Transphobic slurs, screaming at fans, and botched ball jokes. It seems that
Neil Patrick Harris can be even more aggravating than his longtime TV persona, Barney Stinson.
Just like Neil Patrick Harris, Mayim Bialik started her acting career as a teen.
As the Blossom star told the Chicago Tribune, the two shared an agent and a social circle,
and a friendship naturally followed. She explained,
"We had a lot of fun times together as teenagers, we were these nerdy child star people."
In 1990, Bialik guest-starred on Doogie Howser, M.D.,
and Harris made an appearance on her sitcom Blossom, a year later. Still,
their long-standing Hollywood friendship was apparently tested by a rough patch in the '90s.
During an episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, Bialik confessed that
their relationship turned sour after she went to see Harris perform in the musical,
Rent. While the Big Bang Theory star admits she is not a big fan of musicals, she was particularly
unimpressed with the performance. In fact, everyone but her gave the cast a standing ovation.
While the audience applauded, Bialik expressed her reluctance to stand up to her boyfriend.
Unfortunately for Bialik, Harris was reading her lips, and confronted her backstage.
"He said — I kid you not — 'Why did you say you weren't gonna stand up?'"
Bialik went on to say the pair didn't speak for some time thereafter,
but Harris has since forgiven her. Neil Patrick Harris isn't one of those
celebrities known for controversial Twitter posts, but that's not to say he has a great track record,
either. In 2018, the actor couldn't attend the Tony Awards. However, his millions of Twitter
followers had the pleasure of reading his live commentary throughout the event. In a seemingly
innocuous tweet, he inquired to his fans about the identity of a woman wearing a top hat backstage.
The woman in question was Rachel Bloom, one of the creators and stars of the hit musical comedy
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Unfortunately for Harris, he had actually met her on multiple occasions.
Disappointed by Harris' tweet, she responded about their past interactions and shared that
her husband had also been a writer for How I Met Your Mother. In fact,
Harris and Bloom even shared a scene together in the sitcom.
In an interview with GQ, Bloom elaborated that Harris's reaction made her feel
extremely disappointed, and that the pair had hung out in the Broadway dressing room not long
before the Tonys aired. Following her interview, Harris posted an apology to Bloom on Twitter.
When it was announced that Neil Patrick Harris would be hosting the 2015 Oscars, everyone
expected the event to be filled with good jokes, high energy, and the star's musical prowess. While
the actor had proven his capabilities with his Tony hosting gigs, he unexpectedly failed to live
up to the hype. With all his charisma and comedic genius, Harris could not outdo himself. The
four-hour event got progressively more boring as the actor cracked one awkward joke after another.
Harris opened the ceremony with a misguided quip
about the lack of diversity in that year's nominees, saying
"Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest. Sorry — brightest."
While he made the gag with good intentions, the overwhelming lack of diversity was definitely not
something to laugh about. In fact, it prompted the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to trend on social media.
Outlets like Rolling Stone even noted that the joke was a low point of the event.
The actor drew further ire after cracking a joke about Oscar winner Dana Perry's dress
after she spoke out about her son's suicide during her acceptance speech for her documentary short,
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1. Failing to read the room, Harris returned to the
stage and made a lazy innuendo-driven quip about the fluffy balls adorning her gown.
Like anyone, celebrities are susceptible to having off days,
and no one can expect them to be at their best every day. While most people's random tantrums
might not make headlines, stars are vulnerable to having their worst moments witnessed,
exposed, and published for the whole world to see. Unfortunately for Neil Patrick Harris,
his off-day came in the middle of a Broadway performance.
According to Page Six, in 2014, the star was in the middle of his performance for
the Broadway show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch when a woman interrupted him to yell out "I love you,
Neil!" The star promptly yelled back, "I'm doing something up here, ­motherf---er!",
and was met with widespread applause from the audience.
According to Daily Mail, Harris' representative clarified the actor's mid-performance outburst.
Reportedly, he was responding to the audience member in character as Hedwig,
an East German Punk with an acid tongue. The representative went on to assure readers
the outburst was, quote, "in good fun, and fully in the context of the show."
In 2011, GLAAD called out Neil Patrick Harris for his use of a transphobic slur during his
appearance on Live With Kelly! According to Entertainment Weekly, in the episode,
Harris and host Kelly Ripa inhaled some sulfur hexafluoride from a balloon as a part of a
science experiment. When inhaled, the dense gas can greatly deepen the pitch of someone's voice.
Naturally, it was all fun and games, with Harris performing an uncanny impression
of deep-voiced serial killer Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.
"Put the lotion in the basket. Put the lotion in the basket."
However, when the gas expired, Harris remarked,
"I've never sounded more like a tranny in my life."
As noted by Vox, the depiction of Buffalo Bill, a killer with implied gender dysphoria,
has also been criticized by some as being damaging to the transgender community.
After facing backlash from the LGBTQ community, Harris took to Twitter to apologize, writing,
"Truly sorry for saying the word 'tranny' on Live this week. Twice!
Should have been more thoughtful. Didn't at all mean to offend."
GLAAD later issued a statement accepting his apology and explaining the harrowing reality
behind the pejorative term. The organization explained that many members of the transgender
community connect the word to violent, descriminatory, and hateful behavior.