David Letterman, Leave Kristin Chenoweth Alone

When a celebrity gets pranked on a talk show, usually it involves a guy dressed in costume and Ellen DeGeneres laughing hysterically. For others, it means David Letterman, PTSD, and sweating in inopportune places. Such was the case for Kristin Chenoweth, who was the victim of a cruel April Fools' Day prank while promoting Rio 2 on The Late Show on Tuesday. Apparently, Letterman's idea of a fun joke meant making his guest nearly have a panic attack, as the host dropped a sandbag from the ceiling as way of making Chenoweth think she was re-living a traumatic 2012 head injury.

Prior to the prank, Chenoweth was discussing the lingering effects of the accident, in which a falling light fixture fell and hit her while filming scenes for The Good Wife. The accident fractured Chenoweth's skull, broke her nose, and left her with spinal damage, rib injuries, and cracked teeth. Two years later, the actress is mostly recovered, but thinking she was about to re-live the experience can't have exactly helped the healing process.

To Chenoweth's credit, she was a good sport about Letterman's prank. Despite shrieking and looking shaken when the sandbag dropped, she was soon laughing and crossing herself.

"I'm sweating in between my cleavage!" she said.

Still, The Late Show shouldn't have okay-ed the prank. It's a mean joke, especially when Chenoweth has admitted that she still suffers some cognitive issues from the accident. Making someone who's still dealing with the effects of a serious injury think they're about to get hurt once more, even if just for a few moments, isn't funny, not mean.

"No matter where I'm at, I always look up, because I wanna know, you know, if anything's gonna fall," Chenoweth said right before the sandbag, and you can bet that's going to truer than ever for the actress anytime she's near Letterman from now on.

Image: CBS