Jon Lovitz has had issues with Andy Dick for close to 30 years now. The two first butted heads when Lovitz joined the cast of NewsRadio following Phil Hartman’s death in 1998. Lovitz had previously accused Dick of giving Hartman’s wife, Brynn, a recovering addict, cocaine, causing her to fall off the wagon. Brynn shot and killed Hartman earlier that same year; she had cocaine in her system at the time.
When Dick complained about Lovitz on the set of NewsRadio and told him he shouldn’t be there, Lovitz responded by saying, “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t given Brynn coke in the first place.” Lovitz eventually apologized for the comment, and the pair were able to patch things up—or so it seemed. That all changed when Dick came waltzing into a restaurant Lovitz co-owned and downed the drink Lovitz had sitting in front of him. “I put the Phil Hartman hex on you,” Dick allegedly said to Lovitz afterward, “you’re the next one to die.”
The Jon Lovitz and Andy Dick Feud Is One of Comedy’s Darkest Hollywood Stories
Though Lovitz wanted nothing more than to punch Dick in that moment, he opted to keep things peaceful and ejected Dick from the restaurant. Dick wouldn’t be so lucky the next time they crossed paths, however. Somewhere down the road, Dick showed up at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles the same night Lovitz was performing there. Lovitz confronted Dick at the end of the show, hoping that he’d apologize for the Hartman comment.
According to Lovitz, Dick initially denied saying it, then admitted to it, and followed that up by asking Lovitz to be in his new movie.
Lovitz finally lost his cool and pushed Dick up against the wall. Dick reportedly just smiled back at Lovitz, which only made Lovitz angrier. Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada, who witnessed the altercation, recalled that Lovitz also grabbed Dick by the hair and slammed his head on the bar in the lobby a couple of times. Lovitz later joked that he would’ve kept going, but the doorman stepped in and broke things up.
For his part, Dick has denied ever giving Brynn Hartman cocaine, but confirmed that the altercation at the Laugh Factory did, in fact, happen.
The post Jon Lovitz and Andy Dick’s Feud Over Phil Hartman Ended With a Fight at the Laugh Factory appeared first on VICE.
