Pickleball is a fun and popular sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. It is played with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes, on a court similar to a tennis court. However, as Hollywood star Michelle Pfeiffer learned the hard way, pickleball can also be a risky sport that can cause injuries.
How did Michelle Pfeiffer get a black eye?
On Wednesday, December 1, 2023, Michelle Pfeiffer shared a post on her Instagram account, revealing that she had suffered a black eye while playing pickleball. The post included three selfies of the 65-year-old actress, showing the progression of her injury. In one photo, a makeup-free Pfeiffer sports braids and a hat while icing her eye with a hefty bag of ice cubes on the court. Another photo shows Pfeiffer’s right eye swollen. A final photo shows Pfeiffer’s right eyelid completely bruised when closed.
Pfeiffer captioned the post with a warning: “Pickleball-Stay out of the Kitchen!!” and a caution sign and a laughing emoji. People use the term ‘kitchen’ in pickleball to refer to the non-volley zone, which is the area of the court closest to the net, where players are not allowed to hit the ball in the air. Pfeiffer did not explain exactly how she got hit in the eye, but it is possible that she accidentally hit herself with the paddle while trying to volley the ball from the kitchen.
How did celebrities react to Michelle Pfeiffer’s black eye?
Numerous celebrities responded to the jarring photos in the comment section of Pfeiffer’s Instagram. Some of them expressed sympathy and wished her a speedy recovery, while others joked about the incident and teased her about her beauty products.
“That’s why I don’t play,” actress Julianne Moore commented.
“Damn,” Alec Baldwin wrote. “Can’t sell beauty products and play pickle, it seems.”
“I still smell good,” Pfeiffer joked back. She also teased makeup artist Brigitte Reiss-Andersen, saying she now had her “work cut out for” her with the bruise.
“Oh no!!! Feel better,” Rita Wilson said.
“Ouch!!” wrote Naomi Watts.
Pfeiffer’s sister Dedee optimistically wrote, “But she kept on playing,” to which the “I Am Sam” star wrote back, “Thats right.”
In a separate comment, Pfeiffer addressed another user’s concern about her condition, writing the injury was “nothing serious.”
A representative for the “Scarface” actress did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Is Michelle Pfeiffer the only celebrity who got injured playing pickleball?
Michelle Pfeiffer is not the only celebrity who got hurt on the pickleball court. In August 2022, Savannah Guthrie, the co-anchor of NBC’s TODAY show, shared that a rather odd way had injured her while she was playing the sport.
“Have you ever seen anybody who’s hit their own head with a pickleball racquet? Well, now you have,” Guthrie said during a TODAY segment which showed a picture of her injury on screen. “That was me.”
“Isn’t that horrendous?” she continued. “That lump, and let me tell you what I did was just put a nice bottle of Hampton Water Rosé right on it, and that really brought the swelling right down.”
Speaking to TODAY.com, Guthrie said, “The embarrassment hurt more than the injury.”
“My opponent hit the pickleball right toward me, and when I tried to hit it back, I whipped the racquet up toward my own forehead with such force I whacked myself on the head. The lump appeared immediately and (was) humongous. It was an astonishing lump!” she explained.
Pickleball may be a fun and popular sport, but it can also be a dangerous one. Michelle Pfeiffer and Savannah Guthrie are proof that even celebrities are not immune to pickleball injuries. Perhaps they should wear protective goggles next time they play. Or maybe they should just stick to safer hobbies.