Dick Van Dork

The AvClub interviewed Lovitz recently about his various movie and tv roles and when asked about News Radio and Andy Dick he refused to comment, seemingly pretty sad about the whole thing, but also pissed off at Dick.

So, what is the story? I know Dick in additokn to being one of the single unfunniest people on the fucking planet has a well earned rep for being and uber asshole. Did he pull some sort of attitude on the set at News Radio after Lovitz joined? Is it related to Hartman's muder in any way?

JohnSlider

I copied your thread title into Google, and this is what the Wiki machine churned out:

Boba Fett

I believe Lovitz also beat the crap out of Dick.

sven

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/pe..._Factory_brawl

Slammed his face into the bar a few times.

RocShemp

Always knew Andy Dick was an asshole but wasn't aware of the extent.

Meglos

to Lovitz, I'd say.

Coral

After Hartman died, and knowing that Dick re-introduced Hartman's wife to cocaine - why the hell did they even bring Dick back to the show?

Andy Dick is horrible in everything I've seen him in and is very UNfunny, but his character on Newsradio and his performance of that character were great. Yet, I still would've canned his ass under the circumstances.

Michael Corvin

Pretty sure we've had this discussion before.

*edit - yep. some talk about it here.

sauce07

Andy Dick's life is a mess and he isn't a very good person. On the other hand, you can't blame him for the relapse, it was her choice to start doing coke again.

Meglos

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RocShemp

You don't offer a beer to an alchoholic. Likewise, you don't offer cocaine to a recovering drug addict.

Their relapse is as much your fault (if not more) than theirs.

sauce07

I have to disagree with you. The person offering the beer or coke is a dick, but they shouldn't be held responsible for another persons actions. Nobody is saying that Andy Dick held her down and blew coke up her nose, she willingly did it after being offered. I understand addiction is tough and sobriety is even harder, but you are always in control of your own actions.

RocShemp

Yes and no. Although personal responsibility is in play, combating addiction takes an extreme amount of self control. That's why an alchoholic cannot have the "occasional sip". You're being more than just a dick if you're knowingly offering an addict the source of their addiction. They can only resist temptation so much. And you have become an enabler.

Dragon Tattoo

Wow, Andy Dick comes off so fake in that video that I wanna punch his face in.

marginal

That's a trip. I actually saw a taping of what I've always suspected was one of Phil Hartman's last roles--a guest spot he did on Jon Lovitz's failed sitcom pilot, not long before the murder/suicide. I'd seen/interacted with Hartman before, and he was a total class act. He stayed for the whole taping, even though he was only in a small bit. Seems like they were pretty good friends.

P.S. Lovitz's pilot was, unfortunately, terrible.

Ravenous

If theres anyone I want to see DEAD more than Kathy Griffin its thats **** Andy Dick

Bill Needle

He comapres passing around cocaine to passing around vitamins. Yet he lives, and Phil Hartman is dead.

Dick Van Dork

So Dick is off the hook for knowingly being a dick and offering cocaine to someone that he knew was struggling with addiction to the drug and trying to stay clean.

No fucking way Dick gets a free pass on this.

And thanks for the info.

fujishig

He doesn't get a free pass for that, but I'm not sure you can fire a guy for something that was never proven in a court of law (to my knowledge). I am surprised that the info didn't leak out to the ever present media at the time of Hartman's death, which probably would have forced the producer's hand... if it did, I never heard of it (I only heard of it after the altercation).

arminius

Now that you mention it they are sort of like the male/female doppelgangers of each other.

sauce07

i'm not saying he deserves a free pass, he doesn't and he should feel guilty for offering drugs to an ex-addict. You just can't blame him for the murder, that was her choice no matter what drug she was on.

Navinabob

Yes, you can blame him. I'm sure many people in Hollywood,friends and family of the two that died, readers of this post and fans of Phil blame him as well. Any hate and blame is totally justified.

You can't "prosecute" him or expect to win any civil damages in court... but blame? Totally.

Jimmy James

Brynn Hartman was an absolute piece of trash, and she alone is responsible for Phil Hartman's death and all the sadness that she brought her children losing both of their parents.

Andy Dick is an asshole, and it's never okay to offer somebody cocaine. There is no way he is deserving of blame for what Brynn Hartman did, though. I also fail to see any evidence here that would suggest that Dick would have any idea of Brynn Hartman's prior cocaine history.

Finally, you have to remember that if the creators of the show weren't using cocaine themselves, they almost certainly had to know Dick and likely several others connected to the show were. This is a Hollywood production. You can't avoid that stuff out there.

Guru Askew

His drug use was well known back then and ultimately you have to assume that Hartman knew and willingly had him around his wife. The whole situation was like a perfect storm of bad decisions but to suggest that Dick is somehow responsible for their deaths is absurd. I'm surprised to see so many people agreeing with Lovitz in this thread.

Dick is just one of those people who will never catch a break when it comes to people online. I think homophobia has a big part of it but as far as I'm concerned he's demonstrated a lot more talent than Lovitz (at least if you take Lovitz's SNL years out of the equation) and I've never heard anything bad about Dick from the people he's worked with over the years, but then again what do they know? They actually know the guy.

As a matter of fact he seems to actually maintain his personal relationships pretty well in spite of his obvious drug problems. I know he's still on good terms with Dave Foley, Joe Rogan and Dino Stamatopolous and he's regularly worked with his Ben Stiller Show collaborators for going on two decades after that show aired. Hartman was obviously very close with him as well.

If I had to guess I'd say that Lovitz probably resents Dick for being more present in the last 4 years of Hartman's life than he was.

RocShemp

Andy Dick is gay? News to me.