Celebrity News
Randy Quaid fined and banned from Actor’s union
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The once Broadway-bound musical “Lone Star Love, has come to a crashing halt allegedly thanks to some bizzare hijinks attributed to Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi. The Quaids’ antics were too much for the producers of the $6.5 million musical, so they closed the show in Seattle, bitterly complaining the couple had “hijacked” the production. All 26 members of the “Lone Star Love” cast brought Randy up on charges with Actors’ Equity Association, claiming he physically and verbally abused his fellow performers and that his oddball behavior onstage and off forced the show to close, thus depriving them of their jobs. As a result, Randy Quaid, the show’s former star, has been banned from the Actors’ Equity union for life. Quaid has also been fined $81,572, which equals two weeks pay for the cast of the $6.5 million show. The NY Post’s Michael Riedel put together a list of the complaints Quaids fellow performers brought up against him and his wife:
* Quaid hit an actor on the back of the head four times during performances. When the stage manager told him to stop, he smacked the actor again.
* Another actor was warned that if he made direct eye contact with Quaid onstage, he’d be fired.
* Quaid made “sexually inappropriate” comments onstage, repeatedly referring to an actress’ musical instruments as her “gynecological instruments.”
* The couple tried to rewrite the script, to eliminate characters.
* Randy “felt free” to change blocking, lyrics and lines during performances, and repeatedly failed to show up for note sessions and rehearsals.
Quaid was reported to have said the actors are part of a “pinko-commie organization” trying to destroy him. Later a Quaid rep responding to the story denied Quaid made no such “pinko-commie organization” comment. Nor had he struck anyone ot made sexually inappropriate remarks. Creative choices like blocking, scripting, performance were in his contractual rights, the rep claimed but were ignored by the producers.
