How Eddie Murphy ruined Arsenio Hall’s first threesome

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Eddie Murphy has thwarted Arsenio Hall’s dreams of having a threesome, after the actor got into a physical altercation while filming Coming to America.

In “Arsenio: A Memoir,” the former talk show host, now 70, wrote that while filming the 1988 comedy, he received some “heinous New York weed” and invited two women to dinner and a private party at his suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

“I’ve always dreamed of a triple residency,” he writes. “Put it at the top of my wish list, maybe in the top three, and tonight is the night. I’m about to make my dream come true.”

Arsenio Hall writes about filming “Coming to America” ​​in 1998 in his memoir. © Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
The comedian, seen here in February 2026, was about to engage in his first threesome when he received a phone call from the head of Paramount Pictures. Getty Images for ABA

Hall says his dates were “sitting on the couch and getting turned on” when the phone rang.

He reluctantly answered to find Paramount Pictures president Ned Tannen on the other end, saying that “Coming to America” ​​had been discontinued.

Tannen angrily relayed that Murphy “choked” the film’s director, John Landis, “on Queens Boulevard, in front of a full crowd,” prompting him to “quit.”

Murphy had “choked” the film’s director, John Landis, during filming, prompting Landis to quit. © Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
Hall says he noticed tension on set between Murphy and Landis, who later worked together on “Beverly Hills Cop III.” © Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

Hall noted an “uncomfortable atmosphere between” Murphy and Landis, describing the dynamic between them as “risky.” The two previously worked together on the 1983 film Trading Places.

Eager to save the day, he canceled his party plans and immediately took a limousine to Murphy’s Englewood, NJ, Bubble Hill property. Although Murphy never drank, he decided the time was right.

The two started dropping screwdrivers and Hall took out his bag of weed — something else Murphy had never done. But Hall insisted and taught the “48 Hours” star how to inhale and exhale.

The comrades, pictured here in 1987, were drunk and did not talk about what had happened. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Hall finalized the potential trio and went to see Murphy at his home in New Jersey. Christopher Sadowski
The next day, Hall heard that a peace treaty had been reached, and filming began again. © Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
The film was a huge success at the box office. © Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

“We drink and smoke and get high like a mother,” he writes.

The next day, Hall returned to the Waldorf and received another call announcing that “Landis had returned to work, and he and Eddie had met, made a truce, or made up, or—I never knew exactly what happened that afternoon on Queens Boulevard.”

While promoting the film, Murphy was asked if he would work with Landis again, Which led him to ridicule“Vic Morrow has a better chance of working with Landis than I do” – referring to the actor who was He was killed in a horrific group accident While Landis was filming Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983.

However, Landis and Murphy reunited for 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III.

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