• Oh, Mary! star Cole Escola was in the Tonys press room when Nicole Scherzinger won.
  • “Four more years,” Escola joked after Scherzinger courted controversy over a social media comment.
  • Scherzinger previously inquired about Russell Brand’s MAGA-inspired Jesus hat on Instagram.

Newly anointed Tony winner Cole Escola rang in their victory with a joke about fellow Broadway star Nicole Scherzinger.

Shortly after winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play at Sunday’s 78th Tony Awards, the Oh, Mary! performer quipped about Scherzinger’s win for Sunset Blvd. live from the event’s press room — months after the former Pussycat Dolls entertainer was criticized for inquiring about Russell Brand’s MAGA-inspired “Make Jesus First Again” hat on Instagram.

“Who is it? Nicole?” Escola asked while on stage in front of reporters in New York City, as Scherzinger was announced inside the main hall at Radio City Music Hall as this year’s Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical winner.

“Wow. The speculating is over,” Escola joked. “Four years. Four more years!”

Escola’s joke came roughly eight months after Scherzinger apologized for engaging with Brand’s social media post in November 2024, with speculation about the singer’s political affiliation swirling after she commented, “Where do I get this hat!!!?” under an image of Brand’s MAGA-inspired headpiece.

Screenshots also circulated online at the time, which appeared to show that Scherzinger had liked an Instagram post by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in which the controversial politician voiced support for Donald Trump’s second bid for the White House amid the 2024 presidential election race against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Cole Escola wins at the 2025 Tony Awards.

Theo Wargo/Getty


“I deeply apologize for the hurt caused by my recent engagement with some social media posts,” Scherzinger wrote in a statement that was later shared to her Instagram. “When I commented on these posts, I made the mistake of not realizing that they could be easily interpreted as being politically related and I apologize to anyone who understandably reached that conclusion.”

She continued, “Many presumptions are being drawn, which do not reflect who I am, what I stand for, or who I voted for. Many of the marginalized communities feeling hurt and concerned by the results of the presidential election are people I care about most. I stand with them, as I always have, throughout my life and career. If you know me, you know that.”

Following the backlash, Scherzinger’s past comments about abortion also resurfaced, particularly from a 2016 interview with The Daily Mail, during which the 46-year-old revealed that she almost declined a role in ABC’s 2017 Dirty Dancing remake over the fact that her character, Penny, endured an illegal abortion.

“I got the role and I almost didn’t take it because I didn’t want to promote abortion, because my character has an abortion,” Scherzinger said, later explaining that “my Papa’s a bishop and my family’s really hardcore against abortion.”

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Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Escola and Scherzinger for comment.

Watch Escola make the “four more years” quip at the 2025 Tony Awards in the video above.

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