NBC
Anne Hathaway learned the hard way that most people don’t read books anymore – that is if you watch the “The Tonight Show.”
This week, the actress sat down with late-night host Jimmy Fallon to promote her new movie, “The Idea Of You,” which is based on the identically titled 2017 novel written by Robinne Lee.
Midway through the interview, Anne was discussing the plot of the film in which her character, Solene – a single mom — unexpectedly falls for a younger boy band singer, Hayes, played by Nicholas Galitzine.
Anne said she had amazing chemistry with Galitzine and knew from the get-go he was perfect for his role before turning to the crowd and asking, “Did anyone read the book?”
For several seconds, there was dead silence in the studio as the atmosphere rapidly turned uncomfortable.
Then Jimmy hilariously came to the rescue, explaining, “No, we don’t read. This is the ‘Tonight Show.’ Yeah, you wanna go over to Stephen Colbert if you want to get people who read books.”
Stephen Colbert, of course, is Jimmy’s competitor and host of “The Late Night With Stephen Colbert.”
Burying her face in her hands, Anne was slightly embarrassed, while also laughing about the situation. She followed up by telling the crowd they have an awesome book ahead of them with a huge fan base.
Jimmy got in one more joke about his audience preferring to use Audible – an online audiobook and podcast service. He inquired with Anne if that would count as reading.
Funny stuff.