Boy did Joan Rivers really know how to hold a grudge. She held one against Ben Stiller until the day that she died and he did not even know why until this week.
The star of the new release “While We’re Young” was making the talk show rounds to promote the movie when he made an obligatory appearance on the Howard Stern radio show. It was there that Robin Quivers of all people explained to Stiller why the late comedian disliked him.
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“She [Rivers] says you ignored her on the red carpet, ” Stern’s longtime sidekick told Stiller.
“Oh, is that what it is?” Stiller replied. “This is helping me, because I didn’t understand why she didn’t like me.”
Apparently Rivers was miffed because Stiller would not talk to her when she interviewed celebrities on her red carpet specials before awards shows on the E network. Most stars declined to talk to her, but Rivers took Stiller’s snub personally because she was always close with his parents.
Howard Stern went on to explain to Stiller that Joan Rivers would tell him, “She’d say, ‘Howard, I’m friends with Ben’s mother. And Ben should say hello to me.’ She was really ticked that you wouldn’t say hello to her.”
“See, this makes it all clear to me now. I don’t remember that happening, but I’m sure it did, ” said Stiller.
What makes this all so odd is that Rivers herself was on the other side of a terrible grudge for decades. That was because the late Johnny Carson banned her from ever appearing again on The Tonight Show after Rivers tried to compete head to head with Carson with her own show on Fox in the 80s.
For twenty years after Carson retired his successor Jay Leno maintained the ban, but Jimmy Fallon repealed it for his first show on which Rivers made a brief appearance.
