Our corporate siblings at AOL have a fun interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus posted to their "TV Tattler" site. My colleague Geoff Bennett asks her some questions about her Emmy win for Old Christine -- she took the statuette to work the next day and placed it on the craft services table -- casting Blair Underwood as a love interest, and what it's like to play a working mother while being one herself.But the question that got my attention was when Geoff asked Julia about her reaction to the Michael Richards incident. While she wouldn't condemn her friend and Seinfeld co-star, Julia was pretty truthful about how she felt at the time it happened: "At first I thought someone was kidding. I couldn't believe it. The whole thing was just so profoundly sad and heart-breaking. I was just really devastated by it."
Here's the $64 dollar question, though: as "devastated" as she might have been by her co-star's behavior, was this something that was informed by incidents that happened when they were working together? Stories abound regarding Richards' screwy behavior, most notably a recounting Sam Simon gave to Howard Stern about some tantrums Richards gave while they worked on The Michael Richards Show.
Unlike the goofy-but-offensive comments that have gotten Don Imus in trouble, Richards' tirade came from a pretty dark emotional part of his psyche. On the "creepy and disturbing" scale, it beats Imus' remarks by leaps and bounds. It would be interesting to hear from someone that worked with Richards day in and day out for nine years if he ever had "quiet" moments that made the other cast members wonder about his sanity.
How about you folks? Are you curious to hear more about Richards? Or is it better not to open that Pandora's box? Let me know in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-10-2007 @ 4:56PM
Recury said...
Maybe I'm just jaded, but Sam Simon's account doesn't sound all that bad. He said he would kill someone and he didn't want to finish a show (but did). Sounds pretty run-of-the-mill Hollywood nutty to me.
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4-10-2007 @ 6:16PM
Jasmine said...
I should not have been, but I was shocked by Richards' comments. I had problems watching SIENFIELD and later FRIENDS because it was such a great opportunity to introduce America to friends. It was a missed opportunity to show how Black and White people can be true friends and truly love each other. We have so many common problems and interests, yet people seem to think we are so different. I know you can meet someone, like them, and learn to love them if you have common interests...regardless of the skin color. I think Matt, Al, and Ann from the TODAY show "love" each other. They seem genuine in their interactions, not forced like Meredith. WHY IS THAT? It is because they see each other as equals, as people who like each other regardless of the differences among them or maybe because of it!
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4-10-2007 @ 8:22PM
Karen said...
Wait--Don Imus referring to a women's college basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" is "goofy-but-offensive"? Can you point me to the "goofy" part? Is there a wacky silliness to using racist and sexist language to refer to hard-working female student-athletes? No, it's true, Imus' remark wasn't in the truly-scary-and-disturbing realm of Richards' remarks, but it's not the remark of your lovable-but-racist uncle, either.
Nor does it appear to be unprecedented. As Gwen Ifill relates on today's NYTimes Op-Ed pages, Imus preferred to refer to her as the cleaning lady they let cover the White House.
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4-10-2007 @ 11:58PM
Stigmata said...
no matter what you say about richards, the guy is a genius, he played and MADE kramer like no one else could, and is instrumental to the shows success.
it wouldnt have become the powerhouse show without him
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