Jimmy Kimmel Continues Matt Damon 'Feud,' Closes Oscars with Dog Messi Peeing on Actor's Walk of Fame Star (original) (raw)

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Jimmy Kimmel snuck in a last-minute dig at Matt Damon during the 2024 Oscars.

As the 96th Academy Awards broadcast wrapped on ABC Sunday night, cameras cut to Messi, the dog actor from Anatomy of a Fall, as he appeared to urinate on 53-year-old Damon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

In the silly moment, the dog lifts his leg over the star before walking away, suggesting Oscars host Kimmel, 56, put the canine up to the task.

The moment continued a long-running "feud" Damon and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host have continued for years, dating back to 2005, when Kimmel jokingly ended an episode of his late-night talk show by claiming they "ran out of time" to speak with Damon, whom he had never met at the time.

In a recent CNN interview prior to the Oscars, Kimmel poked fun at Damon again, this time for not coming to this year's award show despite being in the most-nominated movie of the year, Oppenheimer.

"He is not nominated for an Oscar. He was in Oppenheimer. Everyone else was nominated except for him,” Kimmel told the outlet. (Costars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. won awards Sunday, and Emily Blunt was also nominated from the cast.)

About Damon not attending, Kimmel joked to CNN, “What really happened? He couldn’t get a ticket. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. He asked if he could come and they told him, 'Sorry, nominees only.' "

Jimmy Kimmel hosting the 2024 Oscars.

Rich Polk/Variety via Getty

Kimmel paid a loving tribute to Messi, who played the dog Snoop in this year's Best Original Screenplay winner Anatomy of a Fall, during his opening monologue on Sunday.

“Messi, who, even though he’s a dog, may have given the performance of the year in Anatomy of a Fall,” Kimmel praised, after jokingly suggesting he would cast Messi to play the lead part if The Shaggy Dog ever receives a reboot.

Messi on March 10, 2024.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

“Messi has an overdose scene, if you’ve seen it you’ve known it. It’s incredible," Kimmel added, noting one of the dog's standout moments in Anatomy of a Fall. “Honestly I haven’t seen a French actor eat his own vomit like that since Gérard Depardieu.”

Messi has been one of the stars of awards season after he attended February's Oscars luncheon and met celebs and Oscar nominees including Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper.

Kimmel also tried out some of his monologue jokes on Messi prior to Sunday's broadcast in a video shared on Instagram.