Now, "contrite" Michael Richards hires black P.R. "crisis" expert

[Bluebear]

LOS ANGELES - First he went on national television to apologize for his racial tirade against two black hecklers. Now Michael Richards is taking his contriteness to the next level: he's hired a public relations expert with deep contacts in the black community...

(Jesse) Jackson, reached by phone, said Richards called "expressing his remorse and his confusion."

"He's embarrassed. He got caught on tape. That's a big part of his anxiety now," said Jackson.

"Clearly he needs some race sensibility training, and some psychiatric help. His anger is volatile and dangerous to himself and others," Jackson said. "I hope he gets the help he needs. But the culture that's producing this kind of animosity toward blacks must be addressed. ... We're increasingly facing cultural isolation in Hollywood, in the movies and in TV."

Jackson added, "We have to evaluate the use of the n-word and categorize it as hate speech, no matter who uses it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_en_tv/michael_richards

[EdwardM]

1. So when is he going to rehab?

[journalist3072]

2. If he really does not hold those views he spouted, why hire a crisis expert?

It would seem to me (though I could totally be off base here), that if he is truly and sincerely apologetic, he wouldn't need to hire some "crisis expert" to help him redeem his image.

If he really is sincere in his apology, then why not just speak from his heart to the African-American community at large, and in particular those men in the audience he berated? He wouldn't need some "consultant" to help him do that. What is his consultant supposed to do? Poll test various responses?

But that's just me..

[EFerrari]

5. Because he works in a world where your image is more important

than you or your beliefs are.

He'd have to do the same thing whether he was a racist jerk or not because that is the business.

[Karenina]

19. He even mis-IDed the "culprit"

The irony of the insult, according to audience member Pitts: It wasn't the black guy who interrupted him. The black man sat next to the alleged heckler. Pitts told our colleague Darryl Fears the two were in a group of roughly 10 people who ambled into the Laugh Factory during Richards's routine. The comic ordered them to shut up, then asked, " 'What are you talking about?' "

The black guy spoke up: "My friend doesn't think you're funny." The loud-talking friend "was maybe Arab or Hispanic but not black," said Pitts, who was not part of the group. "The way it's been portrayed is that a group of black guys came to the club and were disorderly . . . and that's inaccurate, absolutely."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101886.html

[noamnety]

7. Exactly

I would add to that, maybe instead of hiring a PR expert, he should hire a diversity consultant, who can help him understand race issues more, rather than someone who will help other people understand how he's really a swell guy, deep down. And after that, he should go do some volunteer work in Africa for a while. He needs to step out of his world of privilege where he thinks it's a huge deal that somebody heckled him while he was on stage, and understand what people really go through in this world.

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

3. Who cares about Michael Richards?

He is a has-been one-trick pony.

He should take the money he has left from Seinfeld and disappear. He should never be heard from again on stage or on TV (oh wait, everything he has done on TV since has been a failure).

Friggin moron.

Edited for spelling.

[Webster Green]

6. No shit!.......He's a one-trick-pony.

The spotlight should have faded to black a long time ago.

[Bluebear]

9. Ah, but Season "X" of Seinfeld must be coming out on DVD!

Can't have one of the major stars tamping down DVD box sales!

[sweetheart]

4. Some time working with the homeless would help him more

The man needs to meet people who are on the bottom on equal terms, and
the way to do that is to head off to new orleans, houston, or Los Angeles
skid row where some money and a pair of helping hands would never be
turned away.

The problem is not PR, it is what he lives for, and from his selfish place,
he will only ever be another angry white man. I'd wager it would change
him totally and boost his career if he made black people's rights his
fight, since he's already made it his fight; now its time to make right.

[aquart]

8. Repeating endlessly: has anyone gotten him to a DOCTOR????

We now have him on two instances of epithets to two different groups. Does he have a history of this? Not that we know. If it's new behavior: HE NEEDS TO BE PHYSICALLY CHECKED OUT!!!

[MADem]

10. Are you thinking "brain tumor" like I am?

Granted, there are racist assholes, but he's managed to keep this behavior tamped down over the years, if he has been a racist asshole all along. You'd think he'd have been caught out before now. Of course, Mel Gibson managed to keep his shit under wraps; it was only an embarrassment of booze that brought his true colors to the fore.

Brain tumors or lesions can make people do whacky things....

[Divernan]

12. Brilliant post! - you beat me to it!

nt

[aquart]

13. Or little mini-strokes.

He worked with Seinfeld for a decade and this never came up? Something is wrong. Just the lack of control is wrong, even if these are his feelings and he always controlled them before.

I'll never forget the trash that came out of my father's mouth the last year of his life. It just wasn't him.

He's hiring PR guys because he won't face a much worse possibility: that something happened inside him to damage him.

[Divernan]

11. Abrupt personality/behavior change can be caused by brain lesions/tumors.

Mel Gibson's an alcoholic & his outbursts are triggered by booze (reducing inhibitions so we hear how he really feels);but there's been no hiding behind the Jack Daniels bottle by Richards. I'm not looking for excuses for his behavior, just explanations.

[goclark]

14. Seems like the Dr. would have been his first

line of defense.

Seems like he could easily pay a Dr. to say that he has medical issues that can not be discussed at the time.

Have not heard that line of reasoning from Richards.

That will probably be is strategy for Friday.

[Minnesota_Lib]

15. Next step: "Some of my best friends are...."

This is so transparent. He'd be better off he he just shut his mouth.

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

16. Maybe he can follow the epiosode...

where George hired the black exterminator to be his "friend."

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

17. Looks like Kramer hates Jews too.

Kramer's career in freefall after fresh claims of racism.

Richards allegedly lashed out at Jews during performance earlier this year, yelling at one audience member: "You're a f***ing Jew. Your people are the cause of Jesus dying."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23375603-details/Kramer's+career+in+freefall+after+fresh+claims+of+racism/article.do

[Ninja Jordan]

21. Hell, I thought Richards WAS Jewish.

weird

[hsher]

25. I did too, and I'm Jewish!

His saying that at the show doesn't automatically preclude his being Jewish. We get the "you killed Christ" accusation all the time. He may have been reflexively parroting it back to his audience as a way of poking fun at them, thinking they were mostly gentile. My vote is he's Jewish. My "Jewdar" goes off when I see him.

[Rex]

18. Oh fucking barf.

Hey Mike Richards, you're a fucking RACIST. Welcome to reality. Deal with it.

[Katherine Brengle]

22. It would seem so... the rest is damage control, and...

as far as I can tell, not working so well.

He screwed himself, unfortunate for him, but what can ya do?

[musette_sf]

20. i've got a way to make it all right:

Scene in "Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s new season:

Doorbell rings.

It's Michael Richards, for whom Larry is pitching a new sitcom to "The CW Network".

Larry welcomes Richards. They walk into the living room...

...where Wanda is visiting with Cheryl.

(improvisation ensues)



Discuss.

[hsher]

23. He'll be dating a black woman next

Just like Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker.

[bliss_eternal]

24. No black woman would have him.

.

[hsher]

26. I ANGRILY DISAGREE WITH JACKSON ON THIS

>>We're increasingly facing cultural isolation in Hollywood, in the movies and in TV."
:rant:
No "we're" not. Intelligent, progressive black people who have no involvement in hip-hop culture, who "talk proper", and who are more suburban than urban are the ones who face increased cultural isolation in Hollywood, in the movies and in TV. Jesse Jackson, who somehow got voted in by somebody to speak for us all... somehow... is totally off base with this one. In a world where hip-hop is the dominant form of music, where rappers cross over right across actual actors to become movie stars, and where P.Diddy and Kanye West are considered more indicative and symbolic of black culture than Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama are, where does he get this erroneous assumption?

I have ties to Hollywood and this is wrong. He's a black MAN. What would he know about isolation in Hollywood? A town where you can easily start naming black male feature directors, but ONLY ONE BLACK FEMALE DIRECTOR, WHO HARDLY EVER GETS ANY WORK? And where black women are repeatedly shown in low-status, demeaning, exaggeratedly light-skinned and sexual roles, not as our true selves? Fuck you, Jesse Jackson. As a black female feature director and television producer who works in that industry you just maligned and misrepresented, while continuing to hold down the black male status quo of power in and for it, you can KISS MY BLACK ASS.

BLACK MALE DIRECTORS:

Hype Williams
Spike Lee
John Singleton
Robert Townsend
Keenan Ivory Wayans
Damon Wayans
The list goes on

BLACK FEMALE DIRECTORS:

Julie Dash
NAME ANOTHER.

Edited to add:

Think back for a moment on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and countless other shows, where the streetwise smartaleck "mouther" black person (Will Smith, in many of these productions) is shown as the hero, and is shown putting down the quieter, more suburban, "thinker" black person.

UNTIL THIS NASTY STEREOTYPE IS ERADICATED, NOTHING IN HOLLYWOOD IS FAIR.

So he can cease blaming Richards for this. It's black people like him who think they speak for all of us, and LIKE all of us, who do the most of holding us down as a people. Can you imagine if George Mencia were picked as a token and allowed to speak FOR ALL LATINOS?

Then why do we allow that to happen to black people?

Okay... calming down... rant ended.