Joe Biden raises eyebrows with embrace of Eva Longoria at Flamin’ Hot screening

The president embraced the Desperate Housewives star after addressing a film screening of her directorial debut, Flamin’ Hot, but let his hands hover a bit too long on her waist before the actor quickly moved to grasp them and took a step back, the New York Post reported.

“Actor Eva Longoria barely escaped Joe Biden’s clutches,” one Twitter user said of the uneasy moment.

The oldest-ever president had awkwardly joked a moment before the hug about the age gap between him and Longoria when they first met.

“We’ve known each other a long time,” Mr Biden told the crowd.

“She was 17, I was 40,” he joked to scattered laughs.

“Biden makes [a] disturbing comment from The White House about how long he’s known Eva Longoria: ‘She was 17, I was 40.’ And then he slowly slides his hands across her body as they hug,” tweeted Newsmax columnist Mark Vargas. “And the crowd full of Democrats just laugh.”

Their birthdates actually show that Longoria would have been seven years old when the president was 40, and that Mr Biden was instead 50 years old when they first met.

Longoria endorsed Mr Biden in 2020 and was a major fundraiser for former President Barack Obama, raising between $US200,000 and $US500,000 ($291,000 and $728,000) for the 44th president’s 2012 re-election campaign.

The commander-in-chief also reused one of his favourite jokes about his primary role — “I’m Jill Biden’s husband” — and mixed it up with an audience member who shouted out, “I love you.”

“I accept!” Mr Biden replied.

Longoria’s movie Flamin’ Hot tells the story of Richard Montanez, a Mexican-American janitor who worked for Frito-Lay and in the movie sells his bosses on an idea to boost sales for the signature Cheetos brand snack.

“When I think about tonight’s movie, I think about courage. So many of you, your ancestors left behind all that they knew to start a new life in the United States,” Mr Biden said of the movie.

However, Mr Montanez may not have been as intimately involved as the film portrays.

The Los Angeles Times ran an article disputing many of the claims Mr Montanez has made and Frito-Lay stated in May 2021 that the janitor “was not involved” in creating the spicy snack food.

But the White House defended its screening of the film, telling the Associated Press it was not a documentary but meant to give Americans from different backgrounds a chance to see themselves reflected in film and celebrated by the president.

Longoria said the story inspired her because she has been told “no” during her career, that ideas don’t come from people like her, that she couldn’t do certain jobs because she is a woman.

She also said she and her team had worked hard “to produce this authentic film steeped in inclusion.”

“We are telling a story that celebrates the American entrepreneurial dream without sidestepping the fact that the dream isn’t available in the same way for everyone,” she said.

First Lady Jill Biden added, “This film isn’t just about Richard. It’s about everyone who has been overlooked or underestimated,” while her husband noted it was the first White House screening of a film with Hispanic characters at the centre.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission