Jenna Bush Hager was left red-faced on Tuesday morning after she made a mortifying faux pas during a live interview with Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Today with Hoda & Jenna.
Jenna, 42, and her cohost Hoda Kotb were chatting to Joseph, 43, about working alongside Eddie Murphyin the upcoming filmBeverly Hills Cop: Axel F, when the actor revealed it was his older brother who initially introduced him to Eddie's work back in the day.
Joseph revealed: 'When you have an older sibling, the things that your older siblings like take on a certain mystique, right? They're super cool, they're maybe a little bit forbidden. For me, this was Eddie Murphy when I was young because my brother was so into his stand-up, intoSaturday night live, and into his movies, so the opportunity to play his new sidekick...'
Mother-of-three Jenna quickly asked: 'Did you call your brother and say, "haha"?' - only for the actor to respond: 'Okay, well, so sadly my brother is dead now...' leaving the horrified TV host to simply exclaim: 'Oh I'm so sorry!'
Father-of-two Joseph reassured Jenna that it was fine and replied: 'No it's okay, and it's actually a lovely thing because you get to connect with someone you lost when you have these convictions.'
Jenna Bush Hager was left red-faced during an interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Tuesday morning
When Jenna made a joke about Joseph calling his brother, the actor informed her that his sibling is 'dead now'
This certainly isn't the first time that Jenna has suffered an embarrassing faux pas live on air, and she's certainly used to bouncing back from them.
Back in March, she was left red-facedwhen music icon Mary J. Blige was forced to correct herabout her own discography, when she accidentally referred to her second record as her 'debut album'.
And last year she was left mortified when she accidentallycalled her husband Henry Hager 'DADDY' live on air.
She managed to move on from her faux pas with Joseph by asking: 'So it was actually more meaningful?' referring to him landing the role inBeverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
'It really was meaningful in that way, yeah,' Joseph replied, before promising fans: 'This new movie will give you what you want.'
Sadly, Joseph's older brotherDan was discovered unresponsive at his Hollywood home on October 6, 2010.
Though the cause of Dan's death was never announced publicly, it has been alleged that he died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 36.
In July 2020, Joseph took to Twitterto mark what would have been Dan's 46th birthday and wrote:'Today's my brother dan's birthday. He and I started @hitrecord together a long time ago. We all miss him, been ten years now since he died.'
Joseph handled the awkward comment perfectly and reassured Jenna that it was 'okay'
Joseph pictured with his older brother Dan in 2002, who sadly passed away in October 2010 at the age of 36
Joseph explained that he was first introduced to Eddie Murphy's comedy and acting work via his brother Dan. Murphy is pictured here in November 2023
Joseph and Dan launched HitRECord.org in 2005, which acts as a space for creative collaboration.
The actor continued his tweet:'I love seeing art inspired by him. Draw him, write about him, talk about him, whatever,' before encouraging his followers and fans to head over to HitRECord and post stories, art, photos, etc. pertaining to his late brother.
During a 2021 interview with Business Insider, Joseph choked up when talking about his Apple TV+ show Mr. Corman and how Dan had inspired it.
Mr. Corman follows Joseph's character Josh, a fifth-grade teacher who is struggling through life as he begins to regret not continuing his aspirations to be a musician.
'He's in kind of everything I do,' Joseph said of his late sibling, before pointing out that in one episode there's a collage of scenarios of how the life of the show's main character, Josh, could have turned out.
'In one of those, Josh has died and that certainly reminded me less of my brother and more of my family's experience going through that,' he said.
'My brother talked about gratitude all the time and Josh is someone that I think has that lesson to learn.
'He knows he has a lot to be grateful for, but he's not always able to tune into that and that lesson was something I think my brother was very focused on. That's something I admired about him,' Joseph added.
