Tom Arnold & Roseanne Barr's Awkward Meeting After 18 Years: Behind The Scenes Details
Aug. 13 2012, Published 8:30 a.m. ET
By Amber Goodhand - Breaking Celebrity News News Editor
Despite a messy divorce in 1994, Tom Arnold agreed to appear at Roseanne Barr's Comedy Central Roast and what started with a list of rules approved by both publicists, ended with Roseanne texting Tom after 18 years of silence.
“Why am I here? I’m here to honor Roseanne and because I earned it -- the hard way,” Tom said during the show.
But according to Hollyscoop, after producers pitched several ideas to him about an appearance, he was still hesitant and eventually agreed because Roseanne agreed to say something nice about him — that he "could always make her laugh."
“On Tuesday last week, I get a call from Roseanne’s manager, ‘She wants you to do it, she wants to talk to you right now.' I said, I’ll tell you right now, we literally haven’t talked in 18 years, if I talk to her, I know where that conversation is going to go and it won’t happen,” Tom told Hollyscoop.
“She leaves a voicemail, she said ‘I know you’re concerned, we’re not going to mess with you.’ I said it sounds like a very nice message. My publicist says, ‘it sounds like she has a gun to her head!’”