Jenna Bush Hager was left red-faced Tuesday morning after making a humiliating faux pas during a live interview with Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Today with Hoda & Jenna.
Jenna, 42, and her cohost Hoda Kotb were chatting with Joseph, 43, about working with Eddie Murphy in the upcoming film Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, when the actor revealed that it was his older brother who initially got him introduced him to Eddie’s work. day.
Joseph revealed, “When you have an older brother or sister, the things your older brothers and sisters like take on a certain mystique, right? They’re super cool, they might be a little forbidden. For me, it was Eddie Murphy when I was young, because my brother loved his stand-up so much, on Saturday nights and his movies, so the opportunity to play his new sidekick…’
Mom of three Jenna quickly asked, “Did you call your brother and say ‘haha’?” – only for the actor to respond: ‘Okay, well, so unfortunately my brother is dead now…’, causing the shocked TV presenter to simply exclaim: ‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’
Father-of-two Joseph reassured Jenna that it was fine, replying: ‘No, it’s OK, and it’s actually a beautiful thing because you can reconnect with someone you’ve lost if you have these beliefs. ‘
Jenna Bush Hager was left red-faced during an interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Tuesday morning
When Jenna joked about Joseph calling his brother, the actor told her that his sibling is “dead now.”
This certainly isn’t the first time Jenna has experienced an embarrassing mistake live, and she’s certainly used to bouncing back from it.
In March, she was left red-faced when music icon Mary J. Blige had to correct her about her own discography when she accidentally called her second record her “debut album.”
And last year, she was shocked when she accidentally called her husband Henry Hager “DADDY” live on air.
She managed to put the misstep with Joseph behind her by asking, “So it actually had more meaning?” referring to him getting the role in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
“It was really meaningful that way, yeah,” Joseph responded, before promising fans, “This new movie will give you what you want.”
Sadly, Joseph’s older brother Dan was found unconscious in his Hollywood home on October 6, 2010.
Although Dan’s cause of death has never been publicly revealed, it is claimed that he died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 36.
In July 2020, Joseph took to Twitter to mark what would have been Dan’s 46th birthday, writing: ‘Today is my brother Dan’s birthday. He and I started @hitrecord together a long time ago. We all miss him, it’s now ten years since he died.’
Joseph handled the awkward comment perfectly and reassured Jenna that it was “okay.”
Joseph pictured with his older brother Dan in 2002, who sadly passed away in October 2010 aged 36
Joseph explained that he was first introduced to Eddie Murphy’s comedy and acting through his brother Dan. Murphy is pictured here in November 2023
Joseph and Dan launched HitRECord.org in 2005, which serves as a space for creative collaboration.
The actor continued his tweet, “I love seeing art inspired by him. Draw him, write about him, talk about him, whatever,” before encouraging his followers and fans to go to HitRECord and post stories, art, photos, etc. related to his late brother.
During a 2021 interview with Business Insider, Joseph choked up when talking about his Apple TV+ show Mr. Corman and how Dan had inspired it.
Mr. Corman follows Joseph’s character Josh, a fifth-grade teacher struggling through life as he begins to regret not pursuing his ambitions to become a musician.
“He’s involved in everything I do,” Joseph said of his late sibling, before pointing out that in one episode there is a collage of scenarios about how the life of the show’s main character, Josh, could have turned out .
“In one of them, Josh passed away and that definitely reminded me less of my brother and more of the experiences of my family going through that,” he said.
“My brother talked about gratitude all the time and Josh is someone who I think needs to learn that lesson.
“He knows he has a lot to be grateful for, but he can’t always tune into that and that lesson was something I think my brother was very focused on. That’s something I admired about him,” Joseph added.