Fred Willard Fired From PBS Job - All A Big Misunderstanding
I really can't wait to hear what the big misunderstanding is that Fred Willard is claiming happened to him when he was caught with his genitals exposed in an adult movie theatre. Maybe he ate a big meal and loosened his belt and then the police burst in. Maybe he likes to save that extra few seconds of actually unzipping his pants in the restroom and does it an advance. Whatever the explanation, I'm sure it will be a fun one. I don't actually care what he was doing. I mean what do you think happens inside an adult movie theatre that is showing a triple feature of XXX movies. If you go in there, I think you can expect someone is doing something they shouldn't be doing. Whatever the reason, PBS still decided to fire Willard from his job hosting a pickers type show and ordered affiliates not to air any episodes with him in it.
I have nothing against porn or erotica but please in the privacy of your own home.
ReplyDeleteThis is beyond stupid, human genitalia is being shown in massive blown-up graphic detail on screen, purely and unambiguously for the purposes of arousal, but if you pull your own out while that's going on, then suddenly it becomes A Problem?
ReplyDeleteWhy, Misch? Are you tired of being forced to see people's junk every time you go to an exclusively-junk-showing-place? I don't even get this AT ALL
ReplyDeleteWho was he hurting?
ReplyDeleteNo damn body. Ridiculous! PBS is so white & uptight.
Deleteaccording to TMZ they might not charge him as its only a crime exposing your genitals if it offends people. Being in a XXX movie where people are not going to be offended or doing the same thing isn't a crime it seems.
ReplyDeleteEither way Fred did a really bone headed (no pun intended) thing since porn is so easily accessible in so many other formats to blow your career over.
Leave Fred alone. He was in an adult theater, not a Chuck E. Cheese. Stupid PBS. Well, actually, I love PBS, but this is lame.
ReplyDeletedo police routinely raid these joints? are there really that many criminals doing criminal things in there? they aren't hurting anyone, are they? I just don't get why we are arresting these folks when there are much more dangerous folks out there...
ReplyDeleteWhy is this still an issue? It's 2012. He was in a theater showing porn, not outside in a park or on the street.
ReplyDeleteThere were reportedly four other people in the theater at the time, and I doubt any of them were offended by Fred's act; this is going to derail his career, much the same way it did Paul Reubens career, or at least leave him to beremembered for something entirely different than his body of work (so to speak) which I personally enjoyed
ReplyDeleteI like Fred and don't think any differently of him. When in Rome and all
ReplyDeleteBut can someone please explain the whole hygiene issues going on in these types of theaters? I swear I'm not trying to be funny or prudish, but do people bring a sweat sock for the "finale"? I just can't imagine going in without a hazmat suit on assuming that most peeps don't masturbate without wanting to finish. I think that's why all of us old biddies are grossed out on this story
maybe they should make cubicle things to give the people that go to these things some privacy. then the police can focus on more important things, like children being forced into prostitution.
ReplyDeleteFree Fred! Give him his job back!
ReplyDeleteThe only person entitled to any kind of opinion on Fred and his junk is Mrs Fred.
I am so with most of you, this is a victimless crime and obviously the cops had no murders to solve, drug dealers, killers or child molesters to apprehend so they thought it best to raid a xxx theater and arrest consenting adults, YAWWWWNNN
ReplyDeleteI'm with donner on this one. Do the police regularly raid these places? If so, why do people keep going to them?
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the police raided it because someone recognized Fred Willard and tipped them off. Hell, I'd call TMZ before I'd call the police. I might actually get some money from doing that.
People keep going to these places because pros work out of them at times.
ReplyDelete"The only person entitled to any kind of opinion on Fred and his junk is Mrs Fred."
ReplyDeleteExactly. And at least Mrs. Fred knows he wasn't out there cheating! Guys jerk off. So what.
As far as the "finales" go, I heard from someone once that he knew of someone who was a janitor at one of these places. He made something like $30 an hour, and he absolutely deserves it, if you ask me. ;-)
I'm guessing that the "misunderstanding" was that he didn't realize he was doing anything illegal. When you're in an adult-only theater, which is showing porn, I'm betting, he didn't realize that counted as a "public place." I understand that the act of masturbating is more graphic than someone just stripping, but I still don't see much of a difference between strippers stripping in a strip club (which you have to be an adult to get into) and this situation here. I mean, if strippers were to strip off all their clothes on the street, that would be illegal, but they're allowed to in the privacy of an adult-only establishment.
ReplyDelete@Sunny - the theaters are gross. They just are. When I turned 18 I went to one with my boyfriend and I haven't been to another one since. Yuk.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add that I think Fred Willard is one of the funniest actors out there.
ReplyDelete"Doctor, question that's always bothered me and a lot of people: Mayflower, combined with Philadelphia - a no-brainer, right? Cause this is where the Mayflower landed. Not so. It turns out Columbus actually set foot somewhere down in the West Indies. Little known fact." --Fred Willard as Buck Laughlin in Best In Show
Also - Fred didn't do anything illegal. The cops should have left him alone. This is what people do in those places!
ReplyDeleteThe law is the law. Police cant choose which ones to enforce, they enforce them all. Wld anyone vote yes on public masturbating theatres?
DeleteI thought I saw somewhere that there is a sign on the theater warning that it is watched by law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that after all the years in the business he would be able to afford a DVD player and a couple DVDs, or a room in a hotel with pay per view.
I have the same question as Sunny. Please, some guy out there - give us the lowdown! We are all anonymous here, after all.
ReplyDelete@Frufra, it's not as if they have kleenexes available. You're responsible for your own jizz, which often lands on the floor.
ReplyDeleteDoes that help?
The only thing about it that's weird to me is that he had so many other options (Internet, on demand, etc.). He's going there to be with other people. Maybe not *with* with, but seen by others.
ReplyDeleteI just don't get this at all. From Fred's perspective and the police perspective. In this day and age, how are places like this still in business?
ReplyDeleteI guess since PBS relys on public funding, they had to let him go.
I hope he does a self depreciating Funny or Die. I actually really look forward to it.
EmEyKay, some of us are eating here, lol.
ReplyDeleteWith all the pr0n available, you'd think he'd do this in the privacy of his own home or hotel room.
So people go to a XXX movie theatre to NOT whack off?
ReplyDeleteI can see how people would think whacking off in a place that specializes in showing porn is wrong.
WTF was Fred thinking whacking off to porn in a porn theatre????
Some people just don't know what is appropriate and what is forbidden.
I also think it is wrong for people to whack off while surfing the internet for porn.
Are these people CRAZY?
I can't understand why porn theatres are legal in the first place. Or for that matter, why porn is legal to show on the internet.
You have to be CRAZY to whack off to porn.
:( sorry, @Momster...
ReplyDelete@luckylass, you KNOW someone's writing that as we speak!
I was grossed out once in an ordinary theater when the person in the seat behind me SNEEZED and I could feel the spray on the back of my neck. I'm not following this thought process any further, because it is taking me to gross mental territory....
ReplyDeleteGlad to here the LAPD is keeping pervy senior citizens out of porn theatres.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Howie Mandel (long ago) joking that he liked to go to XXX movie theaters and bring a squirt gun filled with Jergen's lotion with him...
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love Fred Willard and he can do no wrong in my book.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you asking why he didn't just stay home & whack off in front of free porn in the internet ... maybe he's one of those technophobe geezers.
nova.....did you not understand my post...I said in the privacy of your own home.
ReplyDeleteI don't judge people whatever they do is fine with me as long as they don't hurt anyone, including themselves.
And no I haven't been to one of those theater's since film school where it was part of my studies.
It's pretty disgusting, but guys do this in porn theaters all the time. The only reason it's a big deal is because he's a celeb. Poor dude. Stupid, maybe, disgusting, maybe, but just a dumb thing to do that apparently "everybody" (if you're dumb and disgusting) does.
ReplyDeleteRobert, someone as famously germaphobic and OCD as Howie Mandel would probably die if he actually went into such a theater. But it's a funny gross joke. I wonder if he pre-warmed the lotion for added believability?
ReplyDeleteEwww.
I guess the police watching the theater were the ones offended. This is a case where you need your cloak of invisibility.
ReplyDeleteIt's not even a big deal. It was only a big deal with Pee Wee because he had a kid's show. Plus it was 20 years ago. This lil' incident will make zero difference in Fred's career.
ReplyDeleteIt's a glacial process, but American society does grow up a little every day. Even in Florida.
When you guys ask why he didn't just use internet porn, please think of those youtube videos of the grandparents just trying to figure out their webcam. I'm guessing Fred is probably about as tech-savvy as that cute old couple (and just as feisty).
ReplyDelete@EmEyKay, it's okay. :)
ReplyDelete@Robert, lololol.
@B. Profane, what about Oklahoma? I've about given up. . .
This is like putting me in front of a carb buffet and dating me not to eat one. What's the point of allowing the theaters if the obvious reason is for people to get off by what's playing? I'd never go to one (I am grossed out by regular theaters, let alone one filled with semen and pubes), but I wouldn't expect anyone to just sit there, desensitized to what's on the screen.
ReplyDeleteI have always assumed that having a w@nk in a porn cinema is practically the law. Surely nobody would be offended......because if you were easily offended you wouldn’t be in a porn cinema in the first place. And I would expect that he wasn’t the only tinkering with his todger!
ReplyDeleteThe irony here is he has a movie coming out and it's called, wait for it...........The Yank. I would reconsider the name of that title
ReplyDeleteI dont get why pbs fired him? Did he become less funny, or less entertaining because of jerking off in movie theatre? I think they jumped the gun. This wasnt pedophilia. He didnt hurt anyone. Yeah, its a bit messy, but i dont think he shld hv been fired. He still ok in my book.
ReplyDeleteOT: his wife has that horrible hairstyle Kate Gosselin used to have. I'm glad that never caught on big like The Rachel did 12 years earlier.
ReplyDeletewait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the LAPD had the time and the resources to lock up ole Fred and not Crazy Cracken?!?!??!?!?!
I'd rather have someone who is open with his sexuality in the 'privacy' of of an adult theatre than have Lilo the Cracken careening around on LA roadways hitting babies and club managers and who knows else.
You know what? I don't care, it's not like he molested a kid FFS! Or did it in front of families! Ohmahgawd! A dude masterbated where you kinda expect ppl to go to do that kind of thing! *clutches pearls*
Free Fred!
WUWT? - I'm laughing so hard. That is crazy emo scene hair. I dated a woman ten years ago with that hairstyle, I thought she was a punk rock badass but it turns out she was just softening the world for the hair arrival of Gosselin.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how guys instantly look like a creep the moment they're, well, caught with their pants down. I'm talking to you, Pee-wee Herman.
ReplyDeleteI get it. I think the Misunderstanding was the police didn't realize it was an adult movie theater.
ReplyDeleteDerp.
Maybe he likes going to a theater to watch porn and masturbate because that is part of what turns him on...the thrill of other people being there, the potential to get caught.
ReplyDeletemuch the same way some couples get off on having sex in public places.
Can't believe he was fired! :(
@Momster - move over here to Edmond. We've got a little progressive bubble built here in the midst of chaos. Literally travel three miles up the road from my house, though, and you'll find people living on dirt floors without indoor plumbing. I'm not exaggerating, by the way. Two miles south - million dollar homes. Three miles north, shacks and wandering livestock.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me started on the possibility that our governor's name has been mentioned as a potential VP for Romney - heaven help us!
@Frufra, the only good thing about that would be her leaving. . .but then someone just as bad would replace her.
ReplyDeleteAnd, that hair. Oh, God. I missed that the first time around. Maybe it's static electricity from his jacket :)
Yes, it was a stupid, tacky, gross thing for Fred to do, but crimony, people, what do they think people do in a porno theatre, anyway? Join hands and sing "Kumbaya"? Perhaps he's a bit of an exhibitionist who likes some company while he pulls his pud, but as long as everyone else there is a consenting adult, who cares? They're not doing it in the street and frightening the horses, which is the important thing. It's not unlike someone getting pissy because people are drinking alcohol in a bar--oh, the horror! *Sheesh!*
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I think PBS was silly to can his ass like that, but they've been so under the gun from rabid reactionaries who'd love an excuse to cut their funding even more that they probably felt they had to throw ol' Fred to the wolves to save their own butts. Really, though, if Fred can still yank his doodle ('cause it's a dandy!), and does it in a venue where such behavior is, shall we say, not unusual, who the fuck cares? *SMH*
God I love this site. Like-minded people asking just what exactly are the logistics in a porn theater? Please someone tell use more. Any porn-theater janitors out there? Seems like it would be worthy of a book!
ReplyDeleteI have read all the posts, and I was waiting for someone to post what I think really was going on, so I guess I will have to do it.
ReplyDeleteFred wasn't arrested because he was jerking off in a public place (which is debatable if you have to pay to get in it is not exactly public). He got arrested because he was in a place where other MEN were doing the same thing. Let's face it. Not every guy that goes to these places is content to just jack off in the corner and quietly leave. No, they are looking for a helping hand. And that is why the cops were there. It wasn't to arrest a couple of lone guys beating off. It was to arrest the guys who were beating each other off together.
@Basil - and possibly doing said beating off for pay. Prostitution, in other words. Yup. Probably, huh?
ReplyDeleteWho cares about this? Fred Willard is hilarious. Who was he hurting? Don't we have any real crime to investigate out there? What a waste of everyone's time.
ReplyDelete@Basil
ReplyDeleteOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Thanks for taking one for the team and spelling it out (You too, @Em Eye Kay)
I kinda feel like I did when I went back and watched old reruns of Three's Company as a teenager . . . "So THAT'S what they were talking about". Duh
The show is actually more like BBC's Bargain Hunt. In any case, I don't think he'll lose out too much on getting fired from that. A Funny Or Die sketch would be great, as would a Hugh Grant-type appearance on Craig Ferguson's or Conan's show. Those guys could do well at putting the right spin on an embarrassing situation for him.
ReplyDeleteUgh. The thought of sitting on a seat in a theater like that makes my skin crawl. I have OCD, and before I went on meds I couldn't even sit in a regular theater.
ReplyDeleteIdk. As long as he wasn't slapping his neighbour with his boner, whatever. I'm sure it was all consenting adults.
Wow, now that you mention it, his wife looks like Joanne Woodward with her finger in a light socket!
ReplyDeleteSAVE FRED!
ReplyDelete