We all get caught out on a white lie every now and then, but generally they are trivial enough things like your alarm not going off and the like, NOT surviving the most infamous terrorist attack in the world, and then basing your career off the back of it.
Comedian Stephen Rannazzisi, star of comedy show The League as well as Paul Blart: Mall Cop has accounted his success in recent years to the fact that he narrowly escaped death in the World Trade Centre attacks on September 11th, 2001.
In an interview in 2009, he spoke how he worked at the Merrill Lynch’s offices on the 54th floor of the south tower when the first plane struck the north tower.
"I was there and then the first tower got hit and we were like jostled all over the place, " he said.
Also saying; "I still have dreams of like, you know, those falling dreams."
He then went out to say that he made it onto the street just minutes before the second plane hit his building and that it was on that day he decided that life was just too precious to waste opportunities. So he ditched the desk job and headed to LA to pursue his career as an entertainer, which he did, as we mentioned, starring in a hit show about a fantasy football team called The League which shortly begins its seventh season. He has also become the face of a Buffalo Wild Wings ad campaign associated with the start of this N.F.L. season.
What an amazing, inspiring story, right??
Except that's all it is. A story.
This week, Rannazzisi was confronted with evidence that he was in fact not immediately involved in 9/11 as he had been working in Midtown that day, and not for Merrill Lynch, which has no record of his employment and didn't even have offices in either tower.
On Tuesday, Steve finally admitted that he had lied. He released a statement saying; “I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry."
His statement went on to say; "For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man. It only made me more ashamed. How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn’t come clean about this?"
"It was profoundly disrespectful to those who perished and those who lost loved ones,” he said. “The stupidity and guilt I have felt for many years has not abated. It was an early taste of having a public persona, and I made a terrible mistake. All I can ask is for forgiveness."
While Buffalo Wild Wings also released a statement saying; "We are disappointed to learn of Steve’s misrepresentations regarding the events of September 11, 2001. We are currently re-evaluating our relationship with Steve pending a review of all the facts."
There you have it. How will he dig his way out of this one? We're not sure he can really. You don't mess with 9/11 in America and this sort of lie simply won't be forgotten by people nor taken lightly.
So it doesn't pay to lie kids, or just don't go lying about being involved in one of the most historic terrorist attacks in the Western world. Simple enough life guideline to follow we would have thought.