Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Hillary Clinton (Gently) Turns Down Jason Segel

Jason Segel is a guy who looks ahead and thinks big. While complimenting his current co-star Emily Blunt (“The Five Year Engagement”) in an interview with Us Weekly back in March, he mentioned that he’d ultimately like the chance to appear on the big screen together with another special gal.

Segel wasn’t talking about Mila Kunis, Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Aniston, or any of those other romcom leading ladies. He was thinking really outside the box…well, at least outside of Hollywood. Who does he want to share the marquee with? None other than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“I just feel like she would be good at comedy,” the actor and screenwriter said about Madame Secretary. He has a point. After all, you’ve got to have a sense of humor to be able to deal with some of those international actors she encounters (we’re talking Hugo Chavez, not Antonio Banderas).

Indeed, Clinton did have a sense of humor about Segel’s suggestion. In response to his remarks, she recently wrote him a note:

I was delighted to read about your interest in sharing the big screen with me. As you can imagine, I am a little occupied at the moment, but perhaps someday I can help you forget Sarah Marshall … again. My only condition is that there be Muppets involved, and that is non-negotiable. In the meantime, you have my best wishes for continued success with your career.

With best regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
Hillary Rodham Clinton

The Secretary signed it simply “Hillary” in her own handwriting. Must mean she likes Segel. Now all we have to do is wait until he cashes in Clinton’s rain check — assuming he can line up the Muppets, too.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.