Nov 22, 2006 05:23 PM
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Hollywood, 3:08 PM
Tue Feb 9
56 posts in the last 24 hours
While Michael Richards has not been having, to put it mildly, the greatest of weeks, the actor has already set upon the long road of "personal work" and Jujitsu of the soul that might ultimately deliver him from his shocking inability to launch snappy, epithet-free retorts at comedy club hecklers. A Road To Kramer's Redemption Round-Up:
· "Some of my best friends are Afro-American civil rights leaders!" Richards' newly acquired publicist, Howard Rubenstein, says the actor spent the day calling Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to let them know how sorry and not racist he is. [TMZ]
· A couple claims they were subjected to yet another racist comedy club outburst, in which Richards screamed at a heckler at The Improv, "You fucking Jew. You people are the cause of Jesus dying," before storming off the stage. Richards would later insist what he meant to say was, "Save your breath for your inflatable date!" but his gut told him the crowd wanted something more "Jew-hatey." [TMZ]
· A dissection of David Letterman's single joke about the incident the night of Richards' satellite apology ("I blame it on Borat,"), which calls the awkward, titter-inducing appearance the "first recorded incident of the 'Borat' effect: guerrilla comedy intertwining with reality until it's a shoelace you can't undo." Still, the logical penance of having a naked Al Sharpton mount and smother Richards is considered by most to be too extreme, even for his egregious offenses. [LAT]
· Industry types wonder if the event is bad enough to not only effectively end whatever career Richards still had, but also negatively affect Seinfeld DVD sales and syndication ratings, making the one winner to emerge from this entire PR disaster "The Seinfeld Curse." Suck on that, middling CBS hit The New Adventures of Old Christine! [NYT]
· And finally, the inevitable T-shirt (pictured), which impressively veers from the "graphic of face with memorably offensive catchphrase" motif to offer a subtle and interactive racist-outburst-mocking experience. [CafePress]
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