Kathie Lee Attends Her Own Broadway Show So She Can Laugh Inappropriately and Pose for Pictures

According to some Smash-esque Broadway gossip, Kathie Lee Gifford is just as obviously drunk during rehearsals of her poorly-reviewed show Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson as she is when she and Hoda Kotb have to do a cock segment on Today.

Apart from troubling reports that Gifford has “micromanaged” the play into bloated oblivion (critics have taken issue with its two-and-a-half hour running time), there’s this account from an unnamed source of Gifford laughing maniacally during show previews: “She sat in the audience, alone, laughing like crazy at lines no one else was, clapping like crazy when others were not so loud, and posing for photos for anyone who asked during intermission.” Of course, other Broadway vets have excused Gifford for her unbridled enthusiasm — she has an emotional stake in the show and a responsibility to promote it, even if that means distributing paper cups to her seat neighbors and encouraging them to have a few healthy pours from the toddler-sized wineskin she travels with. [NYDN]

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