There’s a famous story about the cast of Friends taking a trip to Las Vegas ahead of the sitcom’s premiere in 1994, with legendary TV producer James Burrows predicting it would be the last time they’d ever be anonymous in public. That turned out to be true, and even over 30 years later, Lisa Kudrow and the rest of the gang get recognized by fans wherever they go. Sometimes, however, people can’t place exactly where they know the actors from, and Kudrow revealed probably the wildest case of mistaken identity I’ve ever heard.
Lisa Kudrow — who played the hilariously off-beat Phoebe Buffay on Friends and recently wrapped the third and final season of her meta-comedy The Comeback — participated in a roundtable with other comedic actresses for THR. They were asked about bizarre fan interactions. She had quite a doozy, too, telling the others:
I have my favorite. It was during Friends, and I was going to Jerry’s Deli or something and the hostess had an accent. She was from somewhere in Eastern Europe and just went [whispering], ‘I know who you are.’ I went, ‘Aw, yeah.’ And she said, ‘You are Dionne Warwick.’ I just went, ‘No, I’m not. I am not.’
Lisa Kudrow getting mistaken for Dionne Warwick is actually wild, because I can’t even figure out where the confusion would come from. Their names are nothing alike; the “Walk On By” singer is more than 20 years older than Kudrow; they don’t look alike or even work in the same corner of the entertainment industry (though I’d totally listen to Warwick try her hand at a rendition of “Smelly Cat”).
It’s a complete mystery to me how the hostess in Lisa Kudrow’s story could have mixed up the two. However, the actress hilariously admitted that wasn’t even her first thought when the woman failed to identify her, saying:
I kind of felt this, ‘She doesn’t know who I am?’ And then it was, wait … Dionne Warwick?
Sometimes it’s easier to understand how these cases of mistaken identities happen, like when a fan thought Kelly Clarkson was Carrie Underwood. They’re both American Idol champs who sang pop and country. Then there’s people mixing up Emma Stone and Emma Watson. They share a first name, are both accomplished actors and are around the same age — it’s not great, but you see how it could happen. Now, Ken Jennings getting mistaken for Richard Jenkins? I’m not so sure about that, despite their last names starting with the same three letters.
I have to admit, Lisa Kudrow’s bizarre fan interaction makes for a great story, but she’s not the only Friends star with one of those. Matt LeBlanc — who played the eternally hungry Joey Tribbiani — recalled shooting a series in the middle of nowhere in Morocco. The locals wore robes and lived in caves, but they still recognized him, as LeBlanc said they called him “Joey” and said, “How you doin’?” He also once saw a fan get in a wreck after recognizing him in traffic.
I don’t think either of those stories beat Lisa Kudrow getting mistaken for Dionne Warwick, though. You can see more of Kudrow by streaming Friends and The Comeback with an HBO Max subscription.
