Posted on 11/24/2006 5:05:26 PM PST by SkyPilot
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two men who say they were insulted by actor-comedian Michael Richards during his racist rant at a comedy club want a personal apology and maybe some money, their lawyer said Friday.
The men, Frank McBride and Kyle Doss, said they were part of a group of about 20 people who had gathered at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory to celebrate a friend's birthday. According to their attorney, Gloria Allred, they were ordering drinks when Richards berated them for interrupting his act.
When one of their group replied that he wasn't funny, Richards launched into a string of obscenities and repeatedly used the n-word. A video cell phone captured the outburst.
Richards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor Kramer on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," made a nationally televised apology on David Letterman's "Late Night" show earlier this week. He has since apologized to civil rights leaders the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
But Allred complained Friday that he "has not apologized to his victims directly, face to face, man to man."
Richards' publicist said his client wants to apologize to both men, who are black, but hasn't been able to locate them.
Allred, speaking by phone from Colorado, said Richards should meet McBride and Doss in front of a retired judge to "acknowledge his behavior and to apologize to them" and allow the judge to decide on monetary compensation.
"It's not enough to say 'I'm sorry,'" she said.
She did not mention a specific figure, but pitched the idea as a way for the comic to avoid a lawsuit.
"Our clients were vulnerable," Allred said. "He went after them. He singled them out and he taunted them, and he did it in a closed room where they were captive."
The video of Richards' outburst shows several people getting up and walking out as he shouts at the audience.
Richards' publicist said the comic wasn't considering any demand for payment. "He's not dealing with that," Howard Rubenstein said. "He wants to apologize to them directly and then see what happens."
On the radio last week, they played the sound clip, and one of the men said something like:
"That was unf_cking necessary G_damnit! Unf_cking necessary G_damn you!"
I would like the man to apologize to God.
I can't believe Gloria Allred is already involved. Oh, yes I can.
If I were Richards, I'd offer to treat the two men to dinner, to sit and talk and apologize in person. I would also expect an apology in return. If that's not enough for them, they're a couple of golddiggers.
I said, gold "diggers"!
The video of Richards' outburst shows several people getting up and walking out as he shouts at the audience.
If they were captive, how did those "several people" manage to walk out?
Are black patrons of that establishment chained to their tables or chairs?
Looks like they all belong in the same boat...
I don't believe I've heard what they said to him BEFORE the video phone recording started.
And just how were they "captive". Seems everybody else found a way out of there.
An apology is one thing, and deserved. But money will heal their bruised sensitivities?
The most these two should get is the price of the ticket.
They want money? For what? THey already got their money back from the club. Jeez, if I got paid everytime I got called cracker or ghost I`d be a billionaire. And I`m sure none of their black friends EVER call them the "N" word, right?
That's the funniest thing connected to this moronic, unfunny "comedian" yet.
I'm still trying to figure out when there is any "freedom of speech" in this PC USA. You go to a comedy club and the nitwit comic starts shouting obscenities at hecklers, and somehow now someone has to pay up?
I wish I lived in an America where men had a pair. If I were Richards, I wouldn't have gone into a hysterical tirade, but grinned and bore it like a man; if I were one of these crybabies looking for money, I'd have just walked out on a boring comedian. Instead we have "entertainers" who can't control themselves, like 3-year-olds, and "adults" in the audience who heckle someone while he's doing his job.
I guess honor is only something for someone else, or for comic book heroes, and not something we should have in our daily lives. Yes, I may be making too much of this, but I am so bored with "adults" behaving this way. Grow up, for pete's sake, and grow a pair, and live your lives with some freaking dignity.
"Look away. I'm hideous".
Civil rights hucksters is more like it.
And why apologize to them? Whats that gonna accomplish unless Kramer gave them some money under the table not to make trouble for him.
I have said some very repugnant things when I was angry for which I have been truly sorry afterward. And, rest assured, none of these outbursts reflected, in any way, my true personality or thinking.
Let him sit down with the offended, apologize and perhaps, attend some anger management training. Change career paths (obviously, stand up comedy with it’s attendant heckling is not his forte’), and move on.
He could make a comeback, but let’s get real … his career is probably over (hope he saved/invested the money he made on Seinfeld or is getting great residuals).
I'd tell them to just get over it.
Sounds like a good plan, but he does have to consider his career (and no, he is not a has-been, as many dodos have stated -- he's a very talented man). He cannot be insensitive and foolishly walk away from this. And he's not.
They need to get over it. They are men, right? Not 4 year olds I thought. Why does that Allred want a retired judge? This is a slippery slope where people can sue for hurt feelings.
Maybe some money?....lol. I suspect these two would settle for "some" money and no apology whatsoever. In fact, they'd happily be insulted every day of the week in return for some Benjamins.
Memo to Richards: give up some jack. ....don't be niggardly.
Yes, the price of their ticket, their drinks, and MAYBE even the transportation money.
That is IT!!!
What about Barbara Streisand cursing at the folks who heckled her during her many tirades and UNFUNNY skits during her concert? Do they get their money back and payment for the hours of life WASTED listening to that hag?
Anyone stupid enough to pay that kind of money deserves what they get.
He ought to countersue for harassment. They were heckling him.
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