Steve Rannazzisi dropped by Buffalo Wild Wings as endorser after 9/11 lie
Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. has pulled its commercials featuring Steve Rannazzisi after news about the comedian's 9/11 lie erupted.
On Thursday, Buffalo Wild Wings announced that it would no longer air commercials featuring the actor. The restaurant chain's move came after Steve Rannazzisi admitted in public that he lied about being a survivor of the attacks on New York's World Trade Center (WTC) on Sept. 11, 2001, according to Reuters.
In 2009, the star of "The League" comedy series told podcast host Marc Maron that he was working at the Merrill Lynch on the 54th floor of the WTC in New York when the buildings were hit by planes hijacked by terrorists. The 37-year-old actor said he felt the impact of the plane's crash into the first tower and rushed outside to check it out, the Chicago Tribune reports.
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Rannazzisi described how he just ran when he saw the building crumbling, but he stopped briefly in time to see the second tower go down, as well. He had also said that the 9/11 event pushed him to relocate to Los Angeles where his comedy career took off eventually.
This week, however, the New York Times reported that his name could not be found in any Merrill Lynch employment list and even in other offices in the WTC. He later told the newspaper that he was indeed in New York City on that fateful day but he was not working in either of the attacked buildings, the report details.
On Wednesday, Rannazzisi took to Twitter to apologize for his "inexcusable mistake," which he said he deeply regrets. Although he admitted that his apology may not be enough, he said he did not know why he lied about the 9/11 event.
He was right about his apology being not enough, because Buffalo Wild Wings apparently was not happy with it. In a statement, the restaurant chain announced that it will drop all television ads featuring the comedian, the report relays.
"Upon careful review, we have decided to discontinue airing our current television commercials featuring Steve Rannazzisi," Reuters quotes Buffalo Wild Wings.
Psychiatrists say Steve Rannazzisi's 9/11 lie may be a symptom of a condition called Munchhausen Syndrome in which a person pretends to suffer from a disease or a psychological trauma just to gain sympathy and attention. Although people with this condition know that they are just lying, they do not know how to make themselves stop.
