Paul Giamatti and Cher

Paul Giamatti detailed the befuddling back-and-forth he’s had with Cher in recent years on Wednesday’s (February 7th) episode of The Howard Stern Show.

The Holdovers actor told Stern that “every now and then” he receives a message stating that Cher “really needs” to talk to him and that it’s “crucial” that they speak. “And I’m like, ‘What the f–k?’ Why does Cher want to talk to me?’” he said. “Nobody will tell me, and then I never hear anything. And then a year will go by and then it happens again.”

He added that one day, he did receive a message from the “If I Could Turn Back Time” singer. “Somebody … did get in touch with her, and she did call me and leave a message on my phone. All she said was, ‘I hear you want to talk to me,’” the Sideways actor recalled. “That was it. That was all she said.”

“And I left her a message and said, ‘That’s great, I’d love to talk to you, but I thought you wanted to talk to me.’ And that’s the last I heard, I haven’t heard anything again,” Giamatti added. “I don’t know what she could possibly want to talk to me about, and it’s killing me. I’m dying to know what she wants to talk to me about. I mean, it would be great! I’d love to talk to her about anything. I don’t care, it’d be fantastic.”