Billboard Music Awards 2018: When Kelly Clarkson Finally Met Steve Carell

Billboard Music Awards host Kelly Clarkson was name-dropped in a hilarious scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but it took awhile for The Voice judge to meet star Steve Carell face-to-face.

In the unforgettable scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Carell yells “Kelly Clarkson!” when he gets his hairy chest waxed. The film was released in 2005, three years after Clarkson won the first season of American Idol.

In a red carpet interview with E! News, Clarkson told Jason Kennedy she first thought it was an “insult” because “you’re like in pain and you think of me?”

Eventually, Clarkson finally met Carell at the Golden Globe Awards.

“He was so nice!” Clarkson told E! News. “I love when you meet people that you love and they’re lovely. That doesn’t always happen. He was so cool. His wife was so rad.”

“I don’t even know what I was doing at the Golden Globes, but I was there. I got in somehow,” Clarkson recalled.

Clarkson said it was a rare opportunity for her because she is rarely around actors.

“I’m never around actors. I’m around artists, like singers,” she continued. “I’m a very excited person.”

Clarkson also revealed that she was originally supposed to have a co-host for the Billboard Music Awards, which is the only reason why she agreed to do it. “And then the other person dropped out,” she said, without naming her potential co-host.

Still, she is not going to let that get her down. “I’m gonna have a good time,” Clarkson told E! News.

Clarkson’s red carpet look also showed off her new bleached lob hairdo.

The ceremony will also include a performance from Janet Jackson, who is receiving the Icon Award.

“I’m really excited to see Janet Jackson perform,” Clarkson told PEOPLE last week. “Since I was a kid I’ve wanted to see her, so this is pretty much a dream fulfilled. I’m also really excited to hear what Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato’s song [“Fall in Line”] sounds like because they’re such big vocalists. I’m a female vocalist, so I’ve always been impressed by female vocalists. I’m super excited about that.”

This is the first Billboard Music Awards to air on NBC. The ceremony kicks off at 8 p.m. ET live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Clarkson is also a judge on NBC’s The Voice, which airs on Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

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