Debra Messing: Jeremy Piven ‘Shoved His Tongue All The Way Down To My Heart’ On ‘Will & Grace’

Debra Messing says Jeremy Piven kissed her on Will & Grace in a way she won’t soon forget. It wasn’t a good thing, either.

For those who aren’t familiar with the story behind the show, Will & Grace was about a straight female, Grace Adler (Debra Messing), and a gay male, Will Truman (Eric McCormack), sharing an apartment in New York. The situation regularly made things awkward for both as the outsider’s perspective led them to believe the two were a couple.

One character wasn’t fooled, having been previously involved with Grace. Her ex-boyfriend Nicholas (Jeremy Piven) stopped by the show for one episode and apparently took advantage of the characters’ relationship whenever he could. The fictional story behind the kiss was that Nicholas had asked Grace if she wanted to be in a threesome with his girlfriend.

Debra Messing explained the situation with Jeremy Piven.

“You know, I had to kiss a lot of boys on that show. And we were rehearsing, and the very first day of rehearsal, he shoved his tongue all the way down to my heart.”

Even after confronting Piven about the kiss, Messing told Andy Cohen he blew it off.

“I was just like, ‘Whoa!’ He goes, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ He was like, ‘That’s it, I’m in.’ I was like, ‘You know, this is comedy. We don’t really go that deep.’ And every time he went for it.”

For a kiss that happened back in 2000, it seems obvious that Messing was grossed out enough to remember it this long. It was an unwanted display of affection that outshined all of the guys she’d locked lips with on and off the show for over a decade.

This was the same year that Messing had married her long-time love Daniel Zieman, who she divorced 12 years later. Debra Messing’s infamous Jeremy Piven lip-lock apparently disturbed her enough to outlast her marriage in her mind.

[Image via Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images]