Apology Not Accepted

Jerry, Elaine and George could end up paying for Michael Richards’ rant.

 

The Reverend Jesse Jackson called for a boycott Monday of the latest Seinfeld DVD, a way of exacting economic punishment for Richards’ racist meltdown.

 

In a bit of bad timing for Jerry Seinfeld, et al., the seventh season of Seinfeld was released as a four-disc set last week, just as Richards’ caught-on-video, Nov. 17 Los Angeles comedy club raving was made public.

 

The new Seinfeld package, featuring much quoted episodes such as “The Soup Nazi” (”No soup for you!”), was Amazon.com’s 11th-biggest-selling DVD on Monday and was expected to be a big stocking-stuffer for Christmas.

In the last week, Richards has become better known for hurling the N-word at black hecklers after attempting a lynching joke during the same riff and, later, for apologizing—or trying to, anyway.

 

“My best friends were African-Americans,” Richards said Sunday on Jackson’s Premiere Radio Network show.

Richards has appeared infrequently on camera since Seinfeld ended. Per his new PR guru, the actor is now appearing regularly in a psychiatrist’s office for counseling.

 

“I have been trying to get to the source of where that anger comes from,” Richards said on Jackson’s radio show.

Michael Richards was not born Jewish but “adheres” to Jewish philosophy, according to his publicist.

 

Richards’ racist remarks at a Los Angeles comedy club last week created a maelstrom as well as a media frenzy.

 

Amid all the hoopla, bloggers and others labeled the former “Seinfeld” star Jewish but others reported he was not.

 

Howard Rubenstein, who was hired as Richards’ publicist, told JTA that Richards has not formally converted to Judaism but that some of his mentors were Jewish and he “adheres to Jewish philosophy.”

 

He said he could not give more details.

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Tags: Celebrities