Classic Reissue: Meg Ryan Met Michael Parkinson and Things Got Gross
It’s one of the most infamous talk show interviews of the 2000s. But it’s not what you remember it to be.
There are many famous (and infamous) talk-show appearances and confrontations that have defined a star’s image or cemented a specific moment in entertainment history: Jimmy Fallon ruffling Donald Trump’s hair; Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman doing that “performance art” nonsense; Dakota Johnson truth-bombing Ellen. The form has evolved in recent years, now mostly the stuff of children’s party games, viral-moment anecdotes, and uncomfortably forced laughter. We don’t really expect TV interviews with celebrities to be the ones that go deep or make a tangible impact. And then there are ones like this.
Parkinson. “Meg Ryan Interview.” 2003.
I didn’t watch the Parkinson interview with Meg Ryan when it aired in 2003. I wasn’t exactly interested in such things as a teenager, and I had no real enthusiasm at that time for Ryan or Michael Parkinson. Known as one of the most famous talk-show hosts in the U.K., Parkinson’s programme was seen as the place to be if you were a person of renown. He was pressing but not as interrogative as a print journalist could be. It was still all about the glitz, with a focus on conversation over anecdotes or jokes. It made sense for Ryan to go on his show, especially as she was promoting a film that was seen as a marked departure from her typical work.
I do remember the fallout, the vicious tabloid headlines and cries of “train-wreck” after it aired. I recall the ways that Ryan was singled out for being cruel, a diva, difficult, all the familiar terms we now know to be stand-ins for “woman with an opinion.” You couldn’t escape claims that Ryan had somehow flushed her career down the toilet by being so mean to British national treasure Sir Michael, a legend of the celebrity interview. To be interviewed by him was a sign that you’d made it and Ryan had blown it, so was the narrative.
