Like a very large succulent plant, Scott Baio requires attention every once in a while—whether he’s telling liberal snowflakes to “grow the blank up” and quit with “all of your antics of Russia,” or coldly speculating that his former Happy Days costar Erin Moran died of a drug addiction and remembering her as an “insecure human being,” he is just always sort of around, ready to say dumb stuff.
Before it was announced this week that Moran died from complications stemming from stage 4 cancer, Baio said in an interview about his former costar (who reportedly had previously struggled with addiction): “For me, you do drugs or drink, you’re gonna die. I’m sorry if that’s cold, but God gave you a brain, gave you the will to live and thrive and you gotta take care of yourself.” (The Daily Mail initially reported that she was believed to have died from a heroin overdose.)
In the interview, Baio remarked: “I knew Erin well, over the last many years I have not spoken with her. She was just an insecure human being and fell into this world of drugs and alcohol. Again, I don’t know if that’s what killed her, I’m sure it was a culmination of years and years of doing it that might have had something to do with it. She just never found her way.”
“How do you help somebody that doesn’t want to help themselves? You try a couple of times and if they don’t want the help, I gotta go, sorry.”
Rather than simply apologizing for the mistake (and, you know, lack of empathy), in response to the swift public backlash Baio referred to Moran as “my first real girlfriend” and defended his statements, emphasizing that they were made before the likely cause of death was announced. “Please stop assuming the worse in me,” he wrote on Facebook. “I’m a compassionate person. I’m very heartbroken over her passing, especially since it was cancer.”
Baio told TMZ on Tuesday that he was just being criticized by “all these goofballs on Twitter” because he was conservative.
Erin Moran’s brother Tony later took to Facebook to accuse Baio of having a small penis, the Daily Beast reports.
“A special shout out to Scott Baio,” he wrote. “I already went on Twitter about you. I hope it finds you. You and my lil sis had a very very brief fling. She dumped you. 2 reasons. 1. She told me that you were more like a lil girl and not a man. 2. She told me that you were tiny. Ya know. Barely a man in the man region. True story! Scott, I’d advise you to get on your knees and pray you never run into me.”
And later:
“Well guys. Guess what? I was contacted by Scott Baio’s wife. His wife! Fucking coward! I’ve never met her. I do know the scumbag piece of shit Scott Baio tho. He was a piece of shit back then and still is. He had his wife contact me! Very apologetic and shit. Doesn’t surprise me. It’s too late you motherfucking pieces of shit! Go back under the rock you crawled out from under. There isn’t one word I want to hear you speak. Makes me sick to my stomach.”
The Daily Beast reports that Renee Baio, whose tweets are now tragically protected, defended her husband’s dick size: “Why would a sister tell her brother about the size of boyfriend’s manhood? Creepy at best. SB was a playboy for a reason!”
As always: thank you, Renee, for clarifying.
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
