KKK Kramer?
Actor Michael Richards, best known for portraying Kramer on the long-running sitcom Seinfeld, is now enjoying the most attention he’s received in years thanks to a three-minute racist tirade he spewed at a group of black hecklers while performing at a Los Angeles comedy club last Friday. The rant, in which Richards made a reference to lynching and used the n-word repeatedly, was caught on video and has since circulated widely on TV and the internet. To combat the wave of criticism that soon followed, Richards offered an apology Monday on David Letterman’s Late Show that was met by sniggers from the audience, who weren’t sure whether to laugh or not. Richards then hired reknowned New York spin doctor Howard Rubenstein to advise him on how to clean up the PR mess. Rubensteins’ advice was for Richards to call black civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton (who’s no stranger to controversy) and apologize to him personally. Speaking on CNN after receiving Richard’s call, Sharpton said he had refused to accept Richard’s apology, saying “I [told Richards] you need to sit down and deal with this…this is not about accepting an apology, this is about starting a process to really deal with the continual problem of racism in this country.” Richards no doubt has a long road to redemption ahead of him-maybe he and Mel Gibson can walk it together.
-JORDAN BIMM
News Corp. drops The Juice
Reacting to a firestorm of criticism, publisher HarperCollins and the Fox Broadcasting Company (both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp.) have decided to cancel the book and TV special If I Did It, in which O.J. Simpson supplies a hypothetical account of how he “would have” killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson was charged with their murders in 1994, but was famously acquitted, largely due to alleged police incompetence and racism. Later, Simpson was found to be liable for the deaths in a civil suit.
`When the book was announced two weeks ago speculation was ignited that this was in fact a thinly-veiled confession. The brunt of the controversy involved the possibility that Simpson would profit from the crime, as reports stated that he received $3.5 million for the project, although Simpson has since said that the amount he received was “considerably less.”
Despite the cancellation, If I Did It may still have a second lease on life. Publisher HarperCollins has asked that all copies shipped in advance to retail outlets be returned so that they may be destroyed. Still, copies may mysteriously escape this fate and show up on eBay, probably going for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. HarperCollins has also stated that the rights could still be sold to another publisher. As for the Fox special, the interview with O.J. could be sold to another channel, and will most likely leak to the internet eventually.-JB
