TMC
07-10-2025, 07:22 PM
...before the actor’s post-arrest Tonight Show interview 30 years ago today
https://latenighter.com/features/jay-leno-revisits-his-hugh-grant-interview-on-its-30th-anniversary/
On the early morning hours of June 27, 1995, Grant was arrested in Hollywood with sex worker Divine Brown. On July 10, 1995, Grant submitted to his first interview since his arrest on Leno's Tonight Show, with Leno greeting him with his famous question: “What the hell were you thinking?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtItMwwoiVY) Leno, not knowing about the 30-year anniversary, tells LateNighter’s Bill Carter that he spoke to Grant before their interview. “I just went in to see him and I said, ‘I gotta ask this. I’m not going to ambush you or anything,” said Leno. “But I gotta ask.’ He says Grant understood. “He was good guy about it.” As Carter notes, "according to late-night lore, the Grant appearance was the launching pad to Leno’s eventual and lasting dominance in the late-night ratings, which until that night had been led consistently for about two years by David Letterman on his then-new CBS show. But as Leno recalls it, the huge audience he received that night was more the nudge over the top after a steady upward climb for his show. Things had already shifted in his direction for a period of months, helped by adjustments he and his producer Debbie Vickers had made—moving Jay close to the audience for his monologue for example—improved NBC programming in prime time (ER had premiered the previous fall), and massive fumbles by CBS, led by losing rights to NFL football. But big moments are easier to remember, and Hugh Grant’s honest and somehow sweet self-abasement before an audience of hundreds in a studio and multi-millions on TV certainly played like a watershed event."
https://latenighter.com/features/jay-leno-revisits-his-hugh-grant-interview-on-its-30th-anniversary/
On the early morning hours of June 27, 1995, Grant was arrested in Hollywood with sex worker Divine Brown. On July 10, 1995, Grant submitted to his first interview since his arrest on Leno's Tonight Show, with Leno greeting him with his famous question: “What the hell were you thinking?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtItMwwoiVY) Leno, not knowing about the 30-year anniversary, tells LateNighter’s Bill Carter that he spoke to Grant before their interview. “I just went in to see him and I said, ‘I gotta ask this. I’m not going to ambush you or anything,” said Leno. “But I gotta ask.’ He says Grant understood. “He was good guy about it.” As Carter notes, "according to late-night lore, the Grant appearance was the launching pad to Leno’s eventual and lasting dominance in the late-night ratings, which until that night had been led consistently for about two years by David Letterman on his then-new CBS show. But as Leno recalls it, the huge audience he received that night was more the nudge over the top after a steady upward climb for his show. Things had already shifted in his direction for a period of months, helped by adjustments he and his producer Debbie Vickers had made—moving Jay close to the audience for his monologue for example—improved NBC programming in prime time (ER had premiered the previous fall), and massive fumbles by CBS, led by losing rights to NFL football. But big moments are easier to remember, and Hugh Grant’s honest and somehow sweet self-abasement before an audience of hundreds in a studio and multi-millions on TV certainly played like a watershed event."