How Celebrities Celebrate Christmas

December 11, 2006
Photo: Shutterstock / Julia . Nagy

Following the call, Howard got back to his Gayle King encounter, and admitted he found her very interesting and enjoyed their conversation. Howard then noted he wasn’t sure what he’d said on the air about Gayle – or another of the party’s guests, Spike Lee – so he figured he had to watch himself at the party.

After Howard commented he was happy to have been invited to a Christmas party at the home of a celebrity, he said he found Gayle to be an attractive woman, and that she was the first person he saw when he entered the room. Howard then said Gayle immediately approached him, and that they had “a really nice conversation” for five minutes. Howard went on to say, though, that Gayle called him out on some of the remarks he’d made over the years at Oprah’s expense, and that he explained he had to make jokes to fill the show every morning, and told them about everyone, not just Oprah.

Howard next talked about how nice he found Bryant’s apartment to be. In fact, Howard said Bryant’s apartment had its own private screening room, which he took advantage of by watching “Austin Powers” during the party. Howard then acknowledged that, while he enjoyed the seclusion of the screening room, he felt awkward when Al Roker walked in to watch the movie as well. Howard added he decided to say hello to Al despite their hostile relationship, and that he responded by shaking his hand. Howard also mentioned Al used to be on the show regularly, but his friendship with the show ended mostly because of the comments they used to make about Al’s weight and his subsequent weight loss.

Howard proceeded to say, at one point during the night, Beth recommended he try talking to Spike Lee, but Howard felt he was one guy there that he wanted to have approach him instead. Howard then reported running into Kelly Ripa at the party as well, and that they discussed the incident that occurred a few weeks ago between her and her fill-in co-host on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” Clay Aiken.