Gawker: defamer, chris farley

Dead Man Thanked For Being in Ad

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:17:00 EDT

David Spade had his sniveling say about the DirecTV commercial he did with Chris Farley's ghost. Now, one of the guys who wrote the commercial writes a fair, reasonable blog post about his intentions. Okay. But he ends with this:

We miss you, Chris. Thanks for doing it.

Uh. You're welcome?

David Spade Explains: He Really Needed the Money

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:38:16 EDT

David Spade, a real human with a real human heart, is so wounded by the criticism of his new ad "starring" his dead pal Chris Farley that he's come forth with a heartfelt statement from his flack.

Asylum gets this heart-rending explanation from the sniveling funnyman's publicist himself:

"When DIRECT TV came to me and the Farley family with this idea about 'Tommy Boy,' we talked and thought it would be a cool way to remind people just how funny Chris was. It is a clever homage to my friend and a movie that we loved doing, " he says.

"Nobody else wants to pay me money for things," he means.

Chris Farley's Ghost Trapped in Commercial

Hamilton Nolan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:16:04 EDT

The trustees of the estate of Chris Farley agree: The deceased beloved portly comedian would really enjoy DirecTV, were he not dead and all. Also, David Spade is available for kids' birthday parties and cheap blowjobs. Sleazebags.

Snow White, Esquire Vs. 'Beverly Hills Ninja 2': Vote Now For the Least-Essential Project of 2009

STV — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:35:00 EDT

The trades are alight with hellfire today as the End of Ideas train has derailed once again, exploding and settling a fine, acrid dust on the surfaces of morning lattes all over town. And as you sip yours, know that you're not hallucinating, despite what you've read: Sony really does plan a sequel to the late Chris Farley's non-essential Beverly Hills Ninja, summoning a script from the original film's screenwriter and conceiving it as the first mainstream American film to be shot entirely in South Korea. We're sure the nation is thrilled — more excited, anyhow, than it would be if it faced the prospect of a contemporary Snow White revision tentatively titled Georgia and the Seven Associates. Right. As in "lawyers":

[T]he hourlong dramedy, produced by ABC Studios, is tonally described as The Devil Wears Prada meets Taxi set in Los Angeles' legal circles.

It centers on Georgia Burnett, a young lawyer who is banished from a top law firm run by her stepmother and forced to team up with seven quirky lawyers at a storefront legal office.

"It is L.A. Law vs. the little engine that could," said [co-producer Chris] Brancato. ... The associates at the firm will have the personalities of the Seven Dwarfs. For instance, Doc is an ambulance chaser who carries neck braces in his trunk, and Sleepy is a bike messenger who parties at night and naps in the office.

And Sneezy is the hotshot with the coke habit, and Dopey is the sweet, shy paralegal... enough, we get it. These are ideas whose times have not officially come, thank God, and if justice avails itself, your vote may count in the cosmic quest to kill one evil twin before the pair combine to subsume us in 2009. In the spirit of social activism that this election year encourages, stand up, and let every voice be heard:

Fox tackles contemporary 'Dwarfs' [THR]

'Ninja 2' to shoot in South Korea [Variety]

Chris Rock Explains How 'Chippendales' Killed Chris Farley

Molly Friedman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:20:00 EDT

As we learned recently, SNL's Chris Farley was far from coddled or loved during his final years by fellow cast members. And now, a new biography on Chris Farley titled The Chris Farley Show will divulge more depressing tales from friends of Farley and how exactly they went about attempting to help the struggling addict get better (hint: they didn't). From former co-stars dishing on his desperate attempts to be loved using prostitutes to anecdotes involving his habit of licking everything from his shoelaces to his wallet, one revelation made by Chris Rock stands out:

"'Chippendales' was a weird sketch. I always hated it...The joke of it is, basically, 'We can't hire you because you're fat.' There's no comic twist to it. It's just [bleep]ing mean. Chris wanted so much to be liked. As funny as that sketch was...it's one of the things that killed him."

More dismal details regarding Farley's last days after the jump.

As the NYDN reports, SNL writer Bob Odenkirk called him "totally nuts." But that's the least of it. Former cast member Norm McDonald reveals that after Farley was let go from the show, he felt so low that he'd taken to bringing prostitutes "to dinner and treat them so sweetly. He'd introduce them to you as his girlfriend." Producer Lorne Michaels has repeatedly compared Farley to his predecessor John Belushi, who died at the same age of 33, under remarkably similar circumstances: after going on a drug-infused bender with a strange woman, he was left alone to die after injecting speedballs.

When asked to compare Farley to John Belushi in an interview with TV Guide, Lorne explained:

"John was physical, but he could do remarkable impressions. He could do very deep character work, and I think that he found much more of his talent. Chris, he just didn't get the chance...He perhaps romanticized what he thought was John, the way John lived."

And in the upcoming biography, Michaels reveals a much harsher take on Farley's problems: "As soon as I heard it was heroin, I was having none of it. I had been through it with John and I wasn't doing it again."

[Photo credit: Getty]

CHRIS FARLEY'S DARK COMEDY [NYDN]

The Last Days of Chris Farley

employeemegan — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:50:10 EDT

As much as we'd like to believe that Chris Farley's time on earth was a shouting, dancing laugh fest until its too-soon end, his brother Tom's new book, The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, shatters our (admittedly quite flimsy) illusions about his life. Excerpts from the book will run in May's Playboy — finally, you can say "I bought it for the articles!" and truly mean it — but Page Six has two distressing quotes this morning from his fellow Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Particularly sad — Farley BFF David Spade recalls a time when his pal's heckling went well beyond "fat guy in a little coat:"

"I got a lot of s - - - at the end about 'Why weren't you there for him?' But being that close, I dealt with it all the time. And in that situation, before the guy's dead, he's just kind of an a - -hole. Truth is, you get a junkie who's wasted all the time and moody and angry and trying to knock you around, you say, 'OK, you go do that, and I'll be over here.' "

Chevy Chase, meanwhile, took a tough love stance, dressing Farley down as only a reputed narcissist could:

"Look, you're not John Belushi. And when you overdose or kill yourself, you will not have the same acclaim that John did . . . You'll be a blip in the New York Times obituaries page, and that'll be it. Is that what you want?"

...And yet, "Farley Show" co-author Tanner Colby's other book credit just happens to be Belushi, penned with that tragic funnyman's wife. Who feels like a horse's patoot now, Chase?

CHRIS FARLEY AND HIS DAYS OF HELL [NY Post]

Chris Farley lives! Or at least that what...

Seth — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:11:51 EDT

Chris Farley lives! Or at least that what some are claiming, having returned to us in the form of a baby girl whose first words could very well end up being, "Well, la-dee-freakin-da!" [openedgemedia.com]

Chris Farley Still Making His Point From Beyond

Seth — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 22:04:13 EDT

The LAT's targeted online advertising software appears to be extremely well-calibrated, pairing a story about the founder of Barry's Bootcamp having been a massive drug addict for years with a banner ad featuring an obese, smiling Chris Farley encouraging you to "overcome addiction," part of a campaign that has also seen his giant mug plastered on billboards around town. There are multiple lessons to be learned here: not just about the dangers of drug abuse, but also in the value of regular exercise—except when supervised by a cracked-out cardio instructor.

Clean, but still amped [LAT]

Annals Of Advertising: Dead Celebrities Want You To Kick The Habit

Mark — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:30:41 EDT

Saturday's LAT story about the billboard (pictured above) featuring Chris Farley's image to advertise a new addiction treatment at first struck us as an April Fool's Day gag, but then we realized that the Times' lawyers would probably burn down their headquarters before exposing themselves to a lawsuit over a joke. The mastermind behind the billboard, which is going up over Sunset Boulevard at Crescent Heights today, explains their innovative marketing strategy:

"We felt it was an effective way of getting people to focus on our message point, because it's unusual to see a celebrity in this fashion," said Terren S. Peizer, Hythiam's chief executive and owner of more than a third of the firm's shares. He said talks are underway with estates of "several" other dead celebrities, whom he declined to identify.

Should this campaign succeed, the next step seems obvious: using the images of at-risk celebrities likely to suffer an overdose on their next billboards. If a 50-foot image of Andy Dick looming over a liquor store on the Strip can't scare an addict straight, nothing will.

Chris Farley's unexpected return — in an ad campaign [LAT]