Mayim Bialik told "The Late Late Show with James Corden" that she feels "terrible" for the way she fell out with Neil Patrick Harris after refusing to give him a standing ovation for his performance in "Rent."
Bialik and Harris became friends starring in the medical sitcom "Doogie Howser, M.D." together in which Harris played the lead.
During her appearance on "The Late Late Show," Bialik was explaining to Corden, who has starred in multiple musicals including a modern "Cinderella" remake earlier this month, her dislike for musicals, saying it is "ridiculous" that the genre switches between acting and singing.
When Corden asked the new "Jeopardy" host about the last time she watched a musical, she told him about the time she went to see a "Rent" performance that featured Harris as one of the leads, the filmmaker Mark Cohen.
"This is a terrible story," Bialik began before laughing to herself. "I mean this was a long time ago. I was a teenager and it wasn't my thing but when your friend is in the play and then everybody 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."
The 45-year-old actress continued: "I mean, he is amazing, but I just wasn't into the [idea of], 'Let's give a standing ovation.' It wasn't my thing. But that's the time when you don't say it out loud, because Neil was reading my lips, and when I went backstage to say hi to him he said, I kid you not, 'Why did you say you weren't going to stand up?'"
"He read my lips," she said. "I did not have a good answer. It was terrible. It was bad. We didn't speak for a long time. He says that he forgave me and he sent me flowers when he heard that I'm still carrying this terrible [guilt] — I mean, I felt terrible. It just wasn't my thing."
To this Corden replied: "You should feel terrible. I actually think it takes more effort not to stand." "Community" star Gillian Jacobs, who was sitting on the couch next to Bialik on the show also agreed that "The Big Bang Theory" star should have lied at the time.
