The controversy surrounding Michael Richards’ racist rant continues to swirl.
On Wednesday, Access Hollywood learned the former “Seinfeld” star reached out to civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in another attempt to apologize for his behavior.
However, the targets of his rage — Kyle Doss and Frank McBride — have also reached out to someone — tenacious lawyer Gloria Allred.
Access Hollywood’s Tim Vincent sat down with Doss and McBride to find out why.
“I’m not trying to make this a black and white thing,” Doss told Tim. “I have lots of mixed friends. It’s a people thing.”
Doss and McBride were both part of a mixed group of friends at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood when they walked in late and were hurt by Richards’ shocking racial rant, which was all captured on videotape.
“I just told him ‘Hey, my friend doesn’t think you’re funny’ and after that happened, he turned around and looked at me and flipped me off and told me ‘F-you n-word,’” Doss said.
“He threw out racial slurs repeatedly. There was nothing professional about his act at all,” McBride told Access.
“He was saying when he wakes up he’ll still be rich and when I wake up I’m still going to be an n-word,” Doss added.
On Tuesday, Richards appeared on David Letterman to apologize for his remarks.
“He’s apologized. Shouldn’t that really be the end of it?” Tim asked the men.
“No, I think that apology was totally fake, it was forced. I feel like that was a career move. It wasn’t sincere,” Doss contends.
“What do you want to get out of this situation?” Tim asked.
“To be compensated for what happened,” Doss replied.
Our interview with Doss and McBride was granted on one condition — that we also interview their high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred.
Allred is no stranger to controversy having taken on Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson and Scott Peterson, just to name a few.
“It is not enough to go on television and say ‘I’m sorry,’” Allred said. “We are issuing a challenge to Michael Richards.”
That challenge would require Richards to meet face-to-face with Doss and McBride in front of a judge. So far, no lawsuit has been filed.
“We want the retired judge to make a recommendation on how much Michael Richards should pay to compensate our clients,” added Allred.
And if Richards refuses?
“Then he will have to bear the consequences of whatever comes next,” she said.
Meanwhile, many of Richards’ fellow comedians have already sounded off on the incident.
Comic Paul Rodriguez, who was at the club, said he thought Richards’ remarks crossed the line.
“Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don’t happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining,” he said. “Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations.”
Access Hollywood spoke with Jamie Foxx at the American Music Awards to get his take on the incident.
The Oscar-winner said Richards was way out of line and Foxx is taking the side of the hecklers.
“I’m a stand-up comic to the core. But if I am going through something, release it on the stage. But don’t dump on nobody and especially not on black people because I don’t know what kind of black folks those was, but if it would have been me and my sister and my crew, they’d still be filming right now,” Foxx said.