Why We Don't Hear From Giuliana Rancic Anymore

For well over a decade, Giuliana Rancic was everywhere to be seen on E!. From hosting red carpets to E! News, she was one of the network's top faces. Nowadays, though, you really don't see much of Rancic. What exactly happened? Here are a few clues.  

 

1. She Sparked A Scandal

Rancic found herself at the center of an intense media scandal after her appearance on Fashion Police's recap of the 2015 Academy Awards on February 23, 2015, during which she quipped that model-actress Zendaya must have smelled like "patchouli oil" or "weed" because she wore dreadlocks . Among her biggest critics was Zendaya herself, who released a blistering statement to her Instagram shortly after the episode aired. "To say that an 18-year-old young woman with locs must smell of patchouli oil or 'weed' is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive," Zendaya wrote, without mentioning Rancic by name. "I don't usually feel the need to respond to negative things but certain remarks cannot go unchecked."

As the scandal continued to balloon, Giuliana stepped in to formally apologize for making the joke—first on Twitter, then again during the February 24, 2015 episode of E! News. "I just want everyone to know that I didn't intend to hurt anybody, but I have learned it is not my intent that matters—it's the result," she said. "And the result is that people are offended, including Zendaya, and that is not OK. Therefore, I want to say to Zendaya and anyone else out that I have hurt that I am so, so sincerely sorry."

She continued: "This really has been a learning experience for me—I've learned a lot today—and this incident has taught me to be a lot more aware of cliches and stereotypes, how much damage they can do. And that I am responsible, as we all are, to not perpetuate them further." Zendaya accepted her apology shortly thereafter.

2. Which led to major behind-the-scenes drama

While this was all going down, the producers of Fashion Police found themselves dealing with another crisis when Rancic's co-host, Kelly Osbourne, threatened to quit the show over Rancic's comments about Zendaya. "I do not condone racism," Osbourne tweeted on February 24, 2015. "So as a [result] of this I'm [seriously questioning] staying on the show!" She followed those remarks with a separate tweet, adding, "I'm giving everyone involved 24 hours to make it right or the world will hear how I really feel. Contactually [sic] Im [sic] not allowed to speak!"

Osbourne's departure from the show was announced a few days later in a statement from E!, which said she was leaving to "pursue other opportunities." But even Osbourne's exit did little to quiet the scandal, as evident by an August 2015 interview she gave to The Wrap. "I will never admit to liking Giuliana because I don't," she said. "I don't think she's a good person and I think she's a liar." Yikes.

3. And then Kathy Griffin Quit

Rancic's terrible, no good, very bad year got even worse a few weeks after Osbourne's departure when Fashion Police host Kathy Griffin—who had stepped in to host following the death of Joan Rivers—openly criticized Rancic's joke about Zendya in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "I wouldn't have said the joke in the first place," she said. "Some dude wrote it for her." Continuing to offer her perspective, she added, "Don't have anyone write you jokes or even suggest jokes for you on Fashion Police. You have enough great insider gossip from actually being on the red carpet. That's what fans want to hear the next day. Just talk and be yourself."

Only a few days later, Griffin confirmed on Twitter that she, too, was quitting Fashion Police after just seven episodes. "I discovered that my style [of comedy] does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it's time to move on," she wrote. Her statement also appeared to indirectly address the drama from the Zendaya joke: "I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference."

To make matters even worse for Rancic, E! subsequently announced that Fashion Police would be put on hold until a retooled version could be launched in September.

4. And then Rancic went on the defense

Weeks after Griffin's departure, Rancic appeared on the Today show to promote her new memoir, Going Off Script. But even then, she couldn't escape questions about the Zendaya controversy. This time around, Rancic appeared a bit more defensive about her involvement in the scandal, going so far as to allege that the joke had gotten taken out of context in the editing room. She also claimed that, of the 80 or so people at the taping that day, "not one" of them made any comment that suggested the joke might be offensive.

"I see why people took offense," Rancic said, adding she finds racism "reprehensible" and does not tolerate it "at all." "I thought that the joke was not edited in the proper way, and that's just something I have to live with. It's very important for me to just get out there and tell the real story, and I knew I would have my moment. But those darn headlines were so crazy for so long that I thought, 'Let everything calm down, and then I can come out and tell the real story.'" By then, though, the damage to Fashion Police had clearly been done.

5. She Left E! News

On July 9, 2015, Rancic announced she was leaving E! News as a day-to-day anchor but would continue to co-host E!'s red carpet coverage of awards season and, curiously enough, Fashion Police. Almost immediately after the news broke, a report from Page Six alleged that Rancic was leaving because E! had hired her "archrival" Maria Menounos and the network was pushing her out. "Giuliana knows it's a sinking ship and she's had an awful year," a source said. "It's half her decision to leave and half getting pushed out."

Rancic denied the claims, telling People it was "100 percent my decision to leave [E! News]." A few months later, Menounos also denied she was pushing Rancic out in an interview with Redbook magazine. "When I was being sought after by E!, I made it very clear to them that I didn't want to be coming over to take somebody's job," she said. "And I was assured that wasn't the case."

6. She Was Already Having A Rough Time

Even when you remove the Zendaya scandal, the past few years have been more than rough for Rancic. In 2011, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy shortly thereafter. Then, on New Year's Eve in 2014, Rancic—who welcomed son Duke in 2012 after years of infertility struggles—found out she had miscarried after becoming pregnant with her and husband Bill Rancic's third and final embryo. "It was painful," Rancic told People in April 2015. "We were so optimistic with this last embryo … It was a really hard time."

To make matters worse, many had become concerned about Rancic's weight in recent months and wondered whether the cancer had returned or she had an eating disorder. Amid the rumors, Rancic confirmed to People that her weight loss was the result of cancer-suppressing medication she had been taking for some time.

When you add everything together, it makes sense that Rancic would want to step away for a little while, especially on the heels of the Zendaya drama. Given all of her struggles, it was probably a good idea to step away and focus on priorities beyond headline-making news.

7. She's Doing Other Things

Although you may see less of her on E! these days, Rancic certainly hasn't slowed down in her professional life. In the last few years alone, she's launched a successful clothing line for HSN, a brand of wine, and an initiative aimed to help women battling breast cancer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her business and charitable ventures appear to have helped ease the headaches caused by the Zendaya debacle. When asked whether her uptick in appearances on HSN were a "breath of fresh air" after hosting E! News for over a decade, Rancic's husband Bill bluntly told The New York Daily News: "From your mouth to God's ears!"

"It's just really nice to be doing what I'm very passionate about," Rancic said more diplomatically.

10 Celebrities Who Are Nothing Like They Seem

1. Jimmy Fallon

When NBC dumped Conan O'Brien as the host of The Tonight Show in favor of bringing back Jay Leno, it seemed the network was trying to play it safe and appeal to the biggest crowd. Leno's second successor, Jimmy Fallon, seems to have been the right move in keeping The Tonight Show as safe as possible. But when he's not hosting the late-night TV dynasty, Fallon seems to be not-so-safe after all. In autumn 2015, The New York Post revealed that Fallon is a pretty heavy drinker, and that fact is starting to become an open secret among those who know and work with him. He suffered alcohol-induced injuries three times in a four-month span—injuries that included needing to get his hand stitched up after falling on a broken bottle of Jägermeister. On the subject of his reputation for heavy drinking, an inside source was quoted as saying, "It's gone from being a whisper to a chatter."

2. Lena Headey

On the Emmy-winning Game of Thrones, Headey plays the ruthless, conniving, incestuous Cersei Lannister, Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms. Her character is so convincing, Thrones' fans recoil from her autograph at cast events. When Headey is out and about living her real life, strangers who are also out and about living their real lives (in fantasy land) will routinely cuss her out. Headey is truly a delightful lady. She's hilarious and humble. Her kids seem lovely too (and were not actually fathered by her brother.) If you need a reason to hate the real Headey, here's one: she told Conan O'Brien she has not read George R. R. Martin's books, on which the show is based.

3. Nolan Gould


His character on Modern Family is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but in real life, Gould is a genius, literally. He's a member of Mensa, a society for people with high IQs. Gould is a kid that can talk nuclear fusion and string theory, but can also play the lovable, gullible Luke Dunphy on TV. He told Ellen DeGeneres the personality juxtaposition makes for awkward introductions. Strangers "always expect me to not be very smart. They talk slow." Gould finished high school at age 13 and his breezing his way through college and, oh yeah, still acting on that award-winning show. What are you doing with your life?

4. Carroll O'Connor

Television's most famous bigot has got to be Archie Bunker of All in the Family. Perhaps no single character has more convincingly sold the role of ignorant old windbag better than Carroll O'Connor, which never ceased to amaze those who knew him because the actor was considered a very kind and intelligent man.

In his memoir (via The Hollywood Reporter), showrunner Norman Lear writes about O'Connor's eternal struggle to play the abrasive role of Bunker. Lear recalls every script as a battle, with O'Connor threatening to quit repeatedly because he was so repulsed. "It was understandable to a degree," Lear writes. "He was, after all, at the beginning of a process where he was to shed the gentle Irish intellectual Carroll O'Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly to more than 50 million people."

5. Steve Buscemi

As an actor, Buscemi's curriculum vitae includes murderer, gangster, addict, and bum, but off-screen, he's a stand-up, blue collar guy from Brooklyn. Before his acting career heated up, a young Buscemi worked as a firefighter for Little Italy's Engine 55. The day after the September 11 terror attacks, he went to Ground Zero in his old gear to join his former team. He worked long shifts with them for nearly a week, clearing rubble and searching for survivors. Buscemi never boasted about his volunteerism. It was fellow firefighters that revealed what he'd done. In 2014, he collaborated on an HBO documentary called A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY.

6. Andrew Lincoln

We've watched for years as sheriff deputy Rick Grimes battles zombies on The Walking Dead. Lincoln's character is tough, tormented, and decidedly Southern. So Southern that his pronunciation of "Carl," the name of his on-screen son, fueled a slew of memes. Perhaps that's why it still shocks us when we hear Lincoln's authentic British accent in interviews. Do you know the guy's last name isn't even Lincoln? It's Clutterbuck. Clutterbuck! That surname belongs at Hogwarts, not in a post-apocalyptic U. S. of A.

7. John Lennon


The Beatle who penned "All You Need is Love" and "Give Peace a Chance" didn't always practice what he preached. Behind the scenes, Lennon was abusive toward women, unfaithful to his first wife, and an absentee father to his first born. Later in life, after spending several years as a self-proclaimed "househusband" with second wife, Yoko Ono, Lennon addressed his ugly ways and talked about personal growth. "It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite," he told Playboy in September 1980. "But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence." Three months later on Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon was tragically murdered outside his New York City apartment.

8. Tim Allen

The star of sitcom Home Improvement and Disney's The Santa Clause film series seems like a good-natured, sometimes dopey man-child. Allen, who rose to fame as a stand-up comic, became a household name playing Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor on prime time, then went on to save Christmas a time or two. It's hard to fathom that back in 1978, Allen was arrested on drug trafficking charges—nabbed with more than 650 grams of cocaine—and served two years behind bars. He was arrested again in 1997 on a DUI charge. While he's kept himself away from legal trouble of late, he did make waves for defending celebrity chef Paula Deen's use of the "N-word" in casual conversation. Talk about "tool time."

9. Taylor Swift

She's written a song called "Innocent," but Taylor Swift may not be as sweet as she so often appears—at least according to Kim Kardashian, anyway. Throughout the summer of 2016, the reality TV star repeatedly alleged that Swift knew Kardashian's husband, Kanye West, would rap about her in his now-controversial song, "Famous," even though Swift publicly denounced the song multiple times after its release.

After accusing Swift of lying in a profile for GQ magazine and on a subsequent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kardashian released a series of videos to her Snapchat account that allegedly showed Swift happily giving West her approval of the song, just as West had claimed on Twitter many months before. Swift, however, stuck by her claim that West never actually told her about the lyric in which he referred to her as "that b****," which she claimed is something she'd never approve due to its misogynistic message. By then, though, the damage had already been done.

10. Ben Affleck

He's one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors and directors, but behind the scenes, Ben Affleck has battled substance abuse and gambling issues for well over a decade. He entered rehab in 2001, at the peak of his young fame, reportedly to deal with ongoing alcohol abuse. Alcohol and gambling were also said to be key factors in the downfall of his marriage to Jennifer Garner, according to TMZ; lest we forget the time he was allegedly removed from a casino for counting cards. Still, the most damning case against Affleck came in Garner's first post-divorce interview with Vanity Fair, during which she alluded to multiple issues throughout their marriage, including infidelity. "No one needs to hate him for me…Don't worry—my eyes were wide open during the marriage. I'm taking good care of myself." Yikes.