Howie Mandel has publicly apologised to actor Bill Burr and The Smashing Pumpkins musician Billy Corgan after arranging an awkward encounter between them on his podcast.
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Mandel staged a meeting of the pair on the January 21 episode of his podcast Howie Mandel Does Stuff. That came after Corgan was on the podcast in November 2024, and revealed that his stepmother had once told him that Burr “might be one of your father’s illegitimate children. Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a travelling musician”. Corgan’s father was William Corgan Sr., a blues musician.
Burr did not react well to being surprised by his potential half-brother, calling Mandel an “asshole”, and a “Hollywood whore” who “doesn’t care what happens” when he later appeared as a guest on The Rich Eisen Show.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Mandel has now apologised for the incident via his podcast, saying “I want to apologize. I feel horrible, and I’m sorry, Bill. I’m sorry, Billy. I only tried to do something good.”
He continued: “I legitimately thought I was doing something nice, I swear to you. I thought it was funny.”
Mandel said he had “no idea” that Burr would be so affected by the stunt, and that “The truth of the matter is, if he feels bad, I feel bad.”
Corgan launched his own podcast today (February 5), called The Magnificent Others. It will feature weekly conversations with various guests including the likes of KISS‘ Gene Simmons, Corey Feldman, Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips), Tom Morello, Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo.
It will be available to watch via the official The Magnificent Others YouTube channel and on streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel here.