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50 shades of red for Melanie Griffith, Dakota Johnson

"50 Shades of Grey" actress Dakota Johnson with her mother, Melanie Griffith.Lucas Jackson/REUTERS

Viewers of ABC’s red carpet coverage suffered an early cringe when host Lara Spencer dropped an awkward-bomb by asking already blushing mother Melanie Griffith if she’d seen daughter Dakota Johnson’s performance in the breakthrough hit, “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Given that the film is a sigh-filled, lip-biting, S&M-fueled erotic adventure starring her daughter and not some woman who was not her daughter, this made Melanie Griffith even blushier.

Griffith stopped short of just saying “ewwwww” and making the universal gagging gesture, instead shaking her head and offering a demure, motherly, and ultimately shady no: “I don’t need to see it to know she’s a good actress,” which — ouch! Johnson, exasperated, turned red to match her Saint Laurent, rolled her eyes really hard and fired back, “Fine, don’t see it!”

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With no bedroom door near enough to slam, Johnson had to put this kerfuffle behind her before presenting later in the evening. Meanwhile, insiders are saying Spencer is an early Emmy lock for her tantalizingly villainous performance on The Real Housewives of ABC’s Red Carpet Coverage.