David Schwimmer says he once served Rod Stewart with divorce papers
Friends star David Schwimmer has shared the unlikely experience of serving rock star Rod Stewart with divorce papers during a summer job.
Schwimmer, 58, rose to fame for his role as Ross Geller on the popular sitcom beloved by millennials. But before his success on screen, he worked for his divorce lawyer mother during his time at university, aged 18.
“One summer after my freshman year in college, I was just looking for work and my mum said you can be a process server for me,” he said during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
“My mum was a divorce lawyer, and so I was the guy who would pop out of the bushes and serve you divorce papers.”
The Goosebumps and Madagascar star said he felt like fictional British spy James Bond during the stint.
“Because you get a tip, you’re tipped off as to where they might be,” he said.
“Thank goodness I’ve never run into him since – but I served Rod Stewart. I don’t even know if he knows. I don’t think he knows.”
“He knows now,” Colbert joked.
Although Schwimmer did not reveal who Stewart was divorcing at the time that he was served, the musician split from his first wife Alana Stewart in 1985, which could coincide with the actor’s university years. He is now married to his third wife Penny Lancaster, who he met in 1999.
During the star’s appearance, he also revealed he was left “traumatised” after a mistake that left Saturday Night Live staff furious.
“I was the first in the cast of Friends to be invited to host Saturday Night Live, and it was a huge honor. It was 1995, just a year after the show aired,” he prefaced.
However, because of the sitcom’s filming schedule, Schwimmer was not able to make it to the SNL set until only two days before the live taping.
“Friends, at that time, was shooting on Tuesday nights and we were shooting until sometimes 1 in the morning, and so I had to fly from LA to New York on Wednesday to get [to SNL],” he told the talk show host.
“I really didn’t get to arrive at SNL until Thursday, two days before the Saturday show.”
He added: “And when I walked into the writer’s room, the entire writer’s room looked at me as if I had just slept with their mom... They were not happy to see me and I had no idea.”
Schwimmer said he “got through the next two days but I was kinda traumatized.”
