Tom Shales

A friend has alerted me to a “20 questions” (or maybe 10) interview with Chevy Chase in the current Time magazine by way of plugging Chase’s new book “I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not.”

Chase, a genuinely talented comic actor, has been having a rough time of it lately and, according to many of those interviewed for “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of ‘Saturday Night,” the book I co-wrote with my best friend James A. Miller, he’s always had a rough time when it comes to ingratiating himself with fellow performers.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from the Time interview:

Question: What’s your reaction to “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of ‘Saturday Night,’” a book that describes you picking on a gay member of the cast? Chevy: It is totally untrue. I have letters from people like Will Ferrell and Colin Quinn apologizing profusely for what they “said” in that book. I’ve had gay friends all my life and have never been a bigot. There have been so many books about me. None of them are true.

The remark about Chevy picking on a cast member was made by a gay regular on the show who endured such cracks as a “joke” about possibly having AIDS. I have it all on tape. In Time, Chevy makes a non-denial denial: he doesn’t deny he made the nasty remark, he just says “I’ve had gay friends all my life and have never been a bigot.” He goes on, “There have been so many books about me. None of them are true.”

It may be hard for the myopic egomaniac to comprehend, but “Live from New York” was NOT a book about him. It was an oral history of the show as told by dozens of those who’d been involved over its first 25 to 30 years. Chase himself was interviewed twice for the book.

I was sorry so many people in the book trashed Chevy—among them the great and hilarious Will Ferrell, currently as big a box-office star as Chevy once was. Many of them did it with some reluctance—admiring his talent but aghast at his crudeness, rudeness and reprehensibly bad manners.

He’s Chevy Chase and you can thank God, you’re not.