After all, stars are only human.
But the entertainment business is old and vast, and that mindset hasn’t always been the norm.
And even to this day, there are confrontational talk show moments and blunt live interviews with stars.
Brace yourself, because we’re about to dive into on-camera interactions that pull zero punches.
Letterman kickstarted his supposedly long-awaited interview with a curious line of questioning about Cher’s scent.
From Cher’s end, it got even better.
“I thought that I would never want to do this show with you,” she said.
Letterman probed, digging his own grave.
“Because you thought I was … " Cher completed the sentence for him with an expletive.
“We’re happy you’re finally here,” Letterman concluded, before diverting the conversation elsewhere.
He then prodded her to “go kiss a guy in the audience.”
Right the next moment, things got increasingly awkward.
The 14-time Grammy winner gave O’Dell what can only be described as an unrelenting stare.
I’m going to go hang out with my friends and then I go home to the cats.”
O’Dell’s line of questioning was widely criticized, and not just by Swift’s faithful army of fans.
Rather, the interview made headlines and generated media attention.
Pat came Biles' reply, sharper this time around.
“Smiling doesn’t win you gold medals,” she said, before flashing a megawatt grin.
Bergeron later admitted to his blunder on"Sex, Lies, and Spray Tan."
“She was brilliant,” he said.
“I was so properly put in my place.”
“Actually, no.
That’s not the truth, Ellen.
You were invited,” Johnson retorted.
But Johnson didn’t seem to be in the mood to let DeGeneres go scot-free for misleading her viewers.
So she brought out the bills.
But I didn’t even know you wanted to be invited," Johnson said.
“But I did invite you and you didn’t come.”
“You gave it up right?
They didn’t cancel you?
An incredulous Seinfeld retorted, “You’re not aware of this?”
The interview began going south just then, with both men speaking over each other.
“Have I hurt you Jerry?”
King inquired, as Seinfeld fired back at him and the news channel.
“I thought that was pretty well-documented,” the TV star replied.
“Is this still CNN?”
The seemingly endless awkward scene came to a close when King called for a show break.
It was only in 2021, when King died, that Seinfeld cleared the air around his infamous interview.
“Always loved Larry King and will miss him,” he wrote onX, formerly known as Twitter.
“The ‘canceled’ bit was just me having fun with his little mistake.
Jackson immediately caught on to the mixup and didn’t lose time berating the anchor.
“I’m not Laurence Fishburne,” Jackson declared.
“We may all be Black and famous but we don’t all look alike.”
Rubin was visibly fazed and spluttered apologies, as the KTLA camp tried to defuse the situation.
Jackson, however, was not done giving his host a lesson in good journalism.
Hill returned her remark with a sodomy-related comeback of his own.
“I’m glad I came on this show to get ridiculed by your local weather girl.”
According to reports, the incident prompted Hill to cancel the rest of his press tour in France.
Every question was an accusatory one designed to put me on the defensive.”
One of them was Jay Leno.
It’s also no secret that Jolie does not play around when it comes to her family.
“When somebody says stuff about your family, it’s just not okay.
“Do you think it’s possible for you to get elected in Texas, being anti-gun?”
she asked McConaughey, who has been flirting with the idea of getting into politics in recent years.
You’re very tan, very tropical.”
Rashida Jones: I mean, y’know…
I was, like, Not today, Jesus.
“The major thing that’s changed since you were here last?
I have now seen you naked,” the host told Bullock, not long after the interview began.
The callout should have encouraged Lauer to drop the subject but he went on about it.
“You’re naked for most of this movie,” he said, as Bullock protested in exasperation.
A little later into their conversation, Lauer brought the nude scene up again, unprompted.
The inappropriate exchange went viral on social media nearly a decade later, whenaccusations of sexual misconduct against Lauersurfaced.
I kind of winged it.”
You’re a terrible interviewer," she said, telling Morgan off for using his phone mid-shoot.
“That’s not my problem, this is your show.
You have to pay attention to the guests you invited on your show,” she stated.
The interview had nowhere to go but downhill from there.
Unfortunately, his line of inquiry didn’t get any less sexist.
Mirren cross-questioned Parkinson about the euphemism until he gave a more graphic explanation, citing her “figure.”
She also spared some choice words for Parkinson.
“He denies it to this day that it was sexist, but of course he was.”
It was long before the host ofallegations against Ellen DeGenerescame to light.
“And it gets kind of weird, yeah.
Calling us out like we’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Surprisingly enough, DeGeneres did not have a comeback on this occasion.
During one such retaliation, she toldVarietythat she didn’t think Kelly was a good interviewer.
“It wasn’t like I was upset.
It was so inappropriate.”
“Fonda was on to promote a film about aging,” she said.
Ironically, this interview wasn’t devoid of swearing either.
“Yeah, now you’re a smart girl, right?”
“Do you actually think I’ve had botox?
Do you think I need my money back?
I mean, are you stupid?”
he asked, as his hosts laughed.
Whether he was kidding around or not, he walked off the interview right after.
