Melissa Rivers has opened up about a tense run-in with a major Hollywood star over her past “Fashion Police” commentary.
The 58-year-old television personality and former E! Co-host shared the anecdote during Tuesday’s episode of the “McBride Rewind” podcast, where she reflected on the fallout from years of blunt red-carpet critiques alongside her late mother, Joan Rivers.
“I’ve had a big actress confront me at a party,” Melissa told listeners. She recalled the exchange with deadpan brevity: “I [was] just like, ‘I didn’t like your dress.'” She declined to name the celebrity in question.
The confrontation was hardly an isolated incident. Melissa acknowledged that she and Joan compiled what she called a “painful list” of high-profile figures they had offended through the show. Yet she singled out one target who ultimately took the criticism to heart rather than holding a grudge.
“The next show or the next year, she showed up with a new stylist, looking great, different hair color and had clearly had a facelift,” Melissa recalled on the podcast. The unnamed actress, she noted, had apparently listened to the critique and overhauled her image accordingly.
Melissa’s tenure on “Fashion Police” spanned 2015 to 2017, following her mother’s death in 2014. The E! Series, which Joan had anchored since 2010, built its brand on merciless fashion takedowns delivered with comedic bite. Melissa stepped in as co-host during the show’s final years, continuing the tradition of public commentary that sometimes rankled the very stars being discussed.
The party confrontation was not the only awkward encounter Melissa described on the podcast. She also recounted a cringeworthy moment aboard a cross-country flight from Los Angeles to New York City that followed an awards show taping.
“We had just filmed ‘Fashion Police’ because we would film really early in the morning,” she remembered. An actress they knew personally boarded the plane, unaware that her outfit had just been dissected on air. “An actress got on the plane that we knew we had said that we didn’t like [her outfit],” Melissa continued. “We knew her. Hugs, chatting. She and my mom were reading the same book, and we’re sitting there going, ‘Oh s–t tonight she’s going to find out what we said about her dress.'”
Despite the social friction, Melissa has remained unapologetic about the show’s premise. She defended the series as fundamentally entertainment-driven, distinguishing its broadcast format from the private conversations most viewers have anyway. She also stood by Giuliana Rancic’s controversial 2015 remarks about Zendaya’s Oscars hairstyle, which sparked widespread backlash and led to Kathy Griffin’s brief, tumultuous stint as co-host.
“Don’t tell me that you don’t do the same thing talking to your friends,” Melissa said on the podcast. “Tell me one person who wasn’t sitting on their couch or looking through pictures and all the time on Instagram and things like that. Now you go like, ‘Ew, I don’t like that.’ You’ll say it to your friends.”
She pressed the point further: “Everyone sits — to this day — and watches the shows and goes, ‘Oh my god, that’s amazing’ or ‘Oh my god, that’s horrible.’ The difference was we did it out loud.”
Nearly a decade after “Fashion Police” ended, Melissa has kept her critical eye trained on celebrity style. Last year she shared her Met Gala assessments with the outlet Radio, and earlier this month she identified miniskirts as her “biggest fashion ick,” elaborating that discomfort reads clearly to observers.
“People who look uncomfortable in their clothes… And when you are sitting in a miniskirt or a minidress that literally your butt is going to be touching the chair,” she explained. “You’re like, ‘Wow, she’s got legs!’… And then you’re like, ‘Oh f–k, she has to sit down.'”
The flight encounter and party confrontation illustrate the particular hazards of a show whose hosts moved through the same social and professional circles as their subjects. Where viewers at home could dissect gowns anonymously, Melissa and Joan faced the people they critiqued at industry gatherings, on airplanes, and at the very events they covered.
Melissa’s rep did not immediately respond to the outlet’s request for comment on the podcast revelations.
Melissa continues to appear on podcasts and media outlets discussing fashion and entertainment.