Cameron Crowe details prank calls to Cary Grant and Lucille Ball: 'Don’t call me again, you a--ho...

The director recalls in his new memoir how Grant &34;vanquished me without even breaking a sweat&34; — and how Ball gave him a very stern response. Cameron Crowe details prank calls to Cary Grant and Lucille Ball: 'Don't call me again, you ahole!' The director recalls in his new memoir how Grant &34;vanquished me without even breaking a sweat&34; — and how Ball gave him a very stern response. By Emlyn Travis :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/EmlynTravisauthorphotocba6765b433b4f93b9398d18053153b1.jpg) Emlyn Travis is a news writer at . She has been working at EW since 2022.

The director recalls in his new memoir how Grant "vanquished me without even breaking a sweat" — and how Ball gave him a very stern response.

Cameron Crowe details prank calls to Cary Grant and Lucille Ball: 'Don't call me again, you a--hole!'

The director recalls in his new memoir how Grant "vanquished me without even breaking a sweat" — and how Ball gave him a very stern response.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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October 28, 2025 9:30 a.m. ET

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Lucille Ball, Cameron Crowe, and Cary Grant. Credit:

Archive Photos/Getty; Noam Galai/Getty; Screen Archives/Getty

Cameron Crowe is looking back on the night he prank dialed Hollywood legends Cary Grant and Lucille Ball.

In his new memoir *The Uncool*, which hits bookshelves today, the rock journalist and director behind films such as *Almost Famous *and *Elizabethtown* recalls his experience calling up Grant and Ball as a teenager after plucking their numbers from his friend and fellow journalist's address book.

At the time, his pal Maureen was dating Grant and — after Crowe promised not to get her in any trouble — gave him the *His Girl Friday* actor's private phone number.

"I dialed. After three rings, Cary Grant picked up the phone. 'Hello,' said Cary Grant, in the way only Cary Grant says hello," Crowe wrote. "I took on the persona of a drunken drug dealer/street character. 'What's going on, man?'"

Lucille Ball and Cary Grant in 1986.

Snap/Shutterstock

Grant, however, didn't blink an eye in response to the prank call, thoughtfully responding even when Crowe attempted to catch the actor off guard with increasingly outlandish tactics.

"'Whatchu doing, man? You need anything, need anything at all?' Now I pretended I was talking to somebody else in the room. 'Stop it! Put that gun down!'" Crowe remembered. "'Well, that would be a shame,' said Cary Grant. 'If that gun went off.'"

When Crowe explained that the imaginary gunman was his pal Tommy, he noted that Grant simply commented, "Well that can't be good... What else can I do for you?'"

And Crowe was suddenly very aware that he'd lost their war of wits. "In less than a minute, Cary Grant had disabled my prank with delicious good humor," he wrote. "He was ready for more, but I panicked. 'Take care, man,' I sputtered. 'I'm gonna go get high with Tommy.'"**

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He quickly hung up the call as Maureen and photographer Neal Preston laughed, admitting, "Cary Grant had vanquished me without even breaking a sweat."

But Grant wasn't Crowe's only prank victim that evening. He went on to dial Ball next, pretending to be a member of the hospitality staff at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

"Hel-lo,' answered Lucille Ball in a husky whiskey voice. I knew instantly it was her," he recalled. "'Yes,' I said, thinking quickly. 'This is Mr. Fontaine from the Beverly Hills Hotel.' I winked to Neal and Maureen. I knew this character was good. 'We seem to have found a purse of some kind, and it apparently belongs to you.'

The late *I Love Lucy *actress may have been a comedic legend, but she certainly wasn't laughing at Crowe's gag. "'Don't call me again, you A--HOLE,'" Crowe recalled Ball shouting at him. "The sixty-two-year-old genius of television comedy then jackhammered the phone down with incredible force."

He added, "'I loved Lucy,' I said, 'but she did *not* love me.'"

Lucille Ball in 'I Love Lucy'.

CBS Photo Archive/Getty

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Now, Crowe looks back at his two oddball interactions with the stars fondly.

"I was always impressed that even on the other end of a prank call, Cary Grant knew the room and knew how to join the party," he wrote. "As for Lucille Ball, all I can tell you is that Martin Scorsese missed a real opportunity when she died."

He continued, "Let it be known. I've never heard anybody both weaponize and savor the word 'a--hole' with such authentic force since my very brief chat with Lucy."

*The Uncool* is available now. **

Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Books"

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Source: Books

Published: October 30, 2025 at 09:27AM on Source: COSMOPOLITE

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