Cousin Eddie Sued by Actors' Union

Armchair_QB · Feb 8, 2008

WTF is up with Randy Quaid?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02062008/entertainment/theater/union_bans__fines_quaid_779144.htm?page=0

February 6, 2008 -- WHEN last we checked in with Randy Quaid and his charming wife, Evi, they were wreaking havoc at the Broadway-bound musical "Lone Star Love."

Evi was trashing the producers and rewriting the script. Randy was fiddling around with his blocking, showing off his enormous codpiece and experimenting with the color of his hair (he eventually settled on magenta).

The Quaids' antics were too much for the producers of the $6.5 million musical, so they closed the show in Seattle, bitterly complaining the couple had "hijacked" the production.

But the story doesn't end there.

All 26 members of the "Lone Star Love" cast brought Randy up on charges with Actors' Equity Association, claiming he physically and verbally abused his fellow performers and that his oddball behavior onstage and off forced the show to close, thus depriving them of their jobs.

On Friday, Equity handed down its decision. According to documents obtained exclusively by The Post, the union has banned Randy for life - life! - and fined him $81,572.

The fine amounts to two weeks pay for the cast of the show.

Quaid resigned from the union before the Jan. 25 hearing. But sources say he's still liable for the fine since he was a member of the union during the show's run.

A source close to the Quaids said they will appeal Equity's decision. "These are ludicrous charges and this is a kangaroo court," the source said.

Randy didn't show up for the hearing, which was held in Los Angeles. But his wife did and, according to a report on TMZ last week, berated several Equity staff members, including a 76-year-old receptionist whom she allegedly kicked in the shins, "drawing blood."

Equity reportedly took out a restraining order against her.

Evi, in turn, says staffers broke her finger, and she has requested a restraining order against them.

During the 61/2-hour hearing, Evi repeatedly screamed that the allegations against her husband were part of a "Nazi plot," according to a source who attended the meeting.

When Randy resigned from the union, he told some of the actors they were part of a "pinko-commie organization" that was out to get him, sources say.

A week before the hearing, Evi e-mailed several actors, threatening to sue them unless they dropped the charges against her husband.

"You have one last chance to stop this onerous campaign or else you will be drawn into a legal quagmire," she wrote.

"I don't even bother opening their e-mails anymore," says a "Lone Star Love" cast member. "I just send all their filth on to Equity. They are out of their minds."

The "War and Peace"-size complaint was assembled by the entire cast of "Lone Star Love" and included the following allegations:

Quaid hit an actor on the back of the head four times during performances. When the stage manager told him to stop, he smacked the actor again.

Another actor was warned that if he made direct eye contact with Quaid onstage, he'd be fired.

Quaid made "sexually inappropriate" comments onstage, repeatedly referring to an actress' musical instruments as her "gynecological instruments."

The couple tried to rewrite the script, to eliminate characters.

Randy "felt free" to change blocking, lyrics and lines during performances, and repeatedly failed to show up for note sessions and rehearsals.

Mark L. Block, a lawyer for the Quaids, responded yesterday, "Randy is not even a member of this union, however we respectfully requested due process."

Block said that Evi attended the hearing but "was refused entry and attacked and injured in the process. Evi asked for a restraining order against them."

Block added, "There is no basis in fact, law or under Actors' Equity rules for the imposition of a monetary fine. . . . Actors' Equity has violated its own rules in the conduct of these proceedings, and has denied Randy Quaid his rights to due process and a fair hearing."
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Cousin Eddie Sued by Actors' Union

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

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Cousin Eddie Sued by Actors' Union

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