Entertainment

She Almost Came Between Ross & Chandler

by Lindsey Kupfer

There have been tons of celebrity guest stars on Friends . Some were very famous and everyone remembers their guest spots on the show, like when Brad Pitt plays a high school friend who absolutely hated Rachel, but others were just getting their start when they popped up on the show. Before Ellen Pompeo landed at Seattle Grace on Grey's Anatomy, she made a cameo appearance on Friends. In Season 10, she appears in a flashback episode with Ross and Chandler. You've probably forgotten about that, unless you’re like me and still watch Friends on a nightly basis. Friends may have ended ten years ago, but it’s never really over is it? You can turn on the TV at pretty much any random time throughout the day and catch an episode.

In Season 10, Episode 11, “The One Where The Stripper Cries,” Ross and Chandler head to their 10 year college reunion and to our glorious surprise we get a Friends flashback episode, which are obviously some of our favorite ones because we get to see the friends before Friends. We quickly learn that both Ross and Chandler are both interested in Missy Goldberg (Pompeo) and decide that their friendship is too important to let a girl get in the way, thus creating “the pact.” By the way, Molly Ringwald was also a part of the pact.

Fast forward to present day, Ross asks Chandler if he’s allowed to ask out Missy. When he gets the courage to speak to her, he learns that Chandler used to hook up with Missy in the science lab, thus breaking the pact. The episode aired on the last year of the shows run and it was only a year before Pompeo landed her iconic role in 2005 as Meredith Grey on Grey’s Anatomy. What if Shonda Rhimes was just watching Friends one day and saw Pompeo and thought to herself, “That’s Meredith Grey.” I like to imagine that Friends is the cause of all good things in the universe.

In case you forgot what else happened in that episode, the girls threw Phoebe a bachelorette party and Danny DeVito guest starred as the male stripper. During his performance, he has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. We also learn the best nugget of information ever: Monica’s first kiss was with Ross on the night he thought he had his first kiss with Rachel. Hands down, one of the best episodes ever!

Images: NBC, Singingmytruth/Tumblr