Fred Willard appeared on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" the other night to address his recent arrest.
On July 18, Willard, who is in his 70s, was arrested for masturbating in the Tiki Theater Xymposium in Hollywood.
The actor and comedian has had a long career in TV, film, and improv, but cemented his fame in the last 15 years with supporting roles in the offbeat Christopher Guest films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. He frequently appears in small, attention-grabbing parts in comedies.
When news of his arrest broke, he was fired as the narrator of the upcoming PBS antiques show "Market Warriors", but he remains the host of the ABC improv comedy show "Trust Us With Your Life".
Willard, who has been married for more than four decades and has a grown daughter, won't be prosecuted if he takes part in a "diversion program" that stresses the importance of following the law.
He went on Fallon's show to again deny the charges, and managed to strike a jovial tone.
"Let me say this," he told Fallon. "It's the last time I'm gonna to listen to my wife when she says 'Why don't you go out and see a movie?'"
"The whole adult theater thing," he continued. "I thought they were gone. And I see this one, it had such a Polynesian, exotic look to it. I said, 'Maybe there's hula dancers in here. Maybe there's Mai Tais'. I went in and I realized I was the only one awake and sober and conscious."
Willard called his venture into the porn palace a "trip down the rabbit hole".
Fallon asked him if the movie he was seeing was called The Firm, and then asked if it was called Free Willy or Anaconda.
"No. Sadly, it was Get Shorty," Willard said.
(For the record, Willard bought a ticket to a triple feature that included a parody of The Client List and the titles Step Dad and Follow Me 2)
Then Willard grew more serious. "It's embarrassing as hell, but let me say this - nothing happened. I did nothing wrong, everything's being sorted out as we speak," he said.
He called the experience "very painful", but said he is "trying to laugh it off".
As he did the day after his arrest, he testified his respect for the police, saying, "I have great respect for the authorities. I mean, when we need a policeman, God bless 'em, they're there. But, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, everything seems suspicious."
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