The Jay Leno Show's "Earn Your Plug" segment is already an awkward enough affair. Jay Leno burns through five minutes on-air by asking Oscar-winning actors and actresses like Morgan Freeman and Penelope Cruz to hula or teach him how to spread his legs for the right to promote their upcoming films. But last night, producers upped the awkwardness ante by renting a ping-pong table, a scantily clad world-class champion and a pair of six inch stilettos for Susan Sarandon's segment, which turned out to be a complete disaster -- or triumph in spontaneity! Decide for yourself, after the jump.
It started out like any other G-rated rip-offs of the Howard Stern Show's "Earn Your Plug" game. Jay Leno joked about the dire economical state requiring stars to pay him in humiliating air time for the right to play a clip of their latest movie. Like Susan Sarandon did on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (video below), she slipped in a plug for her New York City ping-pong club and proceeded to tell Leno that she could "beat his ass."
Always game for a staged competition, Leno led the Lovely Bones star over to a ping-pong table and let her win one point before the star mentioned that she didn't want to break a nail, so she would have her stunt double take over. But instead of Sarandon unveiling an A-list co-star (Mark Wahlberg! Rachel Weisz), she threw to a stunning, world class ping-pong champion, that the audience did not recognize until Leno cunningly said "Now aren't you a female ping pong champion of some kind?" The segment proceeded according to plan until Leno bounced her a vicious spiral that knocked the champ off her six inch heels.
Watch Leno's heroic reaction in the Jay Leno Show's official video of the fall:
Here is the less awkard Late Night with Jimmy Fallon segment in which Susan Sarandon plays ping-pong with Fallon, Artie Lange and Olivia Munn: