Megan Kelly’s big Megyn Kelly Today debut has not exactly gone smoothly so far. The former Fox News host has drawn criticism by kicking off her inaugural show by announcing that she was “kind of done with politics for now,” which seems a tad disingenuous given her divisive history. It also didn’t help that, during her first show, she “jokingly” asked a Will and Grace fan whether or not he “became gay” thanks to the influence of the titular character.
And now, not so surprisingly, Will and Grace star Debra Messing is backtracking, following the appearance. When asked by a fan why the cast chose to do a Megyn Kelly interview in the comments to an Instagram post on Tuesday, Messing responded: “Honestly I didn’t know it was MK until that morning. The itinerary just said Today Show appearance. Regret going on. Dismayed by her comments.”
According to Page Six, an NBC insider defended Kelly, saying: “It was very much tongue-in-cheek, which was abundantly clear to the ‘superfan’ who was thrilled to be a part of the show, and the audience. And it was even clearer when she devoted much of the interview to asking the show’s creators how proud they were of the positive social impact of ‘Will & Grace’ and the progress it brought about for gay rights.”
On one hand, yes, it was clear that Kelly was joking. But on the other, a joke like that would be difficult for even someone like, say, Kathy Griffin to pull off, much less someone who built a career giving pundits who oppose LGBTQ rights a platform. Either way, Kelly is going to have to put in a lot more work if she wants to appear genuinely sympathetic to civil rights issues, and it may do her good to tread lightly in the meantime.
(Via Page Six)