The Big Bang Theory Star Explains Their Falling Out With Neil Patrick Harris

By Russ Burlingame

Retelling, and giving more detail to, a story she has told before, The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik took to late night recently to revive an old conflict she had with How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris. The pair, who were apparently friends as child actors, had a schism and didn't talk for a few years, after a breach in Broadway protocol by Bialik apparently made a young Harris feel snubbed. Appearing on The Late Late Show With James Corden, Bialik said that she had refused to stand for a standing ovation while watching one of Harris's shows, essentially because she didn't like musicals. The actor noticed it from the stage and later asked her about it.

According to Bialik, her answer wasn't sufficient to take the sting out of Harris being offended by his friend on an important night. The pair have since cleared the air, though, and apparently Harris sent her flowers the last time she talked about all of this in public to make sure she knew there was no hard feelings.

"When everyone is clapping at the end and you say to your boyfriend next to you, 'I don't want to stand for this,' and then you look up and Neil Patrick Harris is looking right at you... it's a bad day," Bialik said.

You can see the clip below.

Of course, Bialik has bigger fish to fry now, as one of the two semi-permanent guest hosts on Jeopardy! following the death of TV icon Alex Trebek and the firing of his short-lived successor, Mike Richards. Bialik was set to step in as an occasional host during Richards's tenure, hosting primetime specials and other special events, and now that he's out, she is hoping the job will fall to her.

"Just let me read the clues! I was a headline on CNN three days in a row," Bialik said in a recent interview. "Like, who knew that people were so passionate about who hosts Jeopardy!? I mean, I'm just trying to read the clues, you know? Just let me read the clues. The thing about Jeopardy!, we spend our whole lives wanting to be seen and this job is like, people should think the least about me. It's my job to be the host [and] just read the clues."

Even without the corporate politics of the Jeopardy! gig, which seem to be pretty significant, Bialik is not helped by some of her past comments. While she has tried to walk back a history of anti-vaccination comments as sincere skepticism, there is a not-insignificant portion of the audience for which being anti-vaxx doesn't fit with the pro-science image that Bialik tries to present as her brand.

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