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Director Glenn Weiss proposes on stage after winning Emmy, in big night for Jewish talent

It wasn't only Glenn Weiss that celebrated success, but Jewish names were heard everywhere

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American producer and director Glenn Weiss left the audience at the Emmy awards stunned after he proposed to his partner live on stage.

After winning the outstanding directing for a variety special for his direction of the Oscars in Los Angeles last night, he addressed Jan Svendsen, his now fiancé, in an emotional acceptance speech.

He told her: "You wonder why I don't like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife."

This was the 12th Emmy award for Weiss, who was raised in a Jewish family. Before shocking the stage with a live proposal, he said that the award was “bittersweet” as “the person most proud to be here would be my mum and she passed away two weeks ago”.

He said that his mother had always said that people should find “sunshine” and that this was why he was proposing to his partner.

In front of the star-studded room, Weiss called her up on stage before getting down on one knee and placing a ring on her finger.

He told everyone that the ring he was giving her was from “the ring that my dad put on my mum’s finger, 67 years ago.”

Other Jewish talent was recognised at the awards.

Actor, comedian and director, Henry Winkler, 72, won his first Emmy award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the HBO show Barry. When his name was called, he leapt to his feet and embraced Barry co-creator and star Bill Hader.

When he took to the stage, Mr Winkler told the audience that he had written "this speech 43 years ago... Skip Brittenham (an entertainment lawyer) said to me a long time ago, ‘If you stay at the table long enough the chips come to you’ And tonight, I got to clear the table.”

Amazon's The Marvellous Mrs Maisel won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. The show, which centres on a 1950s Jewish family in New York, and took home seven awards, including two for the show's creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was raised as "sort of Jewish".

Lead actress Rachel Brosnahan took home the award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and her Jewish co-star Alex Borstein won for best supporting actress in the same category.

The show has been given the green light for a second and third season.

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