Matt Damon to appear ‘Kimmel’ show

For years, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has been signing off his show with: “Our apologies to Matt Damon. We ran out of time.” The bit has gone on so long that Damon once showed up to express his mock outrage — only to be cut off, of course. Then there was the viral video, “I’m [expletive] Matt Damon,” recorded by Kimmel’s then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman as a gag for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (Kimmel retaliated with a song in which he claimed to be [expletive] Damon’s BFF Ben Affleck.) Well, Kimmel is finally having Damon on the show Jan. 24. “We have a long history, it’s an unpleasant history. But he will be here,” Kimmel joked with reporters during a recent visit to his set. “It seemed like it would be a fun thing to do. We have a fun plan for the show, I think it will be a good one.’’ Kimmel actually cites the Damon/
Affleck videos as a turning point for his show, which recently moved from 12:05 a.m. to 11:35 p.m. “I think when celebrities saw that and saw that they would have an opportunity to be funny on the show and online . . . that made a big difference.” Asked why the show’s announcer, Dicky Barrett, the gravel-voiced leader of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, rarely if ever participates in the comic bits on the show, Kimmel said, “Dicky is actually very funny but his tattoos scare people so we keep him hidden in the back.”