“That’s just the message, which is ‘love and work equals art,” noted Jodie Foster shortly after winning her very first Emmy Award tonight. Honored for playing the resilient Liz Danvers, a steely police chief who takes no bullshit from anyone, in HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, the openly gay actor and beloved Hollywood icon was ecstatic as she accepted her award, telling the audience at Peacock Theater that her landmark win was “an incredibly emotional moment.”

In her acceptance speech, Foster thanked her co-star and fellow nominee Kali Reis, who she upheld as “my champ [and] my partner-in-crime.” She was also sure to shout out the Indigenous people whose culture is key to Night Country’s appeal. “Mostly the Indigenous people, the Iñupiat and Inuit people of northern Alaska,” she noted. “They just told us their stories and they allowed us to listen, and that was just a blessing. It was love, love, love, and when you feel that, something amazing happens. It’s deep and wonderful and it’s older than this place and this time.”
But this is Jodie Foster we’re talking about — so of course she couldn’t leave the stage without dedicating her win to Alexandra Hedison, her loving wife of ten years. After telling her two sons to always remember the power of love and work, Foster concluded her acceptance speech with the touching words “to the love of my life, Alexandra Hedison, my wife.”

Naturally, this final part felt like a win for all the lesbians watching at home. And judging by the ceremony director’s (truly inspired) decision to pan over to fellow lesbian married couple Holland Taylor and Sarah Paulson shortly after showing Hedison, even the ceremony producers seemed aware of the importance. Jodie Foster isn’t just a Hollywood treasure; she’s a lesbian icon, too.
With tonight’s win, Foster takes one step closer to achieving that much-coveted EGOT status. Already a two-time Oscar winner (for The Accused and Silence of the Lambs), Foster came into the night with four Emmy nominations, including one for directing the Laverne Cox-centered “Lesbian Request Denied” episode of Orange Is the New Black. Now, after receiving her Emmy, she is halfway to the mountaintop. To complete the quadfecta, all she needs is an audiobook recording of a memoir and lead role in a play. Does anyone know any free theaters on Broadway?