Christina Applegate has maintained graceful poise in the spotlight for over 30 years ever since playing Kelly Bundy on Married...
With Children, but Sunday night still proved challenging.

Applegate, 47, attended the evening's Emmy festivities for the third time as a lead comedy actress nominee, this time for her role of Jen on the hit Netflix show Dead To Me.

But on her way in she suffered some cringe-worthy moments on the red carpet with Jenny McCarthy, who was hosting the Emmy arrivals for Fox.

The Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead star encountered McCarthy, 46, who managed to put Christina in a very awkward situation when she told Applegate that she 'grew up watching' her and that she wanted 'to be her when I'm older' — even though McCarthy is just ONE year younger.

The ill-prepared McCarthy, 46, started things off by praising Applegate for her past work, most probably for her role on Married...

from decades ago, but the praise inadvertently turned sour. 

Jenny's full quote was: 'I grew up watching you, of course, and I was like, oh my god, I want to be her when I'm older. Unfortunately I didn't get that lucky.' 

Applegate took this somewhat in stride, saying 'Thank you very much' as the pair stepped on each other's words.

But then, McCarthy proceeded to get several details wrong with regard to Applegate's previous Emmys history, mentioning that she had been nominated for her guest star role of Amy on Friends — which was correct — but omitting the fact that she had once won for it. 

Then came yet ANOTHER flub, when Jenny said, 'Tonight you're nominated for your own show—what does that feel like? First time, right?!' 

However, it's far from Applegate's first time in the lead category as a nominee, since she was nominated for her lead role in her series Samantha Who?
twice, in 2008 and 2009.   

Applegate made sure to correct McCarthy, saying 'Well, no... Samantha Who? a couple times, but that's okay, we don't have to talk about that!'

But the damage was done, and Twitter took notice; the memes began pouring in. 

Before the interview, Jenny told Kelly Osbourne that she is a 'huge fan' of Christina, adding: 'I grew up watching her.

She probably doesn't want to hear that. It's true.' 

Then there was Christina's stilted exchange with and Giuliana Rancic of E!, who asked Applegate about her eight-year-old daughter Sadie Grace with free porno pictures on the internet for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble.

While the pair waved to Sadie on camera, Giuliana asked Christina if the little girl was watching the evening program, to which the latter responded rather honestly, 'I don't know if she's watching E!'

This led to an awkward extended beat, which Guiliana, 45, finally filled in with, 'We'll hope.'

All in all, they weren't the smoothest of interviews, but Christina was still able to laugh it off as she headed into the awards ceremony, dressed in an absolutely glamorous light grey lacy gown.

She ended up losing to the British Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who won the Lead Comedy Actress trophy for her fourth wall-breaking role on the acclaimed Amazon Prime show Fleabag.

Up next for Applegate is the TV movie Your Time Is Up, as well as a second season of the well-received Dead To Me.