Eric Stonestreet has joked he "tried" to entice Charlize Theron to attend this year's 64th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The Hollywood beauty was linked to the Modern Family funnyman over the weekend, but Eric soon dismissed the claims on his Twitter page, joking they were starting to make Halle Berry "jealous".

The 41-year-old star spoke about the rumours on the red carpet at the Emmys.

"Well, I tried," he told ET Online when asked if he was supposed to take Charlize to the awards show.

"It's hilarious. It's so funny. I didn't know what to say about it. Somebody text me last night and I thought they were joking because I'd got into a little trouble this week at the Dodgers game, and then another little thing. So I was like, 'What now?' "And then it was like, 'This is OK, I can handle this.' This reminds me of my Scarlett Johansson phase."

Modern Family had a great night at the Emmys. The hit TV comedy won the Outstanding Comedy Series prize for the third year in a row, along with awards for acting and directing – including an Outstanding Supporting Comedy Actor prize for Eric.