Actor Tony Danza has gone viral for dismissing a red carpet reporter on the opening night of the Broadway musical New York, New York this Wednesday.
The confrontation occurred between the Who’s The Boss star and a highly amped-up Rye Myers, who hosts an Internet show covering Broadway plays and the acting scene in the Big Apple.
Talking a mile a minute and full of fawning, the bubbly Myers stuck his microphone in Danza’s wife’s face and said, “How you folks doing? It’s so great, right, to be here at ‘New York, New York’?”
While Danza’s wife started to say, “Absolutely,” and talk about the show, Tony leaned in and said, “Relax a little. You’re more excited than we are. Take it easy.”
It didn’t get any better from there as the giggly reporter asked the seminal question, “Now, what’s your favorite New York City staple food item? Is it pizza or hot dogs?”
The Taxi star could only shake his head at the weight of the question.
“You know what you’ve got to do, buddy,” he said as he reached out and patted the reporter’s face, “you’ve got to come up with better questions.”
Danza then turned and left, saying, “Come on, let’s go. I’ve got to go.”
Myers first posted the exchange to his TikTok account and took no blame for the encounter, writing, “To say I was blown away, shocked, and embarrassed is an understatement…But, my professionalism showed through!”
Since most of the people who know of Myers’ TikTok are fans, Danza came in for a drubbing in the comments to the video.
According to Insider, singer Michael Bublé even chimed in and wrote: “I think you’re amazing Ry. I’ll have a pizza with ya.”
Myers claimed that he was not the only person asking New York-themed questions. Other reporters were also asking questions on the theme to go with the play the celebs had all just attended, he said.
Still, it’s likely the Big Apple food question hit the actor all wrong because he is not just a fly-in celebrity who might be awed by New York City’s delicacies. Danza is a lifelong New Yorker, born in Brooklyn in 1951 as a first-generation American to parents of Italian heritage.
Danza is not the first star to raise eyebrows with an awkward red carpet interview this year. Notting Hill star Hugh Grant recently grabbed headlines for giving terse, overly literal answers to questions at the 95th Academy Awards last month.
He ended up in front of a microphone wielded by plus-sized model Ashley Graham, but Grant’s answers to her fluff questions were fairly uncooperative. When she asked “What are you wearing tonight?” he coyly replied, “Just my suit,” then dismissed her excited question about his cameo in the film Glass Onion by scoffing that he was only in it for “about three seconds.”
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