{"id":506565,"date":"2026-03-06T04:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T04:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:38:08","slug":"jamie-lee-curtis-impresses-jimmy-fallon-with-her-peter-falk-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506565\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Lee Curtis Impresses Jimmy Fallon With Her Peter Falk Impression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a> stopped by \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d<\/a> on Wednesday to promote her new Prime Video series \u201cScarpetta,\u201d<\/a> but ended up impressing host Jimmy Fallon with her surprise Peter Falk impression in the process.<\/p>\n

While discussing her history on the NBC late night show, the Oscar winner recalled indirectly appearing on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d very early in her career, thanks to a small guest role on \u201cColumbo.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was on \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019 [because of my] second job in show business,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cI was under contract at Universal, and I did a couple shows. My first job was a \u2018Quincy\u2019 [episode] and then my second job was a \u2018Columbo\u2019 [episode], and I played a waitress in a diner.\u201d When \u201cColumbo\u201d star Peter Falk later appeared on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d to promote the show, he brought with him a clip from Curtis\u2019 episode.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was on \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019 [with] my second job,\u201d she proudly remembered. When Fallon asked her what her \u201cColumbo\u201d scene was like, the actress proceeded to debut a, frankly, very good Falk impression. \u201cI play a bitchy waitress, and he walks in with this donut,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cOf course, [my character] says, \u2018You can\u2019t eat that here,\u2019 And [Columbo] goes, \u2018Oh, oh, yeah, oh, I\u2019m sorry. Oh, oh, oh, I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 and then he hands me the donut and then I glare at him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI come back [later] and I go, \u2018Have you decided what you want?\u2019\u201d Curtis continued. \u201cHe goes, \u2018Oh, oh, I\u2019m sorry. Oh, uh\u2026 I\u2019ll have a donut.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

All these years later, the actress now stars opposite Nicole Kidman in \u201cScarpetta,\u201d based on the series of popular books by author Patricia Cornwell, with whom Curtis happens to be friends. \u201cI\u2019m a producer now, so one day I said to her, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s up with \u2018Scarpetta?\u2019 And she was like, \u2018Nothing,\u2019\u201d Curtis shared. After convincing Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum to produce the project with her, they landed on Kidman to play lead forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out Nicole has always wanted to play Scarpetta,\u201d Curtis recalled. \u201cWe hear she wants to be in it. But then, of course, she says to me, \u2018And you\u2019re producing the show, Jamie?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Yes.\u2019 She goes, \u2018And you\u2019re in it.\u2019\u201d Up until that moment, Curtis had not planned on appearing in the Prime Video series. It was Kidman\u2019s conviction, however, that convinced the \u201cHalloween\u201d star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how I am in this show, because Nicole Kidman said, \u2018And, of course, you\u2019re in it,\u2019\u201d Curtis revealed. \u201cIt\u2019s called the Nicole Kidman effect. It\u2019s an extraordinary thing. Right away, we got a two-season pickup at Amazon. Like that [snaps fingers]. Because that\u2019s Nicole Kidman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie Lee Curtis stopped by \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d on Wednesday to promote her new Prime Video series \u201cScarpetta,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,230331,88,20055,230332,36512],"class_list":{"0":"post-506565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-columbo","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jamie-lee-curtis","12":"tag-peter-falk","13":"tag-the-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}