Earlier this summer, the world was positively taken aback when Donald Trump, the bona-fide President of the United States, appeared to steal Elle Woods’ powerful graduation speech from Legally Blonde.

And, yeah, you better believe that Reese Witherspoon noticed – and she’s had her say on it again during The Graham Norton Show. 

Read more: Reese Witherspoon reveals plans for Legally Blonde 3

During an episode of The Tonight Show earlier this year, host Jimmy Fallon was the first to call out Trump’s address at Virginia’s Liberty University, insisting it sounded “kind of familiar”.

Cue him comparing it to a speech given by Witherspoon’s character from the 2001 film – and, with a dash of selective editing, he managed to make the two speeches sound almost identical.

“You must go forth into to the world,” says Trump, in his version.

“Passion, courage in your conviction, most importantly, be true to yourself. I did it.”

Meanwhile in Legally Blonde, Elle opts for the ‘we before I’ approach, saying: “It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world, remembering that first impressions are not always correct.

“You must always have faith in people. And most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself… we did it!”

Of course, we can see why Trump was inspired by Elle – they both defied expectations to achieve positions of power while sporting carefully coiffed blonde hairstyles, after all.

Read more: The 20 feminist TV shows we can’t wait to watch in 2017

Now Witherspoon has responded to the furore surrounding the two almost-identical speeches.

During a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live, Andy Cohen asked the Big Little Lies star if she’d spotted any similarities between Trump and Elle’s words of wisdom.

“I know!” she said immediately, with a laugh. “It’s just surreal, mouth open, like… really?”

Witherspoon added: “I think me and the writers [wrote the original] in five minutes.”

Reluctantly admitting she could see why Trump had looked to her for inspiration, Witherspoon allowed: “It is a good speech, though. When delivered well.”

Witherspoon previously said that she and the Legally Blonde team have definitely “thought about” bringing Elle back to counteract all of the negativity in the political arena right now.

“I do think that it’s a good time to do it,” she said. “I think women need that kind of positivity right now.”

Read more: The ‘Dear Women’ project asks us to write to the women who inspire us

Witherspoon added: “I think it’d be kind of a cool thing to have her be a Supreme Court Justice, or someone who runs for office… President, I mean.”

And now, Graham Norton has once again picked up on the similarities between the two speeches. 

Reese and a red couch line-up of Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie were shown an amalgamation of the two speeches on The Graham Norton Show on Friday (September 29), and it’s uncanny. 

“It's true – he is better when he sticks to the script,” Harrison Ford quipped to the audience.

Still dumbfounded, Norton asked Reese how it was even possible for Donald Trump to have ripped off Elle Woods’ speech.

'I'm sure he's just a big fan,' the actress deadpanned.

If anyone can raise our spirits in these dark times, it’s President Elle Woods.

Images: Rex Features