Megyn Kelly and Tina Fey talk empowerment in the time of Trump

LOS ANGELES — “What an amazing year it’s been for women,” Tina Fey shouted out Wednesday morning before she buckled over with a sustained and slightly maniacal laugh. Speaking to a room of celebrities, Hollywood execs and reporters in Los Angeles at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment event, Fey, accepting the Sherry Lansing Award for Leadership with her usual wit and humor, also said she wondered “how we can proceed in dignity in this increasingly ugly, misogynistic time?”

She suggested looking to her award’s namesake, Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount Pictures for inspiration.

“You know Sherry Lansing has witnessed some nonsense and some behavior that the young people today would call ‘triggering,’” Fey said. “And yet she was able to flourish with all of her humanity intact ... Maybe that’s the mantra we can all take with us over the next four years.”

Fey said she didn’t want to come and talk about Donald Trump at the event, which included guests and presenters such as Emma Stone, Simone Biles, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon and Jon Hamm.

“When I get written up in Breitbart it’s because I want them to be mad that I’m making an all-female Hitler biopic,” she quipped.

But the president-elect was at least a consistent subtext to the proceedings of the morning, which opened with remarks from Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.