5 most awkward celebrity encounters of all time: Salma Hayek spilled water on Eminem and Allison Janney called Kate Middleton ‘honey’, but why did Madonna apologise to Kevin Costner?
- Rosie O’Donnell called Priyanka Chopra that ‘Chopra wife’ in a TikTok apology for mistaking self-help guru Deepak Chopra for her dad – Priyanka was not impressed
- Salma Hayek spilled water on Eminem while fangirling over him and Madonna was caught on camera making gagging signs at Kevin Costner behind his back
Like the proverbial death and taxes, awkward social encounters are all but an inevitable part of the human experience. And while most of us can come away from these often less-than-glamorous situations relatively unscathed, celebrities aren’t always so lucky – especially in the age of social media, smartphone cameras and viral memes.
Proving that no one – not even the world’s most famous faces – are immune to social blunders, read on for five of the most awkward celebrity-on-celebrity encounters.
1. Priyanka Chopra and Rosie O’Donnell
According to O’Donnell, when bumping into Jonas and Chopra at a restaurant, the American television personality mistakenly thought self-help guru Deepak Chopra was the Indian actress’s father.
In the apology video, O’Donnell recalled: “When I said, ‘Hi, Nick Jonas, you were great in Kingdom, and ‘Hi, I know your dad,’ she goes, ‘You do? Who’s my dad?’ And I’m like, ‘Deepak.’ She’s like, ‘No, and Chopra is a common name.’ … I was like, wahhhh. I felt so embarrassed.”
In her apology, however, O’Donnell made matters worse by clearly not knowing Priyanka’s name and referring to her as “someone Chopra” and “the Chopra wife”.
Not only did O’Donnell face public backlash for her ignorance, forcing her to make an apology video in response to her apology video, Chopra herself shared on Instagram: “I have never taken myself so seriously to think everyone would know who I am, or my work for that matter. But if you wanted to make a public apology for a very awkward private encounter, I think probably best to take the time to Google my name before doing it or even try to reach out directly.”