Here's The Lore Behind Julia Stiles & Andy Cohen's Unexpected DWTS Beef
Let’s rewind to the rogue comment that started it all.
The competition isn’t just within the ballroom for Julia Stiles on Season 35 of Dancing with the Stars. Upon first meeting her professional partner Ezra Sosa, the Save the Last Dance actor revealed that part of her motivation for joining the show was to shut down the very vocal haters of her infamous ballet/hip-hop routine at the end of the 2001 movie. Chief among these naysayers, as Stiles singled out, is none other than Housewives head honcho Andy Cohen.
Stiles confessed to Sosa that a comment Cohen made about her movement ability has been “imprinted in [her] brain” for a year. The Dancing with the Stars episode then showed a snippet of a 2025 Radio Andy broadcast where Cohen said: “Can we all just agree that Julia Stiles is not the greatest dancer on the planet?”
So, why was Cohen randomly dragging Stiles’ dancing a whole year before her Dancing with the Stars journey? It’s time for some much-needed context. The quote came from a September 2025 episode of Radio Andy, in which Cohen was venting about the conclusion of Save the Last Dance with Stiles’ co-star Kerry Washington. After the Bravo exec poked fun at Stiles’ big number — which has become pretty well-tread territory online as the movie’s choreo has been memed to death over the years — Washington tried to laugh it off.
“Why are people so committed to now throwing shade at this dance?” Washington responded, to which Cohen replied: “Well, because it was her big Juilliard audition!”
Washington countered that the hip-hop fusion routine made more sense in the context of 2001, praising choreographer Fatima Robinson for tapping into the zeitgeist.
“Listen, at the time... Our choreographer was Fatima. Like, Fatima’s a legend,” Washington said. “She was choreographing that dance within a specific cultural context. I’m just saying greatness goes through different eras.”
After Stiles called Cohen out on his heated critiques during Dancing with the Stars, Cohen issued a public apology on Sept. 16’s Watch What Happens Live. “Julia, I am so sorry. I am the last person who should be giving anyone feedback on their dancing,” Cohen said. “You did amazing. I know you’re going to have a great run. This diva gives all of you permission to flood my inbox with the ten things you hate about me.”
