Comedian Jerry Seinfeld defended late-night host Jimmy Fallon after former staffers told Rolling Stone that they saw Fallon scold an employee in front of him over how he was holding cue cards.
“This is so stupid,” Seinfeld said in response to the story. “I remember this moment quite well … I teased Jimmy about a flub, and we all had a fun laugh about how rarely Jimmy is thrown off.”
“It was not uncomfortable at all,” Seinfeld said. “Jimmy and I still occasionally recall it and laugh. Idiotic twisting of events.”
Seinfeld’s claim that the moment was “not uncomfortable at all” was a stark rebuttal of one of the key stories used in a recent Rolling Stone feature on Fallon headlined, “Chaos, Comedy, and ‘Crying Rooms’: Inside Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show.’”
Two staffers recalled an incident during which Fallon scolded a crew member handling cue cards in front of Seinfeld during a taping of the show. Seinfeld told Fallon to apologize to the cue card handler, which Fallon allegedly did. According to the report, it was an “uncomfortable moment.”
“It was very awkward, and Jerry [Seinfeld] was like, ‘You should apologize to him,’ almost trying to make it a joke,” a former employee told the magazine. “It was one of the strangest moments ever and so many people were there, so it’s kind of hard to forget.”
Fallon has reportedly apologized to his staff following the report about allegations of his “erratic behavior” creating a “toxic workplace.”
“It’s embarrassing, and I feel so bad,” Fallon said, according to two employees who were on the Zoom call Thursday evening, per Rolling Stone. “Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends… I feel so bad I can’t even tell you.”
The anonymous staffers told Rolling Stone Fallon said he did not intend to “create that type of atmosphere for the show.”
Multiple staffers quoted in the Rolling Stone article also claimed that working on Fallon’s show was one of the worst periods of their careers.
“It’s a bummer because it was my dream job,” one former employee said. “Writing for late night is a lot of people’s dream jobs, and they’re coming into this, and it becomes a nightmare very quickly. It’s sad that it’s like that, especially knowing that it doesn’t have to be that way.”
A spokesperson for NBC said in a statement to Rolling Stone, “We are incredibly proud of The Tonight Show, and providing a respectful working environment is a top priority. As in any workplace, we have had employees raise issues; those have been investigated and action has been taken where appropriate. As is always the case, we encourage employees who feel they have experienced or observed behavior inconsistent with our policies to report their concerns so that we may address them accordingly.”
NBC declined to comment further when reached for a response.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
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