Ina Garten and Melissa McCarthy Team Up for a New Cocktail Special: 'We Had So Much Fun'

Cocktails and Tall Tales with Ina Garten and Melissa McCarthy airs Friday, March 26.

By
Mary Honkus
Mary Honkus
Mary Honkus is the former Food Editorial Assistant at PEOPLE. She left PEOPLE in 2021. 
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Published on March 22, 2021 10:00AM EDT

For Ina Garten and Melissa McCarthy, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere!

The Barefoot Contessa star, 73, and comedian, 50, have teamed up for a new discovery+ special Cocktails and Tall Tales with Ina Garten and Melissa McCarthy. In the special, the pair meet virtually for the first time over Zoom from halfway across the globe — Garten is in East Hampton, New York, while McCarthy calls in from Australia.

"Melissa is such a funny and brilliant person and someone I always wanted to meet, but how many people can say they first met Melissa McCarthy over Zoom with a fresh whiskey sour in hand – during a pandemic!?" said Garten in the press release. "We had so much fun shooting this that it didn't even feel like we were continents apart. Jeffrey and I were big fans before, but now we cannot wait for our next double-date with Melissa and Ben!"

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ina garten & melissa mccarthy cocktail show
Discovery +

Garten instructs McCarthy how to make a larger-than-life whiskey sour — reminiscent of her iconic giant Cosmopolitan that went viral last year. "If your wrists get tired you can just dunk your head in," McCarthy jokes in the trailer.

After the tutorial, the two quickly become close friends and chat about major events that shaped their lives, like Garten's early career in the White House and McCarthy's fashion designer days. "I couldn't have imagined how it would feel to cross 'Cocktails with Ina Garten' off my bucket list but let me tell you, second only to the day my babies were born, it was pretty much the best day of my life," says McCarthy.

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Partway through the special, their husbands, Jeffrey Garten and Ben Falcone, make it a double date by joining in on the call. "Ina and Jeffrey were so wonderfully easy to talk to and we enjoyed every minute of our time together. I am already planning our group vacation to Paris," McCarthy says.

Catch the special when it starts streaming Friday, March 26 on discovery+ to hear all of Garten and McCarthy's juicy secrets — and watch the trailer above for a special sneak preview.