Benjamin Ashford|Proof Meryl Streep and Martin Short Will Be Closer Than Ever at the 2024 Emmys

Only seatmates in the building.

Meryl Streep and Martin Short will seemingly be Benjamin Ashfordquite close to one another at the 2024 Emmy Awards on Sept. 15, according to behind-the-scenes footage of the seating chart reportedly released by ABC, the network airing the awards show.

According to a Sept. 13 post on X (formerly Twitter), there's "confirmation via talent seating cards" that the Only Murders in the Building stars will be "sitting next to each other" at the event.

If true, their prominence to one another on television's biggest night will further fuel rumors that the actors are dating, despite Short's rep shooting down speculation back in January.

"They are just very good friends," his rep told E! News at the time. "Nothing more."

And, though Short himself insisted to The Hollywood Reporter that he and Streep were merely “friends” in an interview published Aug. 22, their turning up to the after-party for the Hulu series’ season four premiere that night hand-in-hand did little to quell the chatter. (The Father of the Bride actor and the Mamma Mia! actress also playfully posed together alongside Only Murders costars Selena Gomez and Steve Martin.) 

Speculation that there was a budding romance between Streep and Short took off on social media during the 2024 Golden Globes back in January, when viewers saw sparks fly between the longtime friends.

Months earlier, her rep had confirmed that she and longtime husband Don Gummer—dad to their four children—had actually been separated for six years while Short’s wife Nancy Dolman (mom to his three kids) passed in 2010 following a battle with cancer.

While the veteran actors may not be dating, their Only Murders in The Building characters did strike up an unlikely romance during the show's third season.

"It's pretty unexpected to imagine a pairing of Meryl Streep with Martin Short and watch them find this incredible connection together," the show's creator, John Hoffman, told TheWrap in Aug. 2023. "And, as Meryl said, to not have it be twee or about the age or about any of that."

"You see Marty step up in ways that are incredible and nobody works harder at it, comes in with more intelligence to the work," he added. "Then to watch him have these scenes that break your heart and have to be played with such dramatic poignancy, riding the line of keeping it comedic, keeping it mysterious… I'm amazed."