Celebrities are used to fans asking them for autographs or photos. So when a woman approached Ed O'Neill at the Los Angeles airport, he assumed she was just another Modern Family viewer. Well, he was half-right. Britney Spears — yeah, that's who came up to him — called Jay Pritchett her "favorite" character.

"She came up and said, ‘Oh, Mr. O'Neill, I love Modern Family. You're my favorite on the show,'" O'Neill revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday. "[She asked,] ‘Could you please — and I know you're in a hurry —' and I said sure, fine."

Brit tweeted their pic together, and of course it went viral. The next day, O'Neill's manager called him to let him know that he had taken a photo with the princess of pop.

He added that Brit "couldn't have been nicer," so when he realized his stupid mistake, he called her manager to apologize for being a "moron." Yep, that word just about sums up this whole situation.

Watch O'Neill's full Ellen interview below.