A 1999 interview between Jennifer Aniston and David Letterman is going viral for how seriously gross it is on Letterman’s part.
The interview starts out innocuous enough, aside from one cringe-inducing moment where Aniston recalls being recognized in a steam room, and Letterman asks how many “naked women” were there and if they were “sweaty.” (Aniston loses her train of thought, understandably so.)
But it gets worse from there. Towards the end of the seven-minute chat, the Late Show host asks Aniston if he can “try one thing.” He proceeds to grab her head and lean towards her face as if to kiss her, and she literally screams, “What are you doing?” After multiple attempts he—I shit you not—puts a tendril of her hair into his mouth and sucks on it. Sucks on it.
https://twitter.com/okayaniston/status/1362780785011548160
The pro she is, Aniston makes a joke of it, wiping off his spit (!!!) and putting the tissue in her pocket. She then starts talking about her movie until she realizes everyone in the audience is still focused on the weird hair thing.
“People were horrified by that,” Letterman jokes, clearly not seeing the issue himself. In fact, he makes fun of Aniston for screaming. “You ruined it for me,” he says. “Are you happy?”
Again, Aniston laughs this off—but now that people are finding the clip again, they’re seriously disgusted.
This Jennifer Aniston interview started making the rounds after Letterman’s 2013 interview with Lindsay Lohan went viral earlier in February. Spurred on by the Diane Sawyer and Matt Lauer clips featured in the Framing Britney Spears documentary, many people have begun reexamining the way media treated young, successful women in the 1990s and early 2000s. Letterman seems to be a repeat offender.
“I was a fan of Letterman when I was in high school and university, but when I look back on a lot of his clips they’re soo awkward and cringy,” one user tweeted. “The most horrifying one is him smelling Jennifer Aniston's hair—there’s no comedy, it’s straight-up sexual harassment on air.”
We can hope there aren’t too many more of these horrible, invasive moments lurking on the internet. But unfortunately, we’ve probably just scratched the surface.
