Billy Bush has been caught again making crude, sexually degrading remarks on the hot mic more than six years after he was implicated in Donald Trump‘s infamous Access Hollywood tapes. The Daily Beast obtained a video clip of Bush joking on-set during an Extra taping about Kendall Jenner‘s Toy Story-inspired Halloween costume and how attractive she looked. “Kendall goes as Jessie and, believe me, there were a lot of woodies,” Bush said at the Oct. 31 taping, eliciting laughter from several production staffers, per Daily Beast, who only published the clip’s audio.
Bush remarked as he stood in front of a huge screen that featured images of female celebrities dressed in provocative Halloween costumes. Jenner, the second-youngest of the Kardashian/Jenner sisters, wore a version of Jessie’s cowgirl outfit from Pixar’s beloved franchise as the center of attention. As Bush viewed Jenner’s photo on the screen, he asked his production crew for the character’s name. A voice off-screen informed him that the character’s name is Jessie, prompting Bush to hurl a vulgar comment referencing Woody, the lead protagonist in Toy Story.
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“As with many forms of production in the entertainment industry, the show’s creative process allows the flexibility to try different jokes and banter,” said a representative for the show’s production company Telepictures, in a statement. “In the end, some material lands on the cutting room floor, including remarks that may be too edgy to air on broadcast television.”
According to Daily Beast’s source, Extra tapes its episodes with 25 people present; behind the monitors of the set are cubicles where the show’s staff sit. There usually are two camera operators, hair-and-makeup staff, and production assistants on the set, along with Bush and the other hosts. The source said the newsroom could hear Bush’s comments on stage while taping. Bush is no stranger to this type of controversy. The Washington Post released explicit and obscene tapes of Bush and Trump in 2005, just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
On a hot mic, Trump joked about sexually assaulting women before filming a segment for Access Hollywood, which Bush was hosting at the time. On the promotional bus for the program, Trump complained about not being able to seduce Bush’s colleague, later identified as former Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell. As Bush, a first cousin of former President George W. Bush, and the future president exited the bus, they noticed Days of Our Lives actress Arianne Zucker, who was filming with Trump. The then-Celebrity Apprentice host was promoting a cameo appearance on the daytime soap opera.
“Sheesh, your girl’s hot as s—!” Bush said, essentially playing Trump’s wingman. “Yes! The Donald has scored! Whoa, my man. You gotta look at her…Give her the thumbs-up. You gotta give the thumbs-up…Oh my God!” In an infamous moment that has been repeated countless times, Trump asked for Tic Tacs “just in case I start kissing her,” adding, “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”
In response to Bush’s agreement that it meant “anything you want,” Trump replied to his laughter, “Grab ’em by the p—. You can do anything.” Though Trump survived the scandal and shocked Hillary Clinton by defeating her for the presidency a few weeks later, Bush faced intense public criticism for allowing the sexist “locker room talk.”
A week after the tapes leaked, NBC suspended Bush as co-anchor on the third hour of Today. Bush, meanwhile, said at the time that NBC bosses “had no problem” with his previous off-color remarks about women. He was then ousted from the network a week later. Having apologized publicly in 2017 and disputed Trump’s claim he was not on the tape, Bush went back to entertainment news in 2019 when he replaced Mario Lopez as Extra’s host. Since then, Bush has generally avoided negative headlines despite his show dealing with behind-the-scenes drama and concerns about its future.
Bush spoke about the recording in 2020 with actor Dennis Quaid on The Dennissance podcast. “On one level, I kind of could say it was locker room banter, and on another, it was very wrong,” Quaid said. Bush commented candidly, saying, “It’s such an ugly moment. Yeah, you wanna delete it. Of course, you wanna delete it. But you can’t, and then it’s out there for the world to consume, and your children most importantly. It’s just humiliating, embarrassing, its s—.” He added, “There’s no denying the moment is a terrible moment.”
