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It was the moment that brought an entire Academy – and the world – to an emotional stand-still. United by empathy and love, the first time in a long time, people across the globe weren’t watching in a unison a terror attack, a mass shooting or a typhoon play out. Instead, a proposal.
In New York City, cheers could be heard at adjacent apartments to me, as director Glenn Weiss invited his girlfriend Jan Svendsen onto the stage at the Emmy awards in LosAngeles and got down on one knee. Re-live the moment here:
Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel, Weiss (a lauded American director of television and live events like the Academy Awards and the Tony Awards) said the recent passing on his mother made it clearer he wanted to marry Svendsen. “It’s been a rough couple of weeks, and I think maybe I got a little more perspective on life, and it just became clear about a week or two ago that I wanted to do something, at some point coming,” he explained. “I didn’t think it would happen this quickly, but an opportunity arose.”
But what would have happened if he didn’t win an award and wasn’t able to propose on stage? What was the back-up plan? “I think (Monday) night was an opportunity that presented itself, ’cause I, fortunately, did win, but I don’t think I was targeting September 17 as a date to do this,” Weiss said. “It happened, and it was great, but it could’ve been October or November or … (the) next two or three years,” he joked as Svendsen shook her head.
One concern Weiss did have was the music beginning before he got to propose. “I was actually really worried about that, having been in the seat and (knowing) how those shows function,” he said. “So, I really kind of ran through what I wanted to say in my head and then as the night was going on, and I saw how much time – I kept editing and filtering and just hoping it wouldn’t go too long, because I didn’t want that to happen.”
Not bad.
