Blake Lively once pulled an epic prank on former Gossip Girl costar and ex Penn Badgley that Steven Tyler was his dad — and he believed it.
“I get an email, just like, ‘There’s this press item we’re trying to kill but just so you know, somebody thinks, or Steven Tyler thinks, he’s your dad,’” Badgley, 37, recalled on the Thursday, May 23, episode of the “Podcrushed” podcast. “Didn’t even think about it for a moment because who would in their right mind think that that’s true.”
Badgley said a couple days went by and the publicist reached back out to him to say that the story “isn’t going away.”
“She said something like, ‘It’s getting a little bit weird because I think Steven believes it.’ And I was like, ‘What? I mean OK,’” Badgley said, adding that he’s “still not remotely thinking that it’s true.”
Afterward, Badgley’s manager called him again with the publicist, to inform him that Tyler, 76, was “adamant” about his paternity.
“At this point, I of course don’t think it’s true, but I’m just like, ‘How could Steven Tyler believe this? Like, there’s no way. You have to be kidding. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith thinks that I’m his [child]?’” he said.
At the suggestion of Lively, 36, Badgley called his mom — whom he said is “so not an actress” nor a “prankster.”
“She’s upset, and I’m like, ‘Mom, why are you upset?’ And then she takes a pause — that is like the pause that sold me — and she goes, ‘Why do you think we moved out of Maryland?’” he said. “And I’m telling you, for something like 5-7 seconds — which is a long time — I was speechless, and my world was rearranging. I was like, ‘Are you f–king kidding me? I am Steven Tyler’s son.’”
Badgley joked that by the end of his seconds long thought process he was “already thinking” about how he could play music. He added, “You know, I’ve always wanted to play music. I didn’t want to exploit the man, I definitely didn’t want to do that.”
But he quickly came to his senses — after the “rationale kicked in” and he looked at Lively, who he said “probably at that point couldn’t keep a straight face.” Badgley recalled the room erupting into applause.
“I was impressed, I was like, ‘Wow. You really put in a lot of work, and it worked. For it to work at all, that’s hard,’” he said.
Badgley and Lively dated from 2007 to 2010 while starring on Gossip Girl as Dan Humphrey and Serena van der Woodsen, respectively. Following their breakup, the exes continued to be amicable.
“They’re professionals,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2010. “They’re still good friends and hang out on the set.”
