Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson were forced to miss out on starring in Taylor Swift’s Patient Zero music video despite being invited and their other halves taking part.
Sportscaster Erin, 48, and her Calm Down podcast co-host Charissa, 44, were thrilled when the pop megastar “reached out and invited our entire fantastic friend group to be a part of this incredible video”, which stars Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell and was filmed in March.
Erin’s husband Jarret Stoll, 44, and Charissa’s partner Steve Cundari appear, but the ladies were absent; Erin was hosting a major event in Washington D.C. with a high-profile guest list on the same day as the music video shoot, and Charissa had undergone CO2 Laser treatment two days beforehand.
On the latest episode of their podcast, Erin explained: “Never in a million years would I have cancelled, but I did call my manager and my agent, and I just said, ‘You guys, is there anything we can do? Is there like a jet that could get me back and forth? What could I do? Taylor literally asked, and I want to be a part of this.’
“We were looking into flights. We were looking into, like, a plane. I’m like, ‘I don’t care, I’ll pay for it.'”
But she decided to “do the right thing” and go to the event in Washington D.C., to avoid karma from getting her.
Erin, who suffered the “most violent food poisoning” she has “ever had” on her trip to the US capital, noted that she and Charissa were “just commiserating together”, adding: “We’re sending text messages, ‘Of course our boyfriends and our husbands get to do this!
“Of course we’re happy for them, but damn it.”
Charissa, meanwhile, had to skip out on appearing in the Patient Zero music video as she was dealing with the aftermath of her CO2 Laser treatment.
She said: “There is no way we’re putting makeup on and we can make this work. You can’t. You are swollen. We’ve got scabs.”
Charissa added: “Anybody would be bummed that you couldn’t be in the video. You have to work, and my vanity is getting in the way because I’m trying to stay young so I could be on TV.”
Although she “couldn’t be on camera”, Charissa went along to the filming of the music video to be “supportive”.
She added: “So the next best thing, since I couldn’t be in the video, I was like, ‘I want to see how this badass woman f****** runs this thing.
“The most incredible thing would’ve been being in it.
“The second best thing was sitting there. … Watching her run this shoot with such grace, with such kindness, with such professionalism, it was a master class on how to do things.”
Charissa added: “I walked out of there with even more respect for her than I already had for her as a professional in that industry that I don’t know anything about.”