Extra defended its host Billy Bush after a new report revealed he made a sexual joke about Kendall Jenner in an unaired blooper for the entertainment news program.
On Friday, the Daily Beast reported that it had obtained audio from an October 31 Extra taping, in which Bush makes a joke about Jenner’s Toy Story-inspired Halloween costume, which featured her dressed as Jessie, the cowgirl from the popular Pixar franchise — with a sexualized outfit featuring a tube top and buttock-baring jean shorts.
“Kendall goes as Jessie and, believe me, there were a lot of woodies,” Bush said, eliciting laughter from production staffers in the room. The lead character of Toy Story is named “Woody,” and the word is also slang for an erection.
Bush’s joke was met with outrage — with multiple reports linking this joke to the infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump, over a decade before his presidential run, joking with Bush about women’s alleged receptiveness to groping by celebrities.
In response to the backlash, a spokesperson for Telepictures — the division of Warner Bros. Television that produces Extra — told Deadline, “As with many forms of production in the entertainment industry, the show’s creative process allows the flexibility to try different jokes and banter.”
“In the end, some material lands on the cutting room floor, including remarks that may be too edgy to air on broadcast television,” the spokesperson added.
Bush is the nephew of late former president George H.W. Bush and the cousin of former president George W. Bush. He left Access Hollywood soon after the Trump tape set off a media firestorm, and he has been an Extra correspondent since 2019.
Another Bush relative, Jenna Bush Hager — the daughter of former president George W. Bush — is a co-host of NBC’s Today with Hoda & Jenna.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.