{"id":45291,"date":"2026-08-14T22:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=45291"},"modified":"2026-08-14T22:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:27:23","slug":"paul-w-downs-reacts-to-being-confronted-by-andy-cohen-over-hacks-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=45291","title":{"rendered":"Paul W. Downs Reacts to Being Confronted By Andy Cohen Over Hacks Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"segment-text-only\">\n<p><strong>Paul W. Downs<\/strong> is still reeling from his recent Clubhouse showdown.<\/p>\n<p>After <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/andy_cohen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noopener noreferrer\">Andy Cohen<\/a><\/strong> called out the <em>Hacks<\/em> co-creator on live TV over a joke made at the <em>Watch What Happens Live<\/em> host&#8217;s expense, Downs isn&#8217;t pleading the fifth when it comes to their heated\u2014and hilarious\u2014exchange.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t believe he went there,&#8221; Downs deadpanned during an exclusive interview with E! News at the 28th Television Academy Hall of Fame ceremony Aug. 13. &#8220;And all I have to say is my lawyers don&#8217;t want me speaking about it because we are taking action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The joke in question\u2014written by Downs and fellow <em>Hacks<\/em> writers <strong>Lucia Aniello<\/strong> and <strong>Jen Statsky<\/strong>\u2014was delivered by series star <strong>Jean Smart<\/strong> during a past episode of the Emmy-winning HBO Max comedy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The problem with reality shows is you cannot control the narrative,&#8221; Smart&#8217;s character Deborah Vance quipped. &#8220;I mean, that\u2019s why I\u2019ve turned down Andy Cohen more than every twink on Fire Island.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, when Downs and costar <strong>Meg Stalter<\/strong> were guests on Cohen&#8217;s Bravo talk show Aug. 11, the 57-year-old put Downs in the hot seat over the name-check.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul W. Downs is still reeling from his recent Clubhouse showdown. After Andy Cohen called out the Hacks co-creator on live TV over a joke made at the Watch What Happens Live host&#8217;s expense, Downs isn&#8217;t pleading the fifth when it comes to their heated\u2014and hilarious\u2014exchange.\u00a0 &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe he went there,&#8221; Downs deadpanned during&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/akns-images.eonline.com\/eol_images\/Entire_Site\/20260814\/c3d28854-0f50-465b-afb8-d5b1de80aeef_1786719615.jpg?fit=around%7C1200:1200&output-quality=90&crop=1200:1200;center,top","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}