Watch Mel Gibson brutally snubs a red carpet reporter not once, but twice

Mel Gibson not only dissed the reporter once, but then did it again when she tried to smooth it over.

Seven reporter Edwina Bartholomew endured a couple of particularly awkward moments during her hosting duties on the ACT Awards red carpet yesterday - and they came courtesy of two of Australia's biggest stars.

Greeting the night's biggest winner, Mel Gibson, as soon as he arrived on the red carpet, Bartholomew seemed to catch the Hollywood star off guard - and the results were slightly painful.

"Mel Gibson, welcome to the AACTAs red carpet! Edwina, pleasure to see you," she greeted the Hacksaw Ridge director.

"Who are you?" he shot back. Bartholomew, apparently mishearing his question, replied that she was "very, very well - but how are you, more to the point? You're the man of the evening!"

"No, I'm good. WHO are you?" he asked again.

"I'm Edwina."

"Edwina. Have we met before?"

Bartholomew gamely tried to salvage the chat from that awkward start, asking Gibson how he was feeling about his 13 nominations for Hacksaw Ridge.

"Is there one [award] you're particularly nervous about - Best Picture, Best Director?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, my knees are knocking," he replied dryly.

It might not go down as an interview for the ages, but at least Gibson stopped to chat -which is more than can be said for Australian acting legend Geoffrey Rush. In another painful exchange, Bartholomew greeted the Shine star as he made his way down the red carpet - only to suffer an epic snub.

"Geoffrey, good to see you," she said, as Rush first glanced briefly at her, then at camera - then walked across the shot to continue on down the red carpet.

"See how gracious I was? I let him pass by," she joked.

To their credit, Seven kept both hilariously awkward moments in their red carpet wrap-up - showing viewers that the life of a red carpet correspondent isn't all glitz and glamour (and in fact, is usually the exact opposite).

And Bartholomew herself was first to poke fun at the less-than-successful interactions, with a pair of Instagram posts acknowledging her foibles.

One highlight of her AACTAs experience was "Mel Gibson asking who the hell I was," she wrote in one post, while in another she gave her own embellished retelling of the exchange:

View this post on Instagram

E: Hi. I'm Edwina. M: Hi. How are you? E: I'm well. M: No. Not how are you. Who are you?! Hilariously awkward moment with the lovely Mel Gibson. I'm going to work on my manners and introduction #sun7 #aacta

A post shared by Edwina Bartholomew (@edwina_b) on Dec 7, 2016 at 10:14am PST

He may not know who she is, but we're guessing Edwina won't forget her encounter with Mel Gibson in a hurry.