Kristen Bell was back in the limelight on Wednesday night after a controversy stemming from an anniversary post she penned for her husband Dax Shepard.
The Emmy-nominated actress, 45, was front and center at The 92nd Street Y for a promotional appearance for her Netflix program Nobody Wants This, as the show’s second series is premiering Thursday.
Bell, who plays the role of Joanne on the Netflix rom-com, was back in the public eye after she received a backlash for what people said was a casual attitude toward domestic violence with her attempt at anniversary humor.
The Huntington Woods, Michigan native posted a picture with her husband to celebrate their 12th anniversary – with the caption rubbing some people the wrong way.
It read: ‘Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: “I would never kill you.
‘A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would.”‘
Kristen Bell was back in the limelight on Wednesday night after a controversy stemming from an anniversary post, she penned for her husband Dax Shepard
The Huntington Woods, Michigan native posted a picture with her husband to celebrate their 12th anniversary
The caption rubbed some people the wrong way, as they said Bell displayed a casual attitude toward domestic violence with her attempt at anniversary humor
The Veronica Mars star, who is mother to two daughters with Shepard – Lincoln, 12, and Delta, 10 – was stylish at the proceedings in the Big Apple on the autumn evening.
Bell donned a silk cami top with spaghetti straps and palazzo pants as she made her way to promote the series at the appearance, which included a chat onstage.
Bell, who has appeared in movies such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Frozen, appeared at the event alongside her castmates on the show, including Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, Adam Brody and Jackie Tohn.
Many of the social media critics said Bell’s timing for the joke couldn’t happen worse, as it came during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
A user on X/Twitter said: ‘Timing and tone really matter, especially with sensitive topics.’
One user remarked, ‘Kristen Bell thinking it was OK to post this to her 16 million followers during Domestic Abuse Awareness Month – when a girl or woman is killed by a man known to them every 10 minutes – is insane.’
An Instagram user reminded the actress that ‘domestic violence isn’t a joke,’ while another asked, ‘is this… supposed to be funny?’
Bell was supposed to appear on the Today Show earlier Wednesday, but did not, avoiding any uncomfortable questions about the anniversary post and related controversy.
This left Lupe, 36, to commandeer the appearance and promote Nobody Wants This on her own, and she provided fans with an amusing story about Bell in her absence.
The Veronica Mars star was stylish at the proceedings in the Big Apple donning a silk cami top with spaghetti straps and palazzo pants
Bell was supposed to appear on the Today Show earlier Wednesday, but did not, amid the controversy surrounding the anniversary post
Lupe who played the role of Willa Ferreyra on HBO’s Succession, opened up about Bell’s fondness for practical jokes.
‘Kristen’s obsessed with pranks,’ Lupe said on the NBC program. ‘She will come to set and she’ll just pull up different pranks on her phone and show them to me.
‘So I knew that that was kind of her love language, was pranking.’
Lupe said that she took advantage of Bell’s fixation with biohacking to play a prank on her.
(L-R) Timothy Simons, Adam Brody, Bell, Justine Lupe, and Jackie Tohn posed at the event
Bell appeared opposite her costar Adam Brody on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter to promote the new season of her hit show
‘I also know that Kristen – if you’ve met her, you know she’s obsessed with biohacking,’ Lupe said. ‘She’s done everything there ever is to do with hacking the bod.’
Lupe said she came up with a practical joke that would ‘play into’ Bell’s biohacking fascination – convincing her that she was consuming her own bodily waste for health reasons.
‘Basically, I was like, I’m going to convince her that I’m drinking my own pee,’ Lupe said. ‘For two months, I staged different variations of me drinking fake pee, which was actually chamomile tea.’
Despite her prankster pedigree, Bell fully believed that her costar was drinking urine for two months, Lupe said, and told her that she had inquired with her doctor about the safety of the practice.
