Date: 12/06/99

Usually about a month or so before a major studio film or a good size independent feature is released into the theaters, the studio or distributor will hold a press junket for the film. Journalists from all over North America are flown into Los Angeles, New York, or wherever the junket is being held, shown the movie, put up in a hotel and given access to the cast and key crew of the film for brief interviews. It is a standard Hollywood practice that has gone on for decades, and shows no sign of becoming extinct.

This past weekend, Universal Pictures held a press junket for their upcoming film, Man On The Moon. In the film, Jim Carrey stars as the controversial comedian Andy Kaufman. Most audiences will remember Kaufman from having played the character Latka on the hit television series Taxi. Though, before Kaufman passed away from lung cancer in 1985, the performer, who never considered himself a comic or an actor, was also known for playing a sleazy Las Vegas lounge singer named Tony Clifton.

If Kaufman aggravated a few of his audiences with his crazy antics, Clifton was known for upsetting everyone he came into contact with, onstage or off. Always wearing his signature pink tuxedo, blue ruffled shirt, dark aviator glasses, and a thick wig of unkempt black hair, Clifton was a foul-mouthed performer who was not shy to hide his drunken, misogynistic and antagonistic personality. Nor was he shy in stating his dislike of Kaufman. Yet, over the past 14 years, Clifton hasn't been seen much, save for a performance at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles on the anniversary of Kaufman's death.

Instead of doing roundtable interviews with eight journalists at a time to promote the film, as is standard, Carrey decided to hold a press conference during this past weekend's junket at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. As the journalists gathered in the assigned ballroom, there where whispers about whether Carrey would show up as himself, as Kaufman, or as Clifton. After all, he had stayed in character as Kaufman throughout the four months that Man On The Moon was shot. As well, there was some talk as to whether Carrey would try and pull some wacky stunt once the press conference had begun.

When Carrey showed up ten minutes late, as himself, a silent sigh of relief was breathed by nearly seventy plus journalists who had set up their microcassette recorders on the table in front of the actor. For the first five minutes, Carrey answered the standard questions that all actors are asked about their movies, their characters and their careers. Then, just as a journalist in the back of the room asked whether Carrey thought audiences today would understand Kaufman's humor, the back doors to the ballroom flew open and a flurry of activity had everyone turning their heads to see what the commotion was all about.

A wave of muttering and whispers raced through the room as a heavyset man in a pink tuxedo and blue ruffle shirt barreled his way into the room. His thick black hair, moustache and dark glasses left no doubt that it was indeed Tony Clifton, and true to his nature, he had shown up to cause trouble.

"Hey, how y'all doin'?" Clifton shouted.

A quick look to the front of the room and the expression on Carrey's face was one of uneasiness. "Oh G-d," he muttered.

"How y'all doin? Good?!," Clifton repeated as he made his way toward the front of the room with a bleached blond woman at his side handing out a press release.

"There's no f--king way, man," Carrey looked to a Universal publicist for guidance.

But Clifton had stopped halfway into the room. "I'll tell you ladies and gentleman. I'm Tony Clifton, the star of this motion picture," he said as there were some hesitant applause and laughter from the journalists and a sigh from Carrey. "And since I was not invited to this a what do ya' call it--press junket. The main purpose is it's a bunch of junk to me."

"Really?" Carrey responded in a mumble from the front of the room.

"That's what it is, a bunch of junk to me my friend. Because they tried to keep me out of here--the people at Universal. And I know why, because the gentleman who is sitting up here, who has a lot of power, he doesn't want me here," Clifton motioned to Carrey from the middle of the room. "And his name, I'm going to point him out, his name is Drew Carrey." This had even the most serious journalists laughing. "He's sitting right there. He's sitting right there ladies and gentleman! And why does he not want me? I'll tell you why!

"First of all, let me just say that I worked very hard on this character. Okay, I worked very hard on this character," Carrey, who appeared baffled and upset was finally able to break in. "You know this is a guy who. . . he was very jealous, he was very envious of Andy. Andy tried to help him." By now Clifton had made it to the front of the room and stood next to Carrey, who turned to him and said, "I don't understand why you're so. . ."

"Well, I'll tell you what," Clifton interrupted. "He's in shock. He didn't know this was going to happen. He's trying to figure this out right now. And he's not doing a very good job at it."

Carrey obviously wanted to put an end to Clifton's antics though all he could get in was, "Um. . ."

"Hey let me talk. Let me talk," Clifton continued. "This is the bottom line."

When the Universal publicist handed Clifton a microphone, Carrey turned and started to ask, "Is this supposed to be. . ."

Though Clifton cut Carrey off again as he tested the microphone. "Hello can you hear me?" He asked the journalists in a shout before turning and pointing to Carrey. "Here's the thing, Ladies and Gentlemen. He did not want me here for one reason and one reason alone. It's called the Oscar. How many people have seen the movie? How many people have seen the movie? Raise your hand!" A room full of journalists, now in shock, was slow to respond. "It is so obvious that I drove his ass off that screen and that is why he does not want me here today."

"The Oscar isn't everything. The Oscar isn't everything. . ." Carrey tried to break in.

"Don't tell me you don't want that Oscar," Clifton yelled accusingly. "You got Oscar wannabe written all over your face.

"Oh come on," Carrey exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah it's true," Clifton was relentless. "You got Oscar wannabe written all over that face."

But Carrey wasn't going to take it anymore. "You're desperate," he shot back.

"What?" Clifton stumbled.

"You're desperate!" Carrey retorted again.

"Don't get me started, man," Clifton tried to recover as the two began speaking over one another.

"And you're a drunk."

"What do you mean I'm drunk?" asked Clifton.

"What are you sniffing Pam now? What's that for?" Carrey tried to lighten the mood by joking about an aerosol can Clifton carried in his hand.

"Okay now, I'll tell you this," Clifton regained the attention in the room. "I came here to appeal to you people. I don't care about Universal. They're going to back this guy. They're going to back him for the Oscar," he said referring to Carrey. "I'm asking you to go to the American public, you ask them to do the constitutional right. Here's what I want you ask those people do."

"I think my track record speaks for itself," Carrey laughed.

"Here you hold this," Clifton handed the microphone back to the publicist. He began to shake the aerosol can and turned to the wall behind him. "Here's what I want you to do. When you see this sign. . ."

Then to the shock of everyone in the ballroom of the four star hotel, Clifton began to spray paint the words "Man On Th. . ."

"Mandingo?!" Carrey exclaimed trying to read the lettering.

Frustrated with the can of spray paint, Clifton gave up and turned back to the journalists. "When you see that sign that says Man On The Moon I'm asking for the people out there if they see this on a bus, if they see this on a poster, any place they see it. . .

"I think you've been standing to close to the fumes," Carrey finally got his chance to interrupt.

But Clifton turned on the actor, pointing the paint can in his direction. "I will spray you my friend. I will spray if you keep up!" he yelled.

"Oh yeah?" Carrey asked sarcastically as he shoved Clifton.

Clifton was stunned, but tried not to become flustered. "I will spray you if you . . ."

"You think so?" This time Carrey slapped his nemesis and that is when fists started flying. Although with Clifton's pudgy size, it was only one or two punches before both he and Carrey were trying to put each other in a headlock. As Clifton lunged at Carrey, who was now standing, both fell over onto the table crushing a few tape recorders, and sending others to the floor.

Universal publicists ran to break up the physical confrontation, as did Clifton's bimbo. "You stop it. Don't you hurt my friend," she screamed in a high pitch squeal as she pounded on Carrey's back.

With all the commotion, Clifton was able to get away from the actor. "It's called Man On The Moon. Ha, Tony On The Moon is what you want," Clifton said. Carrey, infuriated, now stood over the press table trying to control his anger. However, this lasted barely a second before he swiped the remaining cassette recorders off the table in a rage and stormed out of the ballroom. "He won't listen. Where's that book? Did you hand out these press releases?" Clifton motioned toward his female acquaintance before returning to shout at the journalists. "I'll tell you something else. He doesn't want to hear this. But I'll tell you something else right now. There's a book out there now written by this a--hole Zmuda. Okay, he's telling lies about me. And here's what I think of his book."

Clifton quickly ripped a few of the hardcover books' pages out before Carrey stormed back into the room with a full pitcher of iced tea. "You want to see comedy?" he yelled with a devilish grin on his face as he trotted toward the conference's interloper. Clifton barely had a chance to backpedal before Carrey had dumped the entire pitcher over his head. "That's comedy!" Carrey once again headed for the exit.

"I bet you don't think I'm funny no more," Clifton shouted to an audience that seemed as bewildered as he did. By now, many journalists had ventured to the front of the room in an attempt to retrieve their tape recorders. Though they quickly retreated when they saw Clifton turn toward them with his genitalia, or at least a rubber replication of it, hanging out of his pants and grasped firmly in his hand. He returned to Bob Zmuda's book and began "urinating on it. "Here's what I think of his f--king book."

When he was finally finished, Clifton zipped up his fly and waved to the stunned journalists. "Okay, I did my dirt. I just want to say folks; it's been a pleasure talkin' to you. Vote for me for Oscar. And I just want to say, if I've made one person happy, it's all been worth it. Thank you. Goodnight."

Clifton headed for the back door of the ballroom before remembering the woman he came in with. "Come on darlin', let's go." And with that, he was gone, leaving a room full of journalists in need of quotes from the star of Man On The Moon.

Most of the journalists hung around the ballroom hoping that Carrey would eventually return. Meanwhile, the publicists from Universal, all of whom claimed they had no idea Clifton was going to appear, told everyone to stay put. For the next half-hour, journalists gathered in small clumps around the room talking about what they had just witnessed. Some had claimed to see Carrey motion to Clifton's girlfriend to prompt her to begin handing out the press releases. Others thought it wasn't staged at all.

Every once in a while, a report would filter through the room that Carrey was returning to continue the press conference, however, after more than a half-hour without an official report from Universal, the journalists began to get restless. Some wanted to stage a protest, while the more seasoned press claimed they would not attend the roundtable interviews with Milos Forman, Danny DeVito and Courtney Love, choosing to forego writing a piece on the film should Carrey not return.

Bob Zmuda, Kaufman's longtime writing partner was unofficially credited with having pulled the prank. When asked about the incident later, Michael Shamberg, one of the producers of Man On The Moon commented, "We're sorry, but it's Bob's last hurrah. I think the spotlight will be off of Bob forever after this and I think his juices just get flowing. Jim was genuinely surprised and upset."

All Zmuda had to say about such allegations was, "Is this real or not real? That's always the Kaufmanesque question."

George Shapiro, who had put up with years of Kaufman's antics as his (and the current manager of such comedians as Jerry Seinfeld), cut in and tried to lighten the mood. "I felt good that I was watching it from afar this time," he laughed.

When it appeared as if no decent journalist would honestly believe the event wasn't a set up, producer Stacy Sher jumped in, "Look, Jim was caught off guard. Bob won't admit that it's him, but Bob has gone to a lot of places as Tony, and people think it's Jim," she exclaimed in an exasperated manner. "I mean don't get me wrong. I think Bob Zmuda is brilliant and I love him, but there is a quality to the real Andy and Bob, where they took things way over the top and you never knew what was going to happen. So you can't say you love somebody's art, and then say I only love it when it doesn't break this rule. I think that Jim was probably frustrated and upset because of the Playboy Mansion, the Emmys, and all of these places where Tony has shown up, and people have been writing that it's Jim. I'm really sorry that you're upset, but I did not have fun going upstairs for a half an hour trying to get him to come back down."

When asked if she was part of the hoax Sher, took umbrage and stated, "You know what, whether I'm wrong, and when I went upstairs, which was deeply unpleasant for me, I was wasting my time and I was being put on, then here we are, once again, talking about the art of Andy Kaufman. So whatever it was, whether they were putting us on, or Zmuda set it up, or he pissed Jim off, or I'm lying to you now. . . we're alive, we're having a conversation. It ain't the same boring f--king press junket is it?!"

Carrey did eventually return to the ballroom to continue the press conference, and apologized for his behavior. Still, our time with Carrey was cut woefully short. Afterward, this journalist turned to the reporter next to him and said, "What a silly stunt. It would have been all right if it had come at the end of the press conference, but in the middle?!"

The reporter turned to me and said, "Yeah, but you'll still be running the story on Monday, anyway."

And you know what. . . . he was right!