--- title: Bradley Cooper, Michelle Obama on Ellen Show Video description: While co-hosting Tuesday's episode of Ellen, Michelle Obama learned a fun fact about the time Bradley Cooper attended the state dinner. canonical: https://time.com/4489849/bradley-cooper-commando-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-13T17:54:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:29.955Z og:title: Bradley Cooper Reveals a Secret About His White House Visit og:description: Michelle Obama loves it og:url: https://time.com/4489849/bradley-cooper-commando-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bradley Cooper Reveals a Secret About His White House Visit twitter:description: Michelle Obama loves it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Bradley Cooper Tells Michelle Obama He Went Commando at the White House on _Ellen_ > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a0bb8979-80dc-4fee-8d39-b32d3132d8f2&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 13, 2016 5:54 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 13, 2016 5:54 PM UTC While co-hosting Tuesday’s episode of [_The Ellen DeGeneres Show_](http://time.com/4487356/celine-dion-nelly-ellen-video/), [Michelle Obama](http://time.com/4488094/michelle-obama-rejected-the-simpsons/) learned a fun fact about the time [Bradley Cooper](http://time.com/4441098/bradley-cooper-hbo-miniseries-isis/) attended the White House state dinner: he wasn’t wearing any underwear. After DeGeneres brought the _War Dogs_ actor out as a surprise guest to help her and the First Lady take a selfie, the two compared the number of times they had been to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This led to Bradley sharing an anecdote about going commando at the presidential residence out of fear of ripping his too small tuxedo. “Right, because if it should rip, it’s much better to not have the underwear on,” DeGeneres chimed in. “For us,” FLOTUS added. “It’s good for us, right ladies?” Watch the full clip below. \[h/t [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/09/13/bradley-cooper-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres-show)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4489849/bradley-cooper-commando-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4489849/bradley-cooper-commando-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres/"},"headline":"Bradley Cooper Tells Michelle Obama He Went Commando at the White House on Ellen","datePublished":"2016-09-13T17:54:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:29.955Z","description":"They also take a selfie together","url":"https://time.com/4489849/bradley-cooper-commando-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Michelle Obama","bradley cooper","Ellen Degeneres","TV","ellen","The Ellen Show","The Ellen Degeneres Show"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4489849/bradley-cooper-commando-michelle-obama-ellen-degeneres/","name":"Bradley Cooper Tells Michelle Obama He Went Commando at the White House on Ellen"}}]}] ```