‘New Girl’: Prince Demanded Kardashians Be Cut From Appearance
The Fox sitcom New Girl was one of the network’s most beloved shows for many years. Starring Zooey Deschanel, the series received critical and audience acclaim from the day that it premiered all the way until it ended in 2018.
New Girl was known for featuring a wide variety of guest stars over the years, including the music icon Prince. As reported by series star Zooey Deschanel in 2016, the rocker was very particular about the people who appeared alongside him in the episode — and actually had a hand in axing the Kardashian family from guest-starring in the show.
‘New Girl’ welcomed many guest stars
New Girl debuted on television in 2011. The show focused on a teacher named Jess, played by actress and musician Zooey Deschanel, and her misadventures after she moves into a loft with three male roommates. Although the show was originally marketed as a comedy, it dealt with many serious themes over the years, as the characters navigated life in their thirties with occasional awkwardness.
It didn’t take long for viewers to gravitate to New Girl, and soon, even celebrities wanted in on the action. New Girl welcomed many guest stars, including Justin Long, Carla Gugino, Josh Gad, Lizzy Kaplan, and even Megan Fox. While all of these celebs made a splash in cameo and even recurring roles, there was one particular guest star who stood head and shoulders above the rest — the iconic “Purple Rain” singer Prince.
Prince guest-starred on ‘New Girl’
Prince was an enigma in his time and remained a very private figure for the entirety of his career. This meant making very few appearances on any television show. Still, he was reportedly a huge fan of the show New Girl, and in season three, he made a cameo appearance that proved to be the most popular one ever featured on the series.
Prince’s role was a small one, mainly involving a party scene that was supposed to be filled with his fellow celebrities and newsmakers — people that viewers would buy as being Prince’s good friends. However, there was a slight problem, as least as far as Prince was concerned, when it came to two of the people who were cast as party guests.
Prince reportedly hated the Kardashians
Deschanel gave an interview in 2016, revealing what really happened behind the scenes when it came to Prince’s cameo and the infamous party scene.
“I’m not sure exactly how the celebrities were chosen, but someone was friends with some of the Kardashians and had made a phone call, and they had kindly come on to shoot a little cameo part where they were at Prince’s party, which I didn’t really know about because it kept changing,” Deschanel told Conan O’Brien.
However, Prince found out after Kris Jenner and Khloé Kardashian shot their cameo parts and swiftly took action, demanding that the reality stars be cut from the episode, even having one of his personal assistants burn the related scripts and call sheets.
Deschanel admitted: “I felt so bad because everyone had gone out of their way to be there on that day, but Prince was running the show.”
One of Deschanel’s New Girl co-stars later alluded to the same incident, revealing that after Prince caught wind of the fact that the Kardashians were cast as his party guests on the show, he said: “they would never be invited to a Prince party.”
Prince’s hatred of the Kardashian family is nothing new, however — he shaded the famous family several times over the years, including one notable incident where he kicked Kim Kardashian West off the stage at one of his concerts.
