First off, an apology: I absolutely mishandled yesterday’s story about Chris Kattan, Amy Heckerling and Lorne Michaels. Kattan has written a memoir, and he includes some stories about writer/director/producer Amy Heckerling from the late ‘90s. Kattan claimed that Heckerling was approached to direct A Night at the Roxbury, based on the SNL sketch. Kattan claimed that while Heckerling was in talks for it, she propositioned him sexually and he turned her down, and Lorne Michaels suggested the next day that Kattan should sleep with Heckerling so she would direct the movie. Kattan said that they later had consensual sex but he also described it as a “casting couch” situation. I mishandled the story. I’m sorry. I was trying to be vague about what I was feeling, because what I felt was that there was a lot about Kattan’s story that didn’t make sense.
Soon after Page Six published those excerpts from, Heckerling’s daughter Mollie Heckerling posted this to Twitter:
I would like the chance to weigh in on the situation regarding @ChrisKattan and my mother.
Here’s what I remember: pic.twitter.com/3D3BVrPgx7— Mollie Heckerling (@mollieschmollie) May 29, 2019
Mollie writes:
My mother was engaged to Bronson Pinchot before they started making A Night at the Roxbury. I saw no evidence of her seeing or even talking to Chris Kattan during pre-production; rather she was working vigorously with Steve Koren every day to help improve the script. My mother has never in her life threatened or tried to sabotage anything she was working on. Why would she do that? During the actual shoot, she and Chris became close and he would call the house EVERY NIGHT to talk to her for hours about how he felt he wasn’t getting the best sketches on SNL.
She and Chris started having an affair but, as far as I know, it wasn’t until shooting was well under way. Was it inappropriate considering the power dynamics? YES. But was it consensual and fully his choice to get involved with her? Also YES. My mother broke off her engagement to Bronson and started dating Chris. Chris told her that when he informed Lorne Michaels that they were seeing each other, Lorne said, “’Why would you want to date her? She’s so old.”
My mom spiraled into a massive eating disorder while dating Chris because she was insecure about their age difference, and then Chris ultimately went and cheated on her with Elisa Donovan, who played Amber in Clueless and had a part in A Night At the Roxbury.
I feel for Chris’ other struggles and certainly don’t want to delegitamize [sic] the importance of the #MeToo movement, but what Chris is saying sounds very libelous. I would be VERY interested in hearing what Lorne Michaels has to say about all of this.
As Mollie notes, Lorne Michaels hasn’t said anything yet, but a spokesperson from SNL said “This did not happen” when asked about Kattan’s account. The SNL spokesperson also said that no one from Kattan’s publisher had contacted them about Kattan’s claims before they published his memoir. My guess is that Heckerling was also not contacted.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
between this and the claim that he broke his neck during a sketch and that’s why his career fell apart, he’s made a lot of interesting claims lately. and that’s all I have to say about that.
yep. i’m weary of hearing more stories from him.
Exactly this.
I remember him from the earlier seasons of the Middle. He was listed as a regular and then they quietly wrote him out.
Yes I remember when he was voted off DWTS and then he claimed his whole body was held together by rods and screws or something, as an excuse for his piss-poor performances. Why wouldn’t you say that from the get-go? He’s a sad little man.
What happened to fact checking?
Co-sign.
Publishers don’t fact check memoirs. They do a legal read to assess their own legal liability in printing whatever it is and if their lawyers say they aren’t exposed they print it. I think there’s a standard line in memoir contracts that the author signs that says something like this is your recollection and if anyone challenges it it’s your problem kind of thing. At any rate this is basically he said-she said (with a side of her daughter said and also maybe Lorne Michaels said) and, legally would be tough and very expensive to try to prove one version is correct over the other or that Amy endured some great harm because of a random (old) rumor that everyone will forget about in a day and a half.
Do we say that if a woman makes similar claims?
No
Also we’d pounce on a defender
Exactly this!
Wow that is a lot of random names I did not expect to be in a love rectangle.
This! Interesting.
Yeah, Bronson Pinchot? He played Balki, right?
Oh yeah. My mind is blown. Bronson Pinchot?!?!?!? Guy from Perfect Strangers?
Not only THAT, but Cher Horowitz attends Bronson Alcott High School — as in “Bronson Alcott Pinchot.” They were super serious!!
Is something up with Amy Heckerling that her daughter is the one to speak up for her? I just googled her and she is still living.
It seems weird that he would make stories up about living people that could be so easily refuted but I don’t know a thing about him. Not sure that anyone was clamoring for his memoir, either
Amy doesn’t seem to use social media much (she has a Twitter she last posted to in February). that’s probably why her daughter spoke out for her, or maybe Amy doesn’t want to address it herself but is fine with her daughter talking about it.
“It seems weird he would make up stories that could easily be refuted.” I don’t know about that…seems like lying and making up sh*t is the new normal these days.
But who knows, I hope the truth comes out.
@esmom i think you replied to the wrong comment – i didn’t say that, @manda did.
@esmom–but he’s not a politician. Look at what happened to Moby. This is Chris Katan, he has no cachet
I tend to believe this is his recollection. And the daughter saying it didn’t happen is a bit ridiculous; I have a son and he doesn’t know what I do every hour of the day.
“Is something up with Amy Heckerling that her daughter is the one to speak up for her? I just googled her and she is still living.”
I too thought she must be dead. Though, my mom is alive and if someone accused my mom of something that I didn’t think she did, I would probably get mouthy too. (Though I am not a celebrity, neither is my mom and “PR” and how things appear would NOT be a concern for me)
I worked on Clueless and can absolutely confirm the Kattan/Elisa Donovan hook up. It was all anyone talked about and it created huge tensions.
I thought the first story was written perfectly fine and I thought the rebuttal would be along the same lines. Classic he said, she said.
I dont know everything about this story so I would be interested in hearing what Lorne Michaels and Amy Heckerling have to say. And if other people come forward.
Man that is a lot of 90s era names I was not expecting to see.
right?? i haven’t heard of elisa donovan in a LONG time
I mean, would the daughter truly know everything that happened? She’s speaking from her experience, but she isn’t one of the main characters in play. I don’t know if we’ll ever truly know what happened.
I had the exact same thoughts. I’m sure her daughter was aware of some of what was going on, but I have a hard time believing a daughter would know all the details of her mother’s sex life.
That’s what I’m thinking. If the mother did some thing as awful as use the casting couch on someone, I doubt she told her daughter.
Also, just because they had a relationship, does not mean it did not start off in an inappropriate way, or that Lorn Michaels didn’t push that to happen.
However, like movie, I do think it’s important for the editor/publisher of a memoir to reach out to the other people involved to get their take on it, unless were talking about a crime like assault.
That was supposed to say like Moby, not movie.
I didn’t read all this. I don’t believe I need to.
A daughter is not an authority on a mother’s sexuality, career, or inner thoughts.
We have plenty examples of children who were unaware of what their parents were up to.
Exactly @DS9. 100%
I was disappointed with the take in yesterday’s story, i’m glad it’s been corrected.
Like I said then, even if it turns out he is lying, if he were a woman there would be a resounding call to believe him. I’m choosing to believe him for now. Amy’s daughter’s defence to me reads the same as Lena Dunham’s and Jenni konner’s, her POV is biased and she cannot possibly know the details of the event he was referring to, she event admits so herself when she says she “wonders what Lorne Michaels has to say…”
I read it more that the daughter was speaking for her mother than about her. I assumed the daughter got Amy’s blessing to refute Kattan’s claims publicly and that Amy helped her write her twitter post.
Btw- Although I don’t have the relationship Amy has with her mom, who is to say that Amy didn’t tell her daughter everything?. I understand and support the metoo movement but the “i believe every victim matter what” is problematic IMO. Its just as problematic as never believing a victim.
@ds9 exactly, my father had several affairs and apparently it was a huge issue between my parents and the eventual demise of their relationship. I knew NOTHING of any of it or the real reason for the divorce until I was an adult.
My entire vision of my father changed. It became difficult for me to reconcile that my loving father, who was a respected physician would not only repeatedly cheat, but also slept with patients.
If someone came to me pre age 25 and said my father abused them I would have never believed it. Today at 40, I would assume it to be true. Even after getting details after his death on everything it took me years to accept it and process it.
I NEVER take childrens defense of their parents seriously in these sort of situations. Trust me, people who do this don’t expose the behavior at home. Not to mention that even with facts, proof and numerous witnesses to my own fathers misdeeds it took me several years to adjust especially since my mother kept it all locked down until he died so the relationship wouldn’t be harmed.
I’m not sure why her daughters account is supposed to mean anything? She would have been 12 or 13 when this happened. It’s not like her mother was going to come home and announce to her barely teenage daughter that she got Loren Michaels to pressure a guy to sleep with her. Kattan’s account included the fact they began sleeping together, so she’s really just confirming that part did happen.
Unless she was literally glued to her mothers side for months how would she know if her mother met or talked to Kattan during pre-production? Again, she was school age when this happened. It’s not like she was working with her mother and privy to all her meetings and her schedule. As for wondering what Loren Michaels has to say, he’s hardly going to admit it if he did pressure Kattan.
Why is her daughter responding at all? I thought Heckerling must have passed recently or is seriously ill or something, but nope, she’s alive and well and still working. Weird that her daughter would take it upon herself to issue a statement.
I’d also mention that Amy lied to Mollie for decades about who her father was, so it’s odd to me that she’s so sure her mother couldn’t have deceived her about this when at the time she was letting her believe the wrong man was her father.
Yeah children don’t know everything their parents do sexually. Also she validated many important points including the affair, Lorne Michaels butting in regarding the relationship.
I don’t know, but I think it’s manipulative statement meant to gain blind support from other women. How do you turn the person of power into a “Me Too” victim who was pushed into buzzwords eating disorder and age insecurity. Hmm, her Mom cheated on her own partner at the time to get with this younger man. And she called the shots on the film.
his name is Lorne, not Loren.
Autocorrect
Really Olive?!? No disrespect, but did that nit-picky comment even need to be made?
You know who is not an expert on an individual’s sex life? Their kid. A daughter that was lied to about who her biological father actually was by her mom for decades. She acts like she totally would have noticed it as a 12 year old at the time.
Amy Heckerling is 20 years Chris Kattan’s senior, and he was not a big deal outside of SNL at the time. That’s a BIG power imbalance that she just dismisses with a wave.
Exactly! Thank you for saying everything I wanted to say but better.
Amy Heckerling is a woman who lied to her daughter Mollie for years and years about who her dad was. Lying about something so huge says a lot about her, Amy’s word is pretty meaningless imo.
There was a secondary story to this yesterday where Kattan said that after making the movie Will Farrell wouldn’t return his calls and when they showed up the next season Farrell flat out told Kattan that he didn’t want to be friends anymore.
Kattan said Farrell felt betrayed by Kattan’s action of banging a would be director on service of their movie.
That made zero sense to me.
It just shows that Will Farrell is apparently an ethical guy who no longer wanted to be friends with someone who had sex with the director for a film. I would feel the same way.
It makes sense if he started sleeping with her after the movie started filming (and not because he was being coerced). If it’s also true that he was complaining to her about his SNL experiences, I can see why Will would be irked and think this was unprofessional.
It’s very possible that what she saw as a consensual affair felt very different to him. The boss/employee power dynamic was always there.
If anyone hasn’t listened to the episode of This American Life where they discuss Dan Harmon’s harassment of one of his writers, you need to. It’s a very eye opening account of the same basic story from two point of views: his and hers. Harmon believed he was in love with her. She didn’t reciprocate, so he lashed out and tried to punish her. He was her boss.
Jus the because the person in power doesn’t recognize the power difference doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Why do we care what Lorne Michaels thinks?
Is that supposed to change my mind?
So is Mollie playing the role of Amy’s mouthpiece? Because she would have been 12-14 years old when all of this was happening. There is no way that she knew about all of this. Pretty cowardly of Amy to use her own daughter to make a statement instead of just doing it herself.
Agreed. The daughter doesn’t know everything.
Damn. We could almost set our yearly clocks. As soon as B and/or C celebrities are into middle age, out comes the desperation. Anything at all to elevate the relevance.
Because your daughter is an unbiased spokesperson and would in no way try to dissuade ppl from believing your accusers story? Like to point out Chris didn’t flat out even accuse Amy of being a “predator” but presented his side of the story which is he was asked to sleep with this woman so she would be more committed to directing their movie, woman then asked if he wanted to have sex with her and eventually when he was single shortly there after ended up sleeping with her at work. No matter if Amy’s daughter doesn’t see this as an abuse of power IT WAS!!!! If Amy was a man and Chris a woman sooo many ppl would be canceling Amy…she might not think she was pulling a Harvey Weinstein but she was. Don’t sleep with people who work for you in any profession, it’s an abuse of power and unethical and gross on all sides. I said it yesterday I BELIEVE HIM.
Does anyone remember when Amy Heckerling “Woody Allened ” herself with that film “I Could Never Be Your Woman”? It is actually this story nearly exactly. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a middle-aged single mother (of a teenage girl) and showrunner of a teen sitcom a la the Clueless TV show and she falls in love with a cast member who is decades younger than her, played by Paul Rudd (who is like 38 playing 25, which is part of the joke, that the kids on the Clueless show were not played by kids.) The film is biographical. I don’t think it was about Kattan but another relationship. She highly romanticizes the relationship between the two leads. There are some work issues but mostly it’s about a sort of Michelle Pfeiffer Gets Her Groove Back.
The year that it was out, nobody would have cried foul at the power dynamics. This year, they 100% would. It’s very possible Heckerling, likely a repeat offender of this kind of relationship, viewed it one way and Kattan another-and Heckerling never actually saw the issue because she’s a woman and feels herself someone who struggles with power dynamics. Kattan was nearly 30 and was probably coming off as a supremely confident and charming comedian, who she viewed as famous. But it IS an issue. She was his boss.
I’m assuming Heckerling is not going to comment because she thinks if she doesn’t give it the time, it won’t come to anything. I bet that nobody thought this memoir was going to blow up in the media the way it did.
People don’t want to believe this guy because he is just unliked by people who work with him. Sounds like he fell into a pill addiction, because of the neck injury or not, or maybe a and hurt a lot of people and maybe he was a jerk before, maybe he only become one after. But I’m inclined to believe his story because you should give victims the benefit of the doubt and shot to tell their story.
People are always going to side eye him because of his past behavior, which kind of sucks, and people are always going to wonder why he came forward in his memoir-was it a chance to finally tell his truth? Or does he want to slander someone else, a female director, because he’s bitter about his career and he wants to make some money and put himself back in the spotlight? Basically the same things the Weinstein actresses had to deal with. Rose McGowan and Asia Argento were ALSO “problematic victims.”
McGowan and Argento were “problematic” because McGowan is a transphobe, aka she set herself up (very explicitly) as a crusader of women and then denied the existence of a whole swathe of them, while Argento also turned out to be an abuser. I don’t think, in any rational circles, that made anyone discount their claim to being raped. It just meant whatever prominence they had in the #MeToo movement was quickly de-legitimized. Other victims claiming “they don’t speak for us” does not mean overall disbelief.
Kattan isn’t claiming he was raped. He’s claiming coercion, and really, the person who coerced him (according to his story) is Lorne Michaels. I’m really confused as to why this has become a Heckerling story. Not that I think she or any other women is exempt from predatory behavior… but she WASN’T his boss, in fact the whole point of sleeping her was to get her into the director’s chair. (A producer is not an actor’s boss.) And Lorne was the one who, allegedly, made it clear the movie wouldn’t get made (which would reflect on him at the time, not Heckerling) if Kattan didn’t do whatever it took, and he SHOULD do whatever it took, including sleeping with Heckerling.
So: consensual sex (in his own words) with a woman in order to make his then-boss happy. It’s gross, and I don’t think the story reflects well on Heckerling, but I have no idea why people are focusing on her and not the person who was signing Kattan’s paychecks who made the trade-off (“make her happy enough to sign onto this project, or your career suffers”) clear to him.
I would not at all equate it to the level of rape, but I am saying that McGowan and Argento are problematic victims in that they are not perfect (or even objectively “good”) people but they were victimized. Argento was a victim of sexual assault and domestic violence by Weinstein, since she herself claims to have actually had a romantic and consensual relationship with him (at times.) They themselves have victimized others. By all accounts, Kattan is not well-liked and has behaved badly and was in a situation where he was technically victimized. Not as severe, but shades of grey.
Weinstein was also a producer and not a director-would you not call him the “boss” of the actresses he victimized? Was it a direct boss-employee relationship? No. But was she above him in terms of hierarchy? Yes. Was the power scale tipped in her favor? Yes. It was wrong-but I don’t know if I would put it as a crime on her part. Unethical certainly. She clearly didn’t see it in those terms. Had the relationship “worked out”, we wouldn’t be hearing this complaint now. But it didn’t. We can only take him at his word that it unsettled him and made him uncomfortable, however consensual it was.
I agree with everything you said, up until the Asia Argento part. She is an abuser.
hence why she is problematic-she is both a victim and an abuser. I am a huge Anthony Bourdain fan-she wad not the cause of of his suicide but by all accounts, she emotionally abused him. And she victimized both a) an employee and b) a child. But she was victimized by Weinstein as well.
Wow, great point. I wonder if Heckerling had a crush on Rudd himself and wrote herself into the story. It certainly speaks to fantasizing about getting with young cast members.
Well, no one wants to think the worst of their mother. I can see why she’s defending her and I don’t really blame her for that, but she couldn’t possibly know everything that happened either. If a casting couch situation did happen, would a mom really tell their daughter about it? Do a lot of kids know about their mom’s sex lives anyway? I don’t really think so, not even in this day and age of the Kardashians.
VERY here for a Lorne Michaels reckoning. Anyone who has had to deal with him knows how much he has hurt equality, safety, and kindness in his area of influence.
Think about this: you’ve never heard a POC alumnus of SNL spill on all the wonderful things he has done for them. Just saying.
Everytime I see Chris Kattan the song “What is Love, Baby Don’t Hurt Me” plays in my brain. I even do that head bobbing thing. So when I read he had a falling out with Will, I can imagine that freeway argument scene in Night at the Roxbury. Sorry, I can’t help it.
Unless he gives a more direct and detailed testimony of the pressure and coercion he suffered, imho, this guy is milking the #metoo.
Notice the way it is all indirect?
If she had done the full bossy dominatrix Weinstein-style on him = direct coercion, he would have written that book ages ago, trust me.
But except a stupid, one-off bro remark by LM to spin the yarn of victimhood and flesh out that PR with a splashy quote, there is nothing more serious than “i maybe should not sleep with my boss”.
As for putting a strain on his life and relationship, dude, you were kind of cheating on the other lady then, no? Must be stressful, I agree.
And if the “perpetrator” starts an ED after a breakup and never retaliates in any way against Chris Kattan … not sure I am seeing an abuser here, just a woman who should not have gotten involved with that dude.
I have so many thoughts about Lorne Michaels and his shady behavior but I’ll save it. I think it’s important for people to remember that SNL is not The Goal for most comedians, it’s a a giant springboard to a good career. Chris Kattan would have been very very aware of this and cautious about pissing off industry people especially Lorne Michaels. Amy Heckerling was just coming off the huge success of Clueless as well.
If this had happened with a female SNL cast member like Tina Fey or someone we’d all be up in arms. You don’t have to like Chris Kattan or his work to believe him,
If we have to believe women, then we have to believe men. What her daughter says has no bearing on what he says occurred.
No longer watching”Clueless”. I stand with Chris.
He said they had consensual sex and Lorne was the one who pressured him. I don’t see any reason to cancel her at all, even if she wasn’t mindful of the power imbalance at the time.
This cancel culture is way too extreme for me.
I’d only cancel if it turns out she threatened to back out of the project because he didn’t initially sleep with her.
Depending on context, I’m inclined to leave old projects be and be more mindful of what I support going forward.
I’ll keep watching clueless. I think it has value for today’s teens and it’s a great contemporary take on Austen.
But do I need to support future projects?
Also, there are always more people who stand to lose when you boycott an old project. Should Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd lose a revenue stream (if they get one) because of this?
But a new project is a fresh opportunity for those involved to make a moral judgement and I don’t mind deciding that they’ve made their choice and I’m making mine.
Good point.
I was a nanny for Mollies dad at this time period. I often would have Mollie with me and be at the Heckerling home dropping off or picking up Mollie. I witnessed the Pinchot relationship and subsequently Kattan at the home not looking or acting at all as if he was be pressured in any way. This was a disgraceful cash grab on his part to include a very liberally edited version of his truth to make it more salacious to sell books. He should be ashamed!
@subsequently Kattan at the home not looking or acting at all as if he was be pressured in any way
Anjelica Huston has always said that Polanski”s victim seemed fine too so politely piss off with this gross misunderstanding of how power and influence can work.
Your story is meaningless to the conversation one way or the other.
DS9 calm down and don t mix apples and oranges.
Circumstances are totally different.
Polanski’s victim was 13, under drugs, events happened in less than a day.
You re fantasizing about R. Kelly levels of control here … I would surprised the lady in question has been running in secret a sex cult abusing Hollywood s leading men for the last 40y
Even Weinstein with all his clout, anger and money could not control his victims the way you think it could have happened between Heckerling and Kattan, so, take a chill pill.
I never said these comparisons are on equal footing or involve the same level.
I’m saying “he seemed fine to me, the casual observer” is not a reliable defense against undue or unseen pressure. Kattan may not have even seen it as predatory at the time.
The nanny’s observations are proof of nothing one way or the other and treating it as anything significant furthers the narrative that people in similar circumstances need to react in certain ways to be believed.
I agree with you. I have worked with many survivors who still contact their abusers (physical/sexual/emotional) after everything has happened. It makes for a very difficult court case when you have jurors believing that if they were true victims, they would act a certain way, the way Anastasia and babco seem to believe. Control does not always look the way people think it does, many times the victims themselves are in charge of their own controlling after the perpetrator has manipulated them.
Just here to say the “they seemed so happy” line is often at the start of the Dateline 20/20 murder mystery episodes…
IDK if I believe Mollie Heckerling or not. As others have said, she would have been 12 or 13 so how would she know what was going on with her mother’s sex life?
I don’t know who did what to who but one thing I can say with certainty, how would her daughter know what she did with or to this guy in private? Sorry, but she needs to stand down.
What I can’t get over is that any publisher would greenlight The Chris Kattan Story. Seriously.
I don’t know why I thought Amy Heckerling was dead? Will she herself speak out?
I’m just disappointed it’s not called Mango: The Chris Kattan Story or Mr Peepers: The Chris Kattan Story.
At the time, Chris Kattan would have been essential to the Roxbury movie, as he originated the role/concept from SNL. I’d speculate that Amy could have been replaced whereas without Chris, it wouldn’t have been the same. In projects like this, there’s not always a cut-and-dried hierarchy, it’s more of a power team with constantly shifting dynamics. Amy and Chris were probably seen as unequal in terms of public perception (audiences would be baffled by a Roxbury movie w/o him), and unequal in the day-to-day of Hollywood (Amy was a tried and true A list director, Chris wasn’t A list despite having huge SNL heat). Amy could have turned the movie down and survived; but the movie would have found another director too… at some point.
Authority and power are not cut and dried in the industry… that’s why predation and abuse happens so so so much. Directors can’t always get actors hired/fired and vice versa.