Talkshow host Wendy Williams is donating some of the memorabilia from her show that has made her a television staple to the Smithsonian. Williams made the announcement on today’s episode of The Wendy Williams Show.
Williams showed off some of the items she will be donating to the National Museum of American History’s collection of television artifacts, putting her pink microphone in the same room as Archie Bunker’s chair and Seinfeld’s puffy shirt. According to USA Today, Williams’ items are part of a goal to add more items from daytime television with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the group that hands out the Emmys every year.
“I’m so proud to host this messy little talk show,” Williams said in an interview with the New York Daily News. “And I'm thrilled to bits that one of America’s most revered institutions — that I went to as a child! — deems me worthy enough to preserve this little bit of history for everyone to share.”
Division of Culture and the Arts curator Dwight Blocker Bowers said in a statement that the Smithsonian "welcomes the opportunity to add objects to the national collections that reflect (Williams') career as both a broadcast force and an entrepreneur.”
In addition to the microphone, the Smithsonian is also getting Williams’ Tadashi dress and Christian Louboutin heels from the show’s first photoshoot; a wig with pink head; the “diva fan”; and a script for her 500th episode.
The Wendy Williams Show started in 2009. Williams is also an author, radio personality and actress. Her signature catchphrase is "How you doin'?"
image: ABC/Carin Baer