Kathie Lee Gifford is hoping to inspire people to remember their self-worth and never give up on dreams with her new book, I Want To Matter: Your Life Is Too Short And Too Precious To Waste.
Among the dozens of stories used as anecdotes within the pages, the author, actress, and television personality recalled one incident in which she used comedy and laughter as a means to deal with a ‘cruel’ casting agent back in the summer of 1979.
In a recent interview with People, Gifford (born Kathryn Lee Epstein) revealed that she once found out producers were looking to replace one of the three main actresses on Charlie’s Angels, which she believed was Kate Jackson.
Though she was sick in bed with the flu at the time, her agent talked her into going to the studio, which she did, only to be told by the casting agent that she wasn’t pretty enough to star in ABC’s hit crime action series that originally starred Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith.
‘She goes, “Let me tell you right now, you’re not right for Charlie’s Angels,”‘ she recalled of the startling moment the woman told her she wasn’t good enough within seconds of meeting her.
Kathie Lee Gifford, 70, revealed how a casting agent told her she wasn’t pretty enough to be in the original Charlie’s Angels in her new book. Gifford tried to audition for a new lead role on the show in the summer of 197
When she asked why, the casting agent told Gifford, who was around 26 at the time: ‘Because we’re looking for a pretty girl.’
Adding insult to injury, the studio agent launched into a passive-aggressive tirade while describing the kind of actress they were seeking.
‘You know, like Jaclyn Smith pretty, gorgeous, gorgeous,’ the agent said.
While she confessed the words were ‘kicking her in the gut,’ the Paris-based talk show host, who grew up in Bowie, Maryland, now finds humor in the situation.
‘I started to think it was funny. I really did,’ she said. ‘And as I’m walking out, I looked at her and I said, “Okay, well, thank you so much.”‘
Instead of just leaving, Gifford turned to the woman again, then threw up one of her legs in a funny gesture and said, ‘When you’re casting a cartoon, let me know,’ and proceeded to head out the door.
‘I left thanking God that I could laugh about it,’ she remembers thinking as she left with her dignity intact.
In hindsight, Gifford was able to see how that casting agent made a choice to be mean when it wasn’t necessary.
‘I started to see, first of all, what a b**** she was. What an unnecessary b**** she was,’ she said of the woman, whom she still remembers by name to this day.
When she asked the casting agent why she wasn’t Charlie’s Angels material, the woman said ‘Because we’re looking for a pretty girl’ before adding, ‘You know, like Jaclyn Smith pretty, gorgeous, gorgeous’
While she confessed the cruel words were ‘kicking her in the gut’, she found humor in the situation and threw up one of her legs in a funny gesture and said, ‘When you’re casting a cartoon, let me know’; Gifford was hoping to replace Kate Jackson (front) after season three
‘She didn’t say “Sorry, honey, have a nice life. You’re not what we’re looking for.” She had to be cruel,’ Gifford continued. ‘She had to be the exact opposite of what my dad taught me to be. The fact that I remember her name to this day is because she was so cruel.’
The role for a replacement for Kate Jackson ultimately went to Shelley Hack, though she was subsequently replaced by Tonya Roberts after one season due to another drop in the ratings after an initial spike.
While the show ended after season five, it did help inspire a film franchise with Cameron Diaz, Lucy Lui and Drew Barrymore as the new Charlie’s Angels (2000), which led to the trio returning for Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003).
The franchise was rebooted in 2011 with a television series of the same name starring Minka Kelly, Annie Ilonzeh and Rachael Taylor, but it was canceled after just seven episodes.
Another film reboot for Charlie’s Angels was released in 2019 and starred Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska. But after less then stellar box office numbers the studio opted to not do a sequel.
With I Want To Matter: Your Life Is Too Short And Too Precious To Waste, Gifford is on a mission to remind people of what’s important in their lives.
‘I hope it’s a blessing to everybody. It’s a sweet little book,’ Gifford told People, while also sharing how she believes humanity has taken a big turn for the worse.
‘People feel hopeless right now. They feel terribly hopeless. They’re afraid. I’ve never seen so much fear in my life,’ she said of the state of the world.
While her career as an actress never garnered her A-list status, Giffords did go on to become a successful talk show host with Live! With Regis And Kathie Lee (1985-2000) with Regis Philbin
Gifford also had a successful run as co-host of NBC’s Today show (2008-2019) with Hoda Kotb, along with being New York Times best-selling author
‘When I was growing up, what was rare was cruelty,’ Gifford added. ‘And it just broke your heart and you’d sob at these stories on the news about cruelty. Now, what’s rare are stories about kindness. There’s cruelty every other minute. We’ve got everything wrong now. We’ve got to get it back to what’s truly important.’
Her new self-help book is a follow-up to the New York Times bestseller It’s Never Too Late: Make The Next Act Of Your Life The Best Act Of Your Life (2020).
Over the years Gifford has released seven other biographical novels, two cookbooks, three Christian faith novels and six children’s books.
She is best known for co-hosting the daytime talk show Live! With Regis And Kathie Lee (1985–2000) alongside Regis Philbin, and as co-host of NBC’s Today show (2008–2019) with Hoda Kotb.