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Randy Quaid Banned from Theater by Actors Union

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DON'T WANNA BE A PLAYER NO MORE? Quaid (Photo: Getty Images)
Dennis Quaid's B-lister bro is having the kind of year usually reserved for elder Baldwin sibs. Actors Equity Association, the stage actors' union, has banned Randy Quaid for life and fined him $81,572 after 26 of his fellow thesps griped about his inappropriate behavior.

Big Randy was working toward his first Broadway role in a production of the musical Lone Star Love last fall in Seattle. The show was basically a country and western re-working of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, and Quaid was creating the Falstaff character while his hard-charging wife, former Helmut Newton model Evi Quaid, tried to take over a number of off-stage roles.

Lone Star Love stank up the stage enough to give Broadway backers second thoughts. Apparently the Quaids were saving the drama for the other performers. New York and Seattle papers have printed full lists of the offenses Quaid committed against his fellow thespians, like slapping one actor on the back of his head mid-performance and making nasty allusions to female performers' "gynecological instruments." Quaid and his manager wife also allegedly tried to change the script, rewriting lines and cutting roles.

Not to cut the big guy too much slack, but fodder for backstage hissing really gained wider public notice when Evi Quaid marched into Actors Equity in L.A. demanding to see papers relevant to the union's case for banning her husband. Mrs. Quaid allegedly was so threatening and out of control that the union filed restraining orders against
her, and she responded in kind.

Maybe the next time Randy Quaid tackles anything Shakespeare-related he can try something more appropriate to his situation, like Macbeth.

By Steve Huff   02/11/08 3:33 PM
Related: Randy Quaid, School for Scandal
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