Ted Danson Flustered After Discovering Vanessa Bayer Connection

Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer has shocked Ted Danson with a surprising admission.

The Cheers actor hosted Bayer on the January 15 episode of his podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

The 43-year-old comedic actress stunned Danson during the podcast with with a confession about his stepson.

“I have something that I wanted to tell you, which is that I was almost your daughter-in-law,” Bayer started.

A flustered Danson asked if she was referring to Charlie McDowell who is the son of his wife Mary Steenburgen and her former husband and actor Malcolm McDowell.

Bayer confirmed, “Charlie and I went on a date,” adding they met for a “coffee date” at a place called Cafe Gratitude.

“I think it went well. There was some texting after,” she told Danson.

Danson questioned if texting after a date was “a sign” for her generation, and Bayer told him, “Of course, if there’s no texting after then it’s over.”

But she also admitted that while she and McDowell “were trying to make plans again” to see each other, “it didn’t ever happen.”

McDowell works as a director and screenwriter, and is now married to Emily in Paris star, Lily Collins, which Bayer acknowledged on the podcast.

“I know he’s married now and he has a beautiful, very talented wife, and I know her dad is very cool,” Bayer said referring to Collins’ father, musician Phil Collins, who rose to fame in the rock band, Genesis.

Bayer also joked about her own dad.

“But my dad is cool, too. Not only does he have a packaging company, so just to suss out him versus Phil Collins,” she said. “He has a package company…Let’s say you buy a CD. And you open it and then you decide you don’t want to keep it. You can’t return it because you took out the shrink wrap. That’s where my dad comes in.”

Danson was delighted to hear anecdote Bayer’s story about her date with McDowell and declared that he wanted his stepson and Collins to hear it.

“We’re immediately cutting a clip and sending this to Charlie and Lily Collins who you would adore,” Danson told her.

Steenburgen revealed in an interview that she had met Collins before her son did and thought she’d be perfect for him.

“To be honest, I met my daughter-in-law before he did,” she told E! News in October. “And I looked at her and thought, ‘You would just be so amazing with my son.'”

“I met her in Jane Fonda’s 80th birthday party, and I fell in love with her,” she added. “And then, when he told me who it was that he was dating, I zipped it!”