Steve Rannazzisi blew it. For whatever reason, the actor and comedian claimed he was at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and he survived the terrorist attacks. Unsurprisingly, his lie was finally exposed last month, leaving the masses stunned, angry and baffled as to why he would feel compelled to lie about something like that.
Rannazzisi gave his first interview since the news broke, trying to explain the situation and his thought-processes to Howard Stern.
Here are a few bits from the interview. You can read his full quotes at HowardStern.com.
It’s not like I moved to Los Angeles with this story, with the thought of, like, I’m gonna go out and trick everyone out there and tell them this is what it is — it wasn’t calculated at all — it was as simple as sitting at the Comedy Store and everyone being like, “Hey, you’re from New York?” “Yeah, yeah.” “Were you just there..?” “Yeah, yeah, I was downtown…” “You worked there?” “I did.”
You have like 15 seconds I think, to kind of go, “Wait, hold on, stop, I’m sorry, that’s not true.” And if you pass that 15 seconds, it’s sort of like, now it becomes a thing where you’re like, now I have to be the guy who’s very strange and weird and just says I lied about 9/11.
The hurt and the pain and the nervousness that you hear now comes from … because I know what I did was terrible,” Rannazzisi said. “I know that I hurt a lot of people — people that lost people, people that helped people survive. And those are the people that I am truly sorry. I feel awful.”
The apology seems very sincere and he appears to deeply regret the idiotic decision but it doesn’t make his claims any less bizarre.
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Photo: Hollywood Reporter
