Posted 1 hour agoSubscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret Down10 Times Interviewers Asked Celebrities Painfully Ignorant Questions That Proved They'd Done Exactly Zero Research BeforehandFrom confusing Samuel L. Jackson for Laurence Fishburne to quizzing someone in recovery about alcohol, not one shred of research was done before these interviews.by Stephanie SoteriouBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink This article mentions addiction and suicide. Earlier this week, a clip of the time that Martin Short went on the Today Show two years after his beloved wife, Nancy Dolman's, death, only for interviewer Kathie Lee Gifford to speak about her as though she were alive, resurfaced online.
Martin has been widely praised for the gracious way he handled Kathie's painful mishap, but this is far from the first time a journalist has been woefully unprepared for a celebrity interview.
So, here are some more times that a celebrity was asked an ignorant question that highlighted the reporter's lack of research - and the surprisingly chill way that the famous people in question handled it: 1. Martin Short Kmazur / Getty Images In case you missed the Martin Short story, he and his wife Nancy were married for decades before she tragically died from ovarian cancer in August 2010. Martin has been incredibly open about his devastation and grief in the years since, and just last year, he told the Hollywood Reporter that he never wants to "forget" Nancy. But the star was put in an awkward position when he appeared on the Today Show in 2012 - two years after Nancy's death - and host Kathie Lee Gifford started to speak about his and Nancy's relationship as though she were still alive. NBC / Via youtube.com Kathie asked: "You and Nancy have one of the greatest marriages of anybody in show business, how many years now for you guys?," after a slight hesitation, Martin replied: "We, uh... Married 36 years." Kathie then pushed: "But you're still, like, in love?" to which Martin confirmed: "Madly in love. Madly in love.""Why?" Kathie followed up with a laugh, and here, Martin offered a slight shrug before joking: "Cute, I'm cute." The host then said: "And you make each other laugh, right?" Martin said "yes" before Kathie's co-host, Hoda, changed the subject. At the time, Kathie acknowledged her misstep after a commercial break, where she told viewers: "I felt so badly for my question. Marty very kindly came up to me and told me what I had done, and I want to say my sincerest, sincerest apologies to him and to his family for not realizing what I was doing on live television." NBC / Via youtube.com She went on to tweet after the show: "I send my sincerest apologies to @MartinShort and his family. He handled the situation w/enormous grace and kindness and I'm so grateful."Meanwhile, Martin was just as gracious about Kathie's blunder off-screen as he was on. The star was asked about the incident in a subsequent interview with E! News, where he said: "On live television, people make mistakes. There's no ill will intended." You can watch the moment below: View this video on YouTube NBC / Via youtube.com 2. Rashida Jones Steve Granitz / Getty Images As you probably know, Rashida Jones is biracial: Her dad is the legendary music producer Quincy Jones, who is Black, and her mom is Peggy Lipton, who is white. Angela Weiss / Getty Images However, over the years, Rashida herself has acknowledged that many people mistakenly think that she is white, and that she has had to actively fight to not be "whitewashed" throughout her career. Speaking to the New Yorker in 2024, the actor explained: "I've never been whitewashed, meaning I would never let somebody cast me with two white parents, but for the first 15 years of my career, I would go in and read for Black parts, but I just wouldn't get cast. And there weren't a ton of biracial people with my hair and my eyes on TV." And when she stepped onto the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet back in 2015, Rashida was left visibly unimpressed when TNT correspondent Danielle Demski accidentally erased her Black heritage. TNT / Via youtube.com "You look amazing, gorgeous!" Danielle began the interview before adding: "You look like you've just come off an island or something. You're very tan, very tropical."Rashida was visibly confused by this, and remained deadpan as she reminded Danielle: "I mean, you know, I'm ethnic."Reflecting on this incident in an interview with the New Yorker, Rashida admitted that she wasn't in the best mood when the interview took place, which may explain her blunt reaction. She said: "I was a little grumpy, I'm going to admit. I was, like: 'Not today, Jesus. Not today.'" 3. Cillian Murphy Marleen Moise / Getty Images And it's not just Rashida who has had her identity erased by a journalist, with Irish actor Cillian Murphy forced to really assert the fact that he is Irish when an Israeli reporter repeatedly called him British. YouTube @BigDaddyDracula / Via youtube.com Cillian was promot