‘The League’ Star Admits To Lying About 9/11 Survival Story
Steve Rannazzisi star of FXX’s ‘The League’ seemed to have moved everyone with his harrowing tale of survivial and inspiration during the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. If you’ve never heard his story this is it in a nutshell, Rannazzisi was working for popular investment firm Merrill Lynch as an account manager at the time. When the first plane hit the North Tower Rannazzisi said after a bit of chaos, he managed to escape the horrific scene. After surviving the attacks he had an epiphany, that life was too short to be working a job you hate and decided to follow his dream of becoming a comedian and actor in Hollywood. So Rannazzisi and his wife packed up and moved to Los Angles shortly after the attacks. Things picked up fairly quickly for Rannazzisi, he started a successful stand-up and was eventually cast in FXX’s comedy ‘The League’ as one of the shows leads. It would be hard not to give some credit to the frightening ordeal he endured in Manhattan on Sept.11. Over the past almost decade in a half, Rannazzisi has given interview after interview retelling his story. No doubt some casting agents knew who he was and wanted to give this brave guy a shot. Unfortuantely those casting agents and everyone else was duped. Turns out Steve’s story was entirely false, he admitted to The New York Times that he made the whole thing up. Although Rannazzisi was in fact in New York, he wasn’t in Manhattan during the attack, he was in Midtown. He provided the following statement through his publicist:
“As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough. After I moved with my wife to Los Angeles from New York City in 2001 shortly after 9/11, I told people that I was in one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. It wasn’t true. I was in Manhattan but working in a building in midtown and I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry. For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man. It only made me more ashamed. How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn’t come clean about this? It is to the victims of 9/11 and to the people that love them–and the people that love me–that I ask for forgiveness.”
Apparently, not all are so forgiving, although we haven’t heard anything from FXX or Comedy Central who planned on premiering Rannazzisi’s new show ‘Breaking Dad’ on September 18, he might be getting fired from his other gig. Buffalo Wild Wings recently launched an ad campaign featuring Rannazzisi, but after his confession it seems they might be having second thoughts the resteraunt chain released this statement:
“We are disappointed to learn of Steve’s misrepresentations regarding the events of September 11, 2001. We are currently re-evaluating our relationship with Steve pending a review of all the facts.”
Well it looks like it sucks to be Steve Rannazzisi, but he can only blame himself. I do give him credit for coming clean but now it may have been too little too late.
[Source: Yahoo!]