Posted on 06/21/2002 12:04:15 PM PDT by Drew68
LOS ANGELES - Winona Ryder has poked fun at her shoplifting arrest on Saturday Night Live, the MTV Movie Awards and the cover of W magazine, which featured her wearing a "Free Winona" T-shirt.
Her publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said the actress - who has pleaded innocent to shoplifting and drug charges - has only been trying to be self-deprecating.
"The jokes that were made were self-mocking," Buxbaum said. "She was trying to joke about herself and at no level was she trying to be disrespectful to the courts and legal system."
Prosecutors aren't amused.
"This is a criminal case, these are serious charges and not really a joking matter," said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney.
Ryder has been stuck trying to promote her new comedy, Mr. Deeds, while avoiding serious discussion of the felony case.
Other stars have used humor to blunt a scandal's edge, although usually not until the legal matter has been settled, said Alan Mayer, one of Hollywood's top crisis-management publicists.
"If the charge is something that is not horrendously serious ? it's not necessarily a bad idea to appear in public and, not so much make light of it, but at least indicate this is not a nuclear confrontation in South Asia," said Mayer, who represented Halle Berry in her 2000 car-crash case and comedian Paula Poundstone in her child endangerment case last year.
Hugh Grant's appearance on The Tonight Show in 1995 shortly after his arrest with a prostitute is considered a prime example of using humor to defuse a scandal. But the actor joked only after apologizing publicly.
"I did a bad thing. ... There you have it," he told host Jay Leno. Ryder, however, seems to be following in the footsteps of singer George Michael, who has said he thinks that the unfavorable community service deal he got in 1998 was the result of a video he made satirizing the police who arrested him for lewd conduct.
Ryder, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was arrested in December at a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills for allegedly possessing painkillers without a prescription and stealing nearly $6,000 worth of designer merchandise.
Charged with second-degree burglary, grand theft, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance, the 30-year-old could face more than three years in prison if convicted. A tentative trial date has been set for Aug. 13 in state Superior Court.
Ryder's attorney, Mark Geragos, says the incident was a misunderstanding turned into malicious prosecution.
So far, prosecutors have rejected Ryder's efforts to get her charges reduced to misdemeanors, and have suggested that her alleged theft is part of a pattern of behavior.
"From just a human being's perspective," said Gibbons of the district attorney's office, "I don't shop at Saks. I'm more inclined to shop at (discount store) Target, as are most people. I don't know what kind of jury she's going to have, but if they're people like me then perhaps they won't be laughing either."
The arrest and its fallout have upstaged Ryder's roles in Mr. Deeds, which opens later this month with Adam Sandler, and the sci-fi drama Simone, with Al Pacino, due in August.
Ryder and Sandler appeared on stage together during the MTV Movie Awards earlier this month, and Sandler hemmed and hawed his way around her legal woes.
"I know that it's on the minds of many. There's millions of people watching. You say Winona Ryder and people want to know this, so I'm gonna just ask," he said.
The question: What was it like kissing her former boyfriend, Johnny Depp?
In her SNL monologue on May 18, Ryder deadpanned, "You know, people have been acting a little strange around here. You know, there's like, you know, a lot of like locking of doors and - and shifty eyes and - and a lot of frisking." In a later shoplifting sketch, she mockingly scolded other characters for stealing.
Ultimately, my money says she walks.
I agree with you. Sounds like she's been using the five-finger discount for some time now (though she had never previously been charged). However, she's been charged with five felonies. That, to me, is most certainly real trouble.
I feel that way about any Adam Sandler film and most if not all of the films directed by Stephen Brill (his writing was OK on the first Mighty Ducks film but not the second and third)
Yeah, whatever. If you and your boss were messing with the serial criminals Clinton, it would be YOU who would be on the hot seat, while Big Bill did mock pelvic thrusts in your face, Carville frothed on Meet The Press, and Begala lied about your childhood and family on CNN.
I hate to say it but I do too. I liked Sandler on SNL and in films where he wasn't the lead (Bobcat Goldwaith's drunken clown epic Shakes the Clown comes to mind) but his feature films have left much to be desired. Sure, they may have a few funny parts but they just can't stand up on their own.
Yeah but these jurors get starstruck or something. And this woman is not bad looking. If she bats her eyelashes and says she's truly truly sorry some male jurors could be convinced (not me of course).
Here's a few more recent ones:
Yep, she's definately easy on the eyes. She could steal from me anytime (as long as she paid restitution).
Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison were pretty darn funny!
(I like them cute bellies!)
I'm supposed to be madder at Winona because she shoplifts from Saks, instead of Target? I think I'd be more offended if she was lifting Michael Graves teapots.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.