Well, we all know Fred Willard is something of an unconventional comic man. But his last mishap, got him fired from PBS after cops arrested him for lewd conduct.
PBS should have seen this coming. For the love of God, the man owns a porn theater in Hollywood at 72 years. Wednesday night, Fred Willard was arrested by vice cops for lewd conduct. Basically the cops caught the 72-year-old actor pants-down, holding his exposed genitals in a hand.
Fred Willard was arrested by undercover officers, who according to manager Kazi Jafor they often patrol Tiki Theater and bust up to 20 people. Kazi Jafor told E!News, with cops patrolling the theater even four times a day, the “business has gone down”. “Customers do not come. They are too nervous to come here” said the manager.
As soon as PBS got news of Fred Willard’s latest blunder, they fired him. The 72-year-old comedian was working at PBS as the narrator for “Market Warriors”. It looks like the actor’s attempt to minimize the arrest didn’t work out for PBS management. He said it was a “big misunderstanding” and added it actually “didn’t happen”. Eventually he argued he and the cops were having “a difference of opinion” about what actually went on.
But Willard argues the cops had no grounds to arrest him, given that he wasn’t in fact violating any laws. Paul Takakjian, the actor’s lawyer, said: “With all due respect to the individual officer, our belief (is) that Fred did nothing in any violation of any law”.
Unfortunately for Fred Willard, California is pretty strict when it comes to lewd acts. Although he was arrested under the suspicion of public masturbation, California State is clear about that. It’s illegal to masturbate in any public place, and Tiki Theather is just that. It is all the most hard to argue against when you’re doing that near people who “might be offended”.
Still, Fred Willard could easily explain in court the theater was almost empty. Except the 72-year-old actor, there were another four viewers in the theater, doing most likely the same thing Willard was doing. And chances are they wouldn’t have felt offended by the actor’s “lewd act”.
