Celebrities Who Have Been Banned From Talk Shows

Is there any form of television more synergistic than a talk show? The celebrity guests who appear on these shows are typically promoting a new movie, TV role, or other projects, using the show's viewership to get that info across. On the flip side, talk shows need to find guests to fill an hour of television five nights a week. 

Viewed in those terms, talk shows are a win-win formula — for the celebs who appear on them, the networks that air them, and the viewers who watch them. Every once in a while, however, a celebrity appears on a talk show and acts so outrageously that they are officially barred from ever appearing on it again. It doesn't happen that often, meaning that these celebs have each earned their own uniquely ignominious place in showbiz history.

From a one-time Oscar nominee now more famous for his unhinged behavior than his acting roles, to an acclaimed director caught pilfering from a beloved A-lister's handbag. This is a rundown of famous faces who have been banned from talk shows.

Hugh Grant has a unique place in the history of late-night television. It was, after all, his 1995 "Tonight Show" interview with Jay Leno that marked the turning point for the show. Grant's interview reversed the show's slumping ratings when the British actor addressed his arrest for soliciting prostitution, with Leno famously asking, "What the hell were you thinking?" 

A subsequent talk show appearance, however, did not go nearly so well. When Grant appeared on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" in 2009, the actor managed to tick off Stewart and his staff with his unrelenting rudeness. A few years later, Stewart was joined by Stephen Colbert for a 2012 Q&A session (via The Guardian) where he revealed that Grant was his least favorite guest ever, pointing out, "we've had dictators on the show." As Stewart recounted, Grant was a handful: "He's giving everyone s*** the whole time, and he's a big pain in the a**." Stewart revealed that Grant also complained about the movie clip that his publicist had selected. "Well, then make a better f***ing movie," Stewart added, promising that Grant would "never" be invited back to "The Daily Show."

To his credit, Grant responded and took his lumps. "Turns out my inner crab got the better of me with TV producer in '09," Grant wrote in a 2012 tweet. "Unforgivable. J Stewart correct to give me kicking."

Back in 2005, actor Vivica A. Fox made an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" It did not go well, especially when host Jimmy Kimmel began poking fun at her friendship with a controversial co-host on "The View." Kimmel introduced Fox by listing her various credits (via BET) before wrapping up with  "... and most harrowing of all, Star Jones' bridesmaid." While videos of that appearance have been scrubbed from the internet, BET reported that Fox became increasingly irked when Kimmel kept the barbs flying. Finally, Fox walked off the show. 

Per BET, Kimmel later told Andy Cohen he believed Fox had been on some kind of medication and confirmed she would not be returning to his show (for the record, she has not). When Fox later appeared on Cohen's "Watch What Happens Live," she recounted her side of the story. "I was really surprised, because I used to go on his show all the time," she said. "And there was just one time that I went on the show and he dissed my good friend Star Jones." Furthermore, she admitted she was surprised to learn she'd been banned, because (she claimed) Kimmel had later apologized to her in private. 

It's one thing to be banned by a talk show for outrageous behavior, it's another to be arrested for it. That was the case with comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, who shot to stardom courtesy of the "Police Academy" movies. In 1994, Goldthwait was appearing on "The Tonight Show" when he abruptly halted the interview, pulled out a container of lighter fluid from a pocket, doused the chair he'd been sitting on, and then set it on fire — while host Jay Leno and fellow guest Lauren Hutton looked on in horrified befuddlement.

After the taping, the comic was placed under arrest. He was subsequently charged with some misdemeanors and fined $3,880, which included $698 paid to NBC to replace the burned chair. While Leno hesitated to say that Goldthwait was under a full-on ban, it speaks volumes that he was never again invited to appear as a guest on "The Tonight Show."

"I learned a lot about the legal system at that point," Goldthwait joked during a subsequent Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival. "And then Leno was screaming at me ... He was really mad."

When Kelsey Grammer showed up to be interviewed for Piers Morgan's CNN talk show in 2012, the whole thing was over before it even began. Perhaps reflecting the "Frasier" star's shady side, Grammar bolted from the set immediately. "Kelsey Grammer was supposed to be on my show now, but ran out of the building. Strange," Morgan wrote in a since-deleted tweet, as reported by Broadway World.

However, sources told HuffPost there was more to the saga, revealing that Grammer had been assured that no photos of his ex-wife Camille would be shown (they had recently finalized one of the ugliest divorces in showbiz history). When Grammar's publicists saw Camille's photo on the screen, minutes before the interview was about to start, and despite Morgan's team stating that they would be taken down, a decision was made. "That's when Kelsey and his team left," the source said.

Morgan responded by announcing that Grammar was officially banned from his show. Grammer's PR team, however, was not about to get sucked into the publicity-generating scandal that Morgan — a former Fleet Street muckraker — had been looking for. "We have already issued a statement and are not going to engage in this interchange," Grammer's publicist sniffed in a statement to HuffPost.

Kelsey Grammer isn't the only celebrity to be banned by talk show host Piers Morgan. Add A-lister Madonna (whose story is more tragic than many realize) to the list, although it's debatable just how much of an impact this ban has made on her life. In fact, Morgan took it a step further by issuing a lifetime ban, insisting he will never have the "Material Girl" singer on any of his talk shows — ever. 

"Madonna and I, we've never really seen eye-to-eye," Morgan once told "Access Hollywood" (via Us Weekly), referencing several past dust-ups. "There was a bread roll-throwing incident in London in the mid '90s; there was an incident at a hotel in the south of France at the Cannes Film Festival involving a photographer and a bodyguard; there's been an incident involving a pub owned by her recently departed husband, Guy Ritchie, where my brother was the manager," Morgan recalled. However, her biggest offence occurred when her publicist told Piers — then editor of a London tabloid — that she was absolutely not pregnant, and then announced the news the following day in a rival publication. 

That, he says, was unforgivable — and there was just one way that she could escape the ban. "The only way she can come back is to literally get on bended knee in somewhere like Times Square on national television and beg me for forgiveness," he added. That said, banning Madonna from one of Piers Morgan's talk shows is akin to uninviting her from a party she had no intention of attending — and likely wasn't even aware of.

Gary Busey's Hollywood career launched like a rocket when he received an Oscar nomination for "The Buddy Holly Story," his first starring role in a film. In recent years, though, Busey has received less attention for his acting and more for his wacky offscreen antics, which constitute a lengthy list of bad behavior.

These tendencies were on full display when Busey dropped by "The Howard Stern Show" in 2001. The interview went off the rails about a half-hour in, when Busey abruptly threw off his headphones, leapt from his chair, and began to tussle with Stern, holding a lit cigar close to the shock jock's neck while declaring, "Scream! Scream like a banshee." Things really got wild during the break that followed, with Busey giving Stern's sidekick Robin Quivers a big bear hug, and lifting her up in the air repeatedly before wrestling her to the ground. As Stern and producer Gary "Bababooey" Dell'Abate pulled Busey off Quivers, he then began to wrestle with Stern, who was becoming increasingly less amused, and got Busey into a headlock before he was finally ejected from the studio. "I didn't know what he was up to," Stern told listeners after it had all gone down. "That dude is nuts!"

After that, Busey was banned from Stern's studio. And while there may have been a few times that Stern's feuds with celebs got personal, Busey was finally allowed back on the show 16 years later. It's probably safe to assume some ground rules were laid down, as Busey pulled no shenanigans this time. 

In 1987, Crispin Glover was riding high after the success of "Back to the Future," and appeared on an episode of "Late Night with David Letterman" to promote his new movie, "River's Edge." Host David Letterman, however, found Glover impossible to interview, with the unhinged actor reading various newspaper accounts of himself while wearing a ridiculous wig. While the segment turned more bizarre by the second, Letterman told Glover, "You seem to be distraught." Glover — appearing genuinely distraught — then told Letterman, "You're trying to make me sound a lot weird, and I'm just strong, you know." Glover then challenged Letterman to arm wrestle, and leapt from his chair and performed a kung fu-style kick — while wearing 1970s-era platform boots — that missed Letterman's head by inches. "Okay, I'm gonna check on the top 10," Letterman quipped as he backed away and exited his own show.

When Letterman returned to the set, Glover had been escorted off. "I think that's the first time that we've been doing this show that a guest actually tried to kick me," Letterman told viewers, unkindly describing Glover as "some goofball, some dork from wherever." He then confirmed what viewers had seen: that Glover "came very close to denting my head with those giant shoes, so I thought, "I don't need that. I'm 40. I went to college. That is not how I want my life ended.""

The ban, however, was lifted two years later, when Glover returned to the show in 1990. As they began their conversation, Letterman reminded Glover that he'd "tried to kick me in the head." That appearance was no less incoherent than his earlier one, but at least there was no kicking.

The director of such films as "Gummo" and "Spring Breakers," Harmony Korine, made a few quirky appearances on "The Late Show with David Letterman," but stopped dropping by after 1998. For years, the reason why Korine had been banned from "Late Night" remained unknown. 

The mystery was solved in 2013, when actor James Franco was a guest on Letterman's show. During their conversation, Korine — who was a friend of Franco's — came up. That was when Letterman revealed that he'd personally banned Korine from the show, and explained why. "I went upstairs to greet Meryl Streep and welcome her to the show, and I knock on the door ... and she was not in there," Letterman recalled, as reported by Salon. "And I looked around, and she was not in there, and I found Harmony going through her purse. True story. And so I said, "That's it, put her things back in her bag and then get out.""

Franco, however, vouched for Korine, admitting he'd been going through some stuff back then, but was currently in a much better place. "Harmony is a very sane guy now, a great artist and great person to work with, but I think he had a period where he was going a little off the rails, so maybe he was on something that night," Franco mused. Letterman responded by saying he'd be "more than happy" for Korine to return. That, however, never happened, with the ban remaining in place until the end of Letterman's tenure on "The Late Show."

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Back in 2004, NBC made an announcement that proved to be the biggest blunder in late-night TV, revealing that Conan O'Brien would be taking over "The Tonight Show" from Jay Leno — five years later, that is. The network's motivation was clear; Fox had reportedly floated Conan a big-money offer, and NBC wanted to keep him on "The Late Show." Leno, however, was still No. 1 in the ratings, and NBC was eager to keep him on "Tonight" for as long as possible. That led to using "Tonight" as a carrot dangling on a stick to keep O'Brien right where he was for the next five years.

It worked, but the plan went sideways when 2009 finally arrived — and so did a new weeknight 10 p.m. show for Leno, which looked exactly like his "Tonight Show" had. With Leno at 10 p.m. and O'Brien at 11:35 p.m., ratings for both shows were weak. Desperate network executives then hatched a new plan: move Leno's show from 10 p.m. to the "Tonight" timeslot at 11:35 p.m., and push "Tonight" to five minutes after midnight. O'Brien balked; when the dust settled, Leno regained "Tonight" less than a year after saying goodbye (remaining host until 2014), and O'Brien walked — with a hefty settlement reported to be in excess of $33 million. 

When O'Brien subsequently launched a new talk show on the TBS network, there was no love lost between him and Leno, who was officially banned from ever appearing on "Conan." When asked by Playboy (via The Hollywood Reporter) whether he'd invite Leno onto his new show, O'Brien responded, "No, there are certain things I will not do, regardless of the price."

Joan Rivers first tasted stardom as a guest on "The Tonight Show," impressing host Johnny Carson so much that she was ultimately invited back as a guest more than 100 times. When Carson lightened his schedule with the help of guest hosts, Rivers proved herself particularly adept in that role — so much so that she was made permanent guest host in 1983. 

Rivers found herself in a conundrum in 1986 when the upstart Fox network approached her with an offer to host her own late-night show, to air opposite "Tonight." At the same time, she'd gotten her hands on a secret NBC list of potential successors if Carson were to walk away from the show. "My name was not on it," she recalled in an interview for PBS docuseries "Pioneers of Television" (via People). This knowledge pushed Rivers toward accepting the Fox offer. However, before she could call Carson to inform him, the news leaked out. 

Carson was furious. "An NBC executive, a personal friend, told us, "We are going to destroy you,"" Rivers recalled. From that moment on, she and Carson never spoke again, and she was blacklisted from "The Tonight Show." When Jay Leno took the reins of "Tonight" in 1992, he kept that ban in place throughout his entire 22-year run as host. It wasn't until Jimmy Fallon took over "Tonight" that the ban was finally lifted; when she joined Fallon on "Tonight" in 2014, it marked her first time on the show in nearly 30 years.

When it comes to celebrities who've been banned from talk shows, Kathy Griffin is in a class of her own. As it turns out, she hasn't been banned from just one show — but pretty much all of them. For example, she claimed she'd been banned from CBS daytime show "The Talk" for the unvarnished opinions she'd expressed about former CBS chief Les Moonves, who was ousted in disgrace after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. Add those to the list of being banned from "Today" for mocking several hosts, barred from "The Late Show with David Letterman" for her excessive profanity in the 1990s, and being slammed by her own mom for her rudeness toward legendary TV journalist Barbara Walters on "The View." 

But did Kathy Griffin really get banned from "The View?" As she confirmed on an appearance on "Conan," she had indeed. "That's a lifetime ban," she said of the daytime hit, revealing that the order had come from Walters herself. "Right from the top, honey," Griffin said, adding, "Don't mess with [Walters] — she will cut a b****, alright."

However, as Griffin wrote in her book, "Official Book Club Selection," talk show bans can be somewhat murky. "Here's the lowdown on banning: it's not like anybody makes a declaration outright that you've been banned," she wrote, via Today.com. "You find out by not getting booked on the show anymore. The reasoning can sometimes be elusive."