David Spade talks about beef with Eddie Murphy
Comedian David Spade opened up about his feud with Eddie Murphy during an interview last week with “Mercedes in the Morning” on KXMB-FM, 94.1.
Mercedes asked Spade if there was any interaction between the two during the 40th anniversary show of “Saturday Night Live,” considering Murphy’s decades-long boycott of the NBC show.
Spade confirmed Murphy was miffed over a diss by Spade during his snarky “Hollywood Minute” on “SNL” in the early 1990s.
Spade’s line: “Look kids, a falling star. Make a wish.” Murphy’s photo appeared in the background.
Spade acknowledged it was “a big problem because that was a big sore spot with Eddie and he never came back and then he finally came back.
“He did come up to me after rehearsal the first night we had a cocktail party, and he said, ‘Hi.’ I’d seen him once before that and he was nice and I said, ‘Are we all good?’ And he said yes. So he knows I was just doing what I had to do to get on the show. We’re both sorta different people now. I don’t know. He’s done jokes like that.
“When I left a couple weeks later, they did a joke about me and I was like, ‘What!?’ ”
Spade also revealed Bradley Cooper’s flubbed lines on “SNL 40.” Cooper was supposed to say to Spade, “I wish they did that cowbell sketch here.”
But Cooper stumbled over Spade’s line and while attempting to deliver the correct line he said, “I want the cowboy sketch.”
“I’m like, what!?” Spade said.
“In the back I go, ‘It sounded like you said ‘cowboy.’ He said, ‘I did. I’m so stupid.’ ”
Spade said he continued to joke. “How did you get ‘American Sniper’? You are the worst.”
Spade was in town over the weekend to perform at The Mirage with Ray Romano.
NANCY’S BIG NIGHT
Nevada Ballet Theatre’s co-founder Nancy Houssels hasn’t lost her sharp sense of humor.
During a dinner held to honor her 80th birthday at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, she embraced her age.
“All my favorite doctors are here tonight,” Houssels said. She then went down a list of what she needed them for, including various surgical enhancements.
She brought down the house when she said, for her birthday, she considered a boob lift.
She received a key to the city, a proclamation from Mayor Carolyn Goodman and a $50,000 check for NBT from Fred Smith, for whom the performing arts center is named after, with his late wife, Mary.
More than $150 million of the $480 million raised for the complex was donated by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, headed by Fred Smith.
Some honorees get their names on a marquee or lights. Houssels got a special surprise when a large troupe of young dancers marched into the spotlights and formed her initials, with the “N” and “H” nearly spanning the width of the stage.
Earlier, former mayor Oscar Goodman hinted to me that he might have plenty to say when he and the mayor appear on “Conversations With Norm” on March 22 at The Smith Center’s Jazz Cabaret (702-749-2000).
“If you ask the right questions,” he said, “they will be diving underneath their chairs, like little rats running away. And you can say it, too.”
THE SCENE AND HEARD
Little-known Oscar tidbit: The iconic black statue of the bird in the 1941 classic “Maltese Falcon” was purchased by hotel magnate Steve Wynn in late 2013. His identity was not immediately released. Wynn paid $4 million for the 45-pound figurine, which was sold by Bonhams auction house. The crime thriller, featuring Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, was nominated for three Oscars.
MAKING MISCHIEF
Bobbie Janice Carson emailed me a follow-up to last week’s mention of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis making their film debut in “My Friend Irma” in 1949.
Carson, a 1955 graduate of Las Vegas High, said her mother, Anne E. Carson, was an accomplished musician who regularly played the pipe organ at the El Portal Theater on Fremont Street.
The world premiere of the sequel, “My Friend Irma Goes West,” was held at El Portal.
Bobbie recalls seeing Lewis live up to his jokester persona.
In an article written years ago, Bobbie wrote: “I don’t know if Jerry will remember how he kept leaning over the stage and dropping silver dollars down my mother’s dress. But I do!”
SIGHTINGS
Chef Gordon Ramsay, with a large group at Tao nightclub (Venetian) on Saturday. … At Lavo Italian Restaurant at the Palazzo on Saturday: Spade and Kevin Farley, signing autographs for fans between bites. … Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian, arriving at The Mirage on Saturday in a black Maybach on their way to dinner at Stack. He later hosted at 1 OAK. … Actor Chad Michael Murray, at the 10 p.m. performance of “Absinthe” (Caesars Palace) on Saturday. … Sarah Herron of “The Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” celebrating her birthday at ghostbar (Palms) on Saturday. She and her boyfriend downed fireball shots and cupcakes topped with the likeness of a rose.
THE PUNCH LINE
“It’s going to be different this year for the New York Yankees. Derek Jeter has retired. He wanted to spend more time with his money.” — David Letterman
Norm Clarke’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more at normclarke.com. Follow @Norm_Clarke on Twitter.
