Men seek apology from ex-’Seinfeld’ star

LOS ANGELES—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, one of the men and their lawyer said Friday.
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 the “Late Show with David Letterman” earlier this week. He has since apologized to the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, both civil rights leaders. But Doss, 26, said Friday he wanted a “face-to-face apology.”
“To have him do what he did to me ... I can’t even explain it,” Doss said. “I was humiliated, even scared at one point.”
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’ on ‘David Letterman,’” she said. She did not mention a specific figure, but pitched the idea as a way for the comic to avoid a lawsuit.—Agencies
She survived the ordeal but her recovery - both physical and emotional - was painful. She left the hospital in a wheelchair and didn’t walk for nearly a year. Her right hand was paralysed but worst of all, she said, she had lost her singing voice.
Although she blamed the complications on poor hospital care, the near-death experience convinced O’Day to give up alcohol.
It took nearly a year to get her voice back and start singing again. But once she did, she was right back on stage.
She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1997.
For the last years of her life, O’Day performed at various Los Angeles night spots. O’Day had no children and no immediate family, Cavolina said.