After being nominated for an Academy Award, it’s probably normal for actors to get unsolicited phone calls from random “friends” trying to congratulate them (or get a plus one to the big show). It’s not unheard of for actors to become unreachable after their big break, but Paul Giamatti seems unreachable for various other reasons.
Giamatti is up for an Academy Award this year for his role in The Holdovers. While that might seem like the most pressing thing on his mind, Howard Stern is trying to call him out for being so “unreachable.” To be fair, the guy has been pretty busy this year, but he should check his voicemail more often.
Giamatti reunited with his Private Parts costar Howard Stern when Stern revealed that he heard Giamatti was trying to get in touch with him. “Recently I got this message, I get it every once in a while, that ‘Paul Giamatti wants to speak with you.’” Stern confessed. “I call you, I get your number…maybe I’m being goofed on,” Stern said after Giamatti confirmed that he doesn’t want to speak with him. Howard Stern is a pretty frequent talker, as we all know.
But it seems like there is a lot of miscommunication in Hollywood. Giamatti explained that he also gets frequent requests from Cher, who is allegedly a huge fan. “Every now and then I get a message: ‘Cher really needs to talk to me.’ Like it’s crucial that she talks to me,” Paul revealed. “And I’m like, ‘What the f*ck? Why does she want to talk to me?’ Nobody will tell me, and then I never hear anything, and then a year will go by, and it happens again.”
Eventually, the pop diva did get in touch with the actor. “All she said was, ‘I hear you want to talk to me,’” Paul laughed. “I left her a message and I said, ‘That’s great. I’d love to talk to you, but I thought you wanted to talk to me!’ And that’s the last I heard [from her],” he explained.
Even though he got the message, he hasn’t been able to reach her. “I don’t know what she could possibly want to talk to me about, and it’s killing me. I’m dying to know what she wants to talk about,” Paul concluded. “I’d love to talk to her about anything. I don’t care, it would be fantastic.” Maybe Cher is looking to cast Giamatti in a Moonstruck reboot??
Despite his mysterious relationship with Cher, Giamatti assured Stern that the radio host would be the first to get a shoutout if he won his Oscar. “I’m not kidding when I say I credit you totally [for helping launch my career],” Paul told Howard, adding, “If I win that thing, I’m going to thank you.” Finally, the Academy will recognize Stern’s important contribution to cinema.
Check out the full clip above.