he was reading nominations.