he decides that since he enjoys showers so much, he should go the other direction and spend all his time showering. He buys a waterproof phone, and installs a garbage disposal in his bathtub drain so that he can prepare meals in the shower. Elaine notices her co-worker Peggy puts sanitary paper on a toilet only used by the two of them, yet she is clearly not a germophobe because she finishes off another co-worker's half-drunk water bottle. When Elaine confronts her about this, she says Elaine disgusts her because she is sexually promiscuous. Insulted, Elaine rubs Peggy's keyboard on her butt and her stapler under her armpit, and coughs on her doorknob. Peggy calls in sick the next day, but Elaine insists her illness must be psychosomatic. David Puddy agrees, and accompanies Elaine to Peggy's to convince her to come back to work. He reveals to Peggy that he is a recovering germophobe and persuades her that she is one too. Elaine makes up with Peggy by inviting her over for a dinner cooked by Kramer. When Kramer reveals that he prepared the dinner while showering, they are all horrified. David has to go back to Germophobes Anonymous, with Peggy and Elaine now joining him. Production James Spader was invited to fill the role of Jason Hanke by Seinfeld co-creator/star Jerry Seinfeld, who was a friend of Spader's. The table read for the episode was held on November 8, 1997. Most scenes were filmed in front of a live studio audience on November 12, but the scenes in which Melissa is nude were filmed without an audience on November 10. This was for the sake of propriety, though Melissa actress Kathleen McClellan was not actually naked at any time during the filming. Critical reception In a 2012 retrospective review, David Sims of The A.V. Club praised David Puddy's scenes, as well as Kramer's live-in shower and how it ultimately ties in to the Elaine story. He also said Megan Cole "is very good at looking freaked-out by Elaine". He was less enthusiastic about the George and Jerry stories, saying that while James Spader is perfectly cast and the stories had good premises, he did not like the directions they went in. Social science writer Eric Horowitz cited the situation between George and Jason as "a fairly accurate representation" of how a person's desire for an apology stems from feeling