Why Andy Cohen Called Debra Winger One Of His Worst Guests

Since 2009, Andy Cohen has interviewed thousands of guests on "Watch What Happens Live." The Bravo late-night show has featured everyone from drunken "Vanderpump Rules" stars to Oscar-winning actor Meryl Streep.

Cohen has been open about his early lack of clout when scoring guests for "WWHL." As he marked its 1,000th episode in 2016, he told The Hollywood Reporter that early on, he relied on celebrity friends to score guests for the show. But over time, studios began contacting Cohen to get their talent booked. "In terms of myself, I want to say that I've grown so much as a host but I don't know that I have," the Bravo host cracked at the time. "Look, I'm no David Letterman, but I definitely feel like in my own little ways I've grown."

One of Cohen's signature themes is the games he plays with his guests. A favorite is "Plead the Fifth," a segment that features Cohen asking his guests invasive questions about themselves, with only one question eligible for a "pass." "I love 'Plead the Fifth.' It's generated so much news," Cohen told THR. But it also generated one of his worst host-guest moments ever with actor Debra Winger.

The year was 2018, and Debra Winger was in Andy Cohen's hot seat. As they played "Plead the Fifth," Winger outed the host's lack of research. Winger tersely pointed out that she never wrote about a rumored relationship with her "Terms of Endearment" co-star Shirley MacLaine in her 2008 memoir, "Undiscovered." "No! I didn't write about her. She wrote about me!" Winger told Cohen. "Let's try to get something straight. I mean, c'mon ... It's hard out here for a chimp." 

Winger also took offense when Cohen asked her to rank the kissing skills of her leading men, including Richard Gere, John Travolta, and Robert Redford. "Oh God, what were you doing 40 years ago?" Winger snapped. "So you remember somebody you kissed 30 years ago?" She then reminded Cohen that she was acting when she kissed her co-stars. "You don't think that you sort of are busy investigating a character, which kind of puts you in another self state?" she asked. "Right now it's pretty hard to be authentically a person." Yikes!

Cohen later recalled the awkward exchange in a Q&A session at a For Your Consideration Emmys event. "Oh my God, it was bad, I almost can't talk about it." he told the crowd in 2019 (per The Daily Dish). "You know what's weird about Debra Winger? We really did connect, and during the commercial break, she kept saying, 'You know, you're like my Jewish little brother. I feel connected to you.' But then when the camera came on, she wasn't having me."

Andy Cohen does take accountability when things go south in his interviews. He told The Hollywood Reporter that when a celebrity game goes awry, he will usually "reference it on air and say 'Oh my God, that game was so bad. I'm sorry.'" "People are so forgiving," he added. "People love honesty and authenticity on TV."

But Cohen may have never had a chance with Debra Winger. The Oscar nominee has notoriously butted heads with several of her co-stars, including Richard Gere, her leading man in "An Officer and a Gentleman," whom she once described as "a brick wall." Gere confirmed there was "tension" between him and Winger during filming of the hit 1982 film, per IMDb, but she also called the movie's director, Taylor Hackford, "an animal," according to The Guardian. "She's historically been a difficult actress to work with," "Legal Eagles" director Ivan Reitman told The New York Times of Winger in 1986.

As for Cohen, he has been known to blacklist difficult guests from "Watch What Happens Live." "There are a few people," he told AOL Lifestyle in 2019. "There are a few people who we have deemed 'not worth the trouble.' Like, you can't talk about this and you can't ask about that. Or there are a couple people who have been on the show that we deem too annoying to come back." Winger hasn't been back since pleading the fifth, so you do the math.