The insults were flying during Netflix's star-studded "The Roast of Kevin Hart" on Sunday night, and things escalated when Shane Gillis introduced Chelsea Handler before her set. Gillis referred to Handler as a "Zionist," adding, "I'm not saying that's good or bad... Speaking of dead kids, she's a big fan of abortions," he continued. "Chelsea's been scraped more times than the grill at Benihana." Gillis then transitioned into Handler's previous attendance at a dinner party with a notorious group of men.
"Speaking of tossing tiny shrimp into a child's mouth, Chelsea Handler went to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein's house in 2010," Gillis shared. "It wasn't a big party, there were like seven people there. Prince Andrew and Woody Allen were there."
Handler has previously addressed the circumstances of that questionable meal. "I did go to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein's house," Handler told Rob Lowe on his podcast. "I didn't know who Jeffrey Epstein was. It was a long time ago."
Handler said she attended with Katie Couric, and acknowledged that the group at the home of the businessman who was convicted in 2019 of sex trafficking minors included Allen, his wife Soon-Yi Previn, Charlie Rose, and noted Epstein acquaintance Prince Andrew. "We had dinner, and it was so awkward and so weird," the comedian said. "I was like, 'What are we doing here?' And then I asked Woody Allen how he and Soon-Yi met, and that was when I left."
But Handler came out swinging right back at Gillis when she took the stage. Before he was one of the biggest stand-ups working, Gillis was hired as a cast member of "Saturday Night Live," only to be fired four days later. (SNL boss Lorne Michaels has since revealed that he didn't want to axe Gillis.)
The move followed an outcry over videos and audio recordings of Gillis using racial and homophobic slurs on his podcast. In a year-old video from "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast," Gillis made racist jokes about Chinese people and culture, saying, "Chinatown's f--king nuts. Let the f--king ch--ks live there, huh?" He later said that his conversation with cohost Matt McCusker is "nice racism, good racism."
"Shane, just so you know, Judaism and Zionism are two different things," Handler explained to him. "Kind of like how Chinatown and Koreatown are two different things, but your favorite slur works in both places. Shane has been accused of being anti-Asian, which is ironic considering he has the complexion and physique of a steamed dumpling."
