While reminiscing about his lengthy comedy career stretching all the way back to the early days of Saturday Night Live, Chevy Chase opened up to Bill Maher about the stupidest thing he’s ever said in a long line of misguided wisecracks. Chase made the confession on the latest episode of Maher’s Club Random podcast where he also shared an anecdote about John Belushi stealing his cocaine.
According to Chase, the biggest blunder of his career was during a 1980 interview with NBC’s Tom Snyder when Chase categorized legendary screen actor Cary Grant as a “homo.” Chase, who has a reputation for having a caustic personality, was surprisingly repentant about the whole thing. It was an unusual confession for a guy who still doesn’t care that he was a pain in the butt on Community for making off-color jokes. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
“[Tom] said, ‘People say you’re going to be the next Cary Grant,’ and I said, ‘That’s crazy, there’s nobody like Cary Grant and there will never be another Cary Grant and I understand he was a homo,’” Chase tells Maher of the appearance, during which he also said “what a gal” about Grant. “It was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever said.”
Of course, there’s another dimension that explains Chase’s self-reflection. Grant sued the National Lampoon actor for defamation to the tune of $10 million, and Chase reportedly settled for $1 million.
However, he didn’t entirely learn his lesson. While making it a point to say that he doesn’t think Grant was gay, Chase asked Maher for his opinion on Grant’s sexuality, and it went downhill real quick.
“Cary Grant, I think was half of…. I’m going to say this, I think at one time in his life had a d*** in his a**,” Maher said. “That’s conjecture, but he’s just too good looking not to, that’s my theory.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
