Paul Rudd Went on “Hot Ones” and Asked for Vegan Wings. Here’s Why.

Pop Quiz: Is Paul Rudd Vegan? Or plant-based? The world of plant-based eaters and followers started wondering when, on October 17th, the star of This is 40 and the new show Living With Yourself, which debuts on Netflix this week, showed up on the popular "talk" show Hot Ones and asked for cauliflower wings instead of the usual chicken.

The show's format is original, to say the least: Every round of question and answer comes with a requirement to eat a wing doused with a hotter level of sauce. It's almost impossible to watch and listen without feeling a vicarious horror as the star and host Sean Evans begin to sweat, their eyes grow watery and their noses run in reaction to the spicy food. Evans matches the heat bite for bite and the intimacy of suffering between the host and star seems to elicit a more authentic Q and A conversation than the usual night-time talk shows. It's like being in the trenches with someone; suffer together and you're bonded for life. We all are in it together as our mouths water in anticipation of the pain they're feeling. It's so distracting, you can barely focus on the answers. So did Rudd out himself as a plant-based eater in this setting?

When Rudd requested the unusual "non-animal" alternative of cauliflower wings everyone wanted to know, and speculation ran high on social media, the answer to the question: Is Paul Rudd vegan? He certainly would not be the first celebrity who defines themselves as vegan or plant-based. Ariana Grande, Miley Cirus, Peter Dinklage, Woody Harrelson, Joaquin Phoenix, Alicia Silverstone, Paul McCartney, Liam Hemsworth, Forest Whitacker and dozens of others eat no animal products, and the list appears to grow by the day.

Rudd sweated it out but did not reach for the milk or the water. The crowd (at home) went wild, and the speculation grew about his status as a meat-eater or a vegan or something in between. Rudd cleared it up later: He is trying to eat a more plant-based diet and add more plant foods to his plate, and reduce his animal intake. Not vegan, but "plant leaning" as we call it at The Beet.

Rudd went all 10 rounds on the show and managed to do the “historic dab” where you dab a wing into a mixture of all the sauces together. According to Live Kindly: "Plant-based foods have been a staple in Rudd’s diet for some time. When filming the 2015 “Ant-Man” movie, Rudd enjoyed daily protein shakes made with banana, almond butter, almond milk, and ice."

So Rudd may not be fully vegan or even exclusively plant-based but ordering the cauliflower wings may just give one more viewer the idea that their "manly" food can be made of cruciferous veggies. Throw another broccoli on the barbie.

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