Most celebrities are adept at handling interviewers; between profile pieces, press junkets, and
red carpet appearances, fielding questions from a variety of outlets is an essential
part of the Hollywood job description.
But in certain cases, even skilled interviewers have crossed a line with famous folks, pushing
them to walk out on the conversation, or hang up, as the case may be.
Here are a few times celebrities had to cut and run.
Robert Pattinson
Back in 2009, rumors had just started to swirl about a romance between actor Robert Pattinson
and his Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart.
Pattinson was publicizing The Twilight Saga: New Moon when he stopped by Ryan Seacrest's
radio show On Air with Ryan Seacrest.
After exchanging niceties, Seacrest hit Pattinson with a direct question about his relationship
with Stewart:
"What do you say to your fans who are desperate to know about you and your co-star, Kristen.
What can you tell them?"
Pattinson's publicist quickly put the kibosh on the interview after only a minute and a
half, signaling for Seacrest to be quiet and for Pattinson to leave.
Always the gentleman, Pattinson at least tried to end the interview on a positive note:
"I was just cut off for the first time ever!"
"The only thing I can say to them is watch 'New Moon', it's amazing!"
"What?
Wh-- hey, thank you!"
Paris Hilton
Heiress and reality show veteran Paris Hilton was not pleased during a 2011 interview with
ABC's Good Morning America when correspondent Dan Harris boldly asked her this question:
"Do you ever worry about your moment having passed?"
"Want to wrap up?"
This was after he'd already asked Hilton some other pretty blunt questions:
"Do you worry at times the people who have followed in your footsteps, like Kim Kardashian,
and are overshadowing you?"
"No, not at all."
So at this point she was already a little annoyed.
After talking to her publicist, Hilton reminded her tormentor that she was a show business
veteran, and then said:
"Just like any other businessperson or someone in the industry, it's always important to
reinvent yourself and come up with new projects."
Though we're all still kind of waiting for that to happen.
Donald Trump
Our 45th president is famous for walking out on interviewers.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, a correspondent for an NBC affiliate asked him about allegations
that he was both racist and sexist:
"Thank you very much."
"Uh, I am the least racist person you've ever met."
In November 2017, CBS This Morning correspondent John Dickerson asked Trump about allegations
that former President Barack Obama had his phones tapped.
When Dickerson reminded Trump that he'd called Obama "sick and bad," the president basically
said that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and then shut the interview down.
"But I want to know your opinion, you're the President of the United States.
Thank you, thank you very much."
And that's not all.
Once, in 1990, Trump left an interview with CNN after he was asked about his casino businesses.
"Do the interview with someone else, really.
You don't need this.
Do it with somebody else."
In 2003 he also ditched Sacha Baron Cohen, who was in character as Ali G on Da Ali G
Show, after he tried to talk Trump into investing in "ice cream gloves."
"Good luck, folks, it's not been nice seeing you.
You take care of yourself."
"You gonna be on that?"
"Well, it sounds like an interesting idea."
"P-Diddy's gonna be in on it."
"Good!"
Trump later tweeted, "I never fall for scams.
I am the only person who immediately walked out of my 'Ali G' interview."
According to the video, however, he did listen to the whole pitch before making his exit.
Robert Downey Jr.
An April 2015 conversation between UK's Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy and
Avengers star Robert Downey Jr. turned awkward fast after Guru-Murthy asked about Downey
Jr.'s stint in prison, to the actor's visible discomfort.
Once the conversation turned to Downey Jr.'s earlier battles with drugs, this happened:
"I'm sorry, I really don't…
what are we doing?"
"Uh, uh, I…
Well, I'm just asking questions."
"Right.
Bye."
Guru-Murthy justified his questions in an op-ed for The Guardian, writing,
"He could have engaged more with the earlier questions and I'd have never had time for
the ones he didn't like."
Downey Jr. later appeared on the Howard Stern radio show to reflect on the encounter.
"Howard talks to Robert Downey Jr. about walking out of an interview" 1:43 to 1:50 "What I
have to do in the future is I have to give myself permission to say, 'That, more than
likely, is a syphilitic parasite.'"
Joan Rivers
In 2014 the late Joan Rivers appeared on CNN's News Room to discuss her book Diary of a Mad
Diva.
Things got off to a shaky start when correspondent Fredricka Whitfield called Rivers' work on
Fashion Police "mean," and noted the "shock value" of the fur coat Rivers wore on the
cover of her book.
"Are you wearing leather shoes?"
"Yes, yes!"
"Then shut up."
As the interview continued in pretty much in the same vein, Rivers told Whitfield that
she was "negative" and stormed out:
"You are not the one to interview a person who does humor.
Sorry!"
"Are we serious?"
Rivers later explained to The Wrap that she felt justified in ending the interview, saying,
"She did not seem to understand we were talking about a comedy book and not the transcripts
from the Nuremberg Trial."
Shannon Tweed
Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has had his fair share of inappropriate interview moments:
"I think celebrities should basically shut their piehole."]
But an especially brutal showing on HLN's Joy Behar Show in June 2011 may take the cake.
Simmons was appearing with his long-term partner Shannon Tweed to promote the sixth season
of their A&E reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels, which chronicled their family's tumultuous
life.
After Behar questioned Simmons about his alleged cheating, she brought up a rumor that Simmons
had slept with 5,000 women over the course of his life.
Then she made a pretty tasteless joke:
"How's your back, Gene?"
"My back is good.
My schmeckle, not so much."
At that point, Tweed decided she'd had enough.
"Thanks for the question."
And yet, despite the obvious discord on display during the interview, Tweed and Simmons got
married in October the same year.
"Do you promise to love and respect her as long as you both shall live?"
"Hahahah!"
Bill O'Reilly
NPR's Terry Gross is a respected radio interviewer, but that didn't seem to matter to then-Fox
News host Bill O'Reilly.
In 2003, O'Reilly appeared on Gross's show Fresh Air to discuss his book Who's Looking
Out For You?
Gross began by asking the famously conservative O'Reilly about comedian Al Franken:
"Something Al Franken says about that in his book, he says, 'I was having fun, not because
I enjoy attacking people gratuitously but because O'Reilly is a bully and he deserved
it."
O'Reilly, who was obviously displeased the line of questioning, became increasingly frustrated
as the interview went on.
"I'll read what the 'People' magazine thing said…"
"Why?!
Why read it?!"
"I guess I want people to hear it."
"Why?!"
"Because…"
"Why?!"
"You'll hear when I'm done, why."
After that, O'Reilly abruptly ended the interview, saying:
"This is just a hatchet job on me, alright.
And I don't like it."
"You should be ashamed of yourself.
And that is the end of this interview."
Gross got the last word in August 2017, just after O'Reilly was fired from Fox News for
sexual harassment.
On The Tonight Show, she reminisced with host Jimmy Fallon about O'Reilly's behavior:
"I asked him a few challenging questions about whether he used the microphone to settle scores
or to get even with people."
Gross went on to describe O'Reilly's meltdown:
"He said, 'If you think that's fair, Terry, you should get out of this business.'"
"And I'm thinking, 'One of us still has a program.'"
Naomi Campbell
ABC News saw an ugly side of notoriously temperamental supermodel Naomi Campbell in April 2010, when
they asked her about a diamond she had allegedly received from former Liberian dictator Charles
Taylor, who was standing trial for war crimes at the time of the interview.
"You received a diamond from Charles…"
"I never received a diamond and I'm not going to speak to that, thank you very much."
After the interviewer refused to drop the subject, Campbell decided she'd had enough.
"Thank you so much, goodbye."
In August of 2010, though, Campbell admitted she'd unknowingly accepted blood diamonds
from Taylor after she was subpoenaed and threatened with jail time if she refused to testify.
Taylor was eventually sentenced to 50 years in prison for various crimes against humanity.
Also, Naomi Campbell was slightly inconvenienced.
"This is a big inconvenience for me."
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