Fantasia Barrino Gets Starstruck by Jennifer Lopez Mid-Speech at Awards Event: 'You're a Piece of Art'

Fantasia Barrino is sharing her love for Jennifer Lopez.

At the ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles Tuesday, Barrino, 39, took the stage with her The Color Purple costars Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks and promptly shouted out Lopez, 54, during a pause in her own speech.

"I never thought I would be back here in front of y'all. And we all have imaginations when we're down and we see ourselves up," Barrino said, as she spoke to her years-long journey from playing The Color Purple's protagonist Celie on Broadway and taking the character to the upcoming movie musical adaptation.

"When we feel like we can't bounce back, we vision ourselves. J. Lo, good God almighty," she added. "You look like a piece of art. I'm sorry."

Lopez notably stepped out at Tuesday night's event with her husband Ben Affleck. She also accepted an award after she, Barrino, Henson and Brooks were honored in ELLE's 2023 Women in Hollywood issue, along with Nina Garcia, America Ferrera, Eva Longoria, Fantasia Barrino, Greta Lee, Jodie Foster and Lily Gladstone.

Barrino's starstruck moment actually marked the second time in recent weeks she has unexpectedly shouted out another actor during her own awards speech. When she spoke at Variety's Power of Women event in November, she addressed Leonardo DiCaprio after spotting him in the crowd.

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As she accepted her award at that event, Barrino suddenly grew visibly distracted and turned her head, saying, "So I want to thank you ... oh my God, is that Leonardo DiCaprio?"

"Sorry! Keep this in the film. Hi, love you!" she said, drawing laughter from the audience as she pointed at DiCaprio, 49, who sat offscreen. "Sorry, I had to do it," she added moments later. "[It's the] same thing when I see Queen Oprah, I'm like, 'Hey, Queen!' "

The Oscar winner later shouted out Barrino himself when he appeared on stage to introduce his Killers of the Flower Moon costar Lily Gladstone, opening with, "My new best friend Fantasia over there."

At ELLE's event on Tuesday, Barrino kept her speech short and sweet after shouting out Lopez as she continued to speak of her relationship with her Color Purple character Celie, whom she first portrayed on Broadway in 2007.

"Because of Celie, I'm standing here and I want to speak to all of the Celies in the room tonight who didn't think you could make it out of certain situations," she said. "All of my Black women who felt like you were not pretty enough [or] you didn't have what it takes."

The Color Purple is in theaters Dec. 25.