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Per the book, the appearance started with an email reading, “Hello, I am the manager for the legendary artist Prince and he wants to be on New Girl.”
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Prince’s guest appearance on New Girl began with an email from his manager that Zooey Deschanel thought was a prank
The artist briefly backed out of the episode, leading the cast to use Fred Armisen as a stand-in during a table read
Prince reportedly wanted to be on the show because he had a crush on Hannah Simone, who played Cece Parekh
A new book is detailing the making of the hit Fox show New Girl — and how Prince‘s iconic guest appearance came to be.
In her book Who’s That Girl: The Untold, Definitive History of New Girl — an excerpt of which was shared by The Hollywood Reporter — Thea Glassman writes that the cameo came after the show’s star Zooey Deschanel got an email from Prince’s rep stating that he wanted to be on the show, which the actress initially thought was a prank.
Per the book, due out July 28 by St. Martin’s Publishing Group, the email read, simply: “Hello, I am the manager for the legendary artist Prince and he wants to be on New Girl.”
Deschanel, 46, immediately forwarded the email to her agent, writing, “Can you vet this? Is this real?”
It was indeed real, and did lead to Prince appearing on the show — but the cameo wasn’t without its hiccups.
The artist briefly backed out, leading the cast and crew to use Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen, who impersonated Prince on the sketch show, in a table read.
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But the “Purple Rain” singer did show up on the day in question for his appearance on season 3, episode 14, in which Jess (Deschanel) and Cece (Hannah Simone) are invited to a party at Prince’s mansion. The music legend acts as something of a matchmaker by offering Jess advice on her relationship with Nick (Jake Johnson).
Prince’s appearance ultimately helped ensure the show’s success, according to the excerpt: “Liz Meriwether stepped up to become showrunner and she was struggling to handle all her characters’ big moves. Adding to the pressure was a downward ratings trend and Fox’s mandate to make the show appeal to more men. With Prince’s magical touch, it ended up being an episode as iconic as its guest star.”
The show’s stars have previously shared that Prince’s appearance was due in part to a possible crush on actress Simone, 45.
Speaking on Simone’s podcast The Mess Around in 2024, costume designer Debra McGuire claimed that Prince wanted to be on the show “because he had a crush on our little Hannah.”
“Yeah,” the actress, who played fashion model Cece Parekh on New Girl, said. “He tried for a very long time to find a way to be in the same room together.”
She added: “Love a Prince song. Happy to put on a Prince record. I was not interested in anything else. So, I was never in the same room with Prince. And then yeah, he was like a teenage boy who showed up at my job, which was really funny.”
Read the original article on People
