William Shatner To George Takei: Who Are You Again?
George Takei has never made a secret how much disdain he has for William Shatner after more than 40 years of first working with each other on "Star Trek," but now the famous original portrayer of Capt. James T. Kirk is finally starting to notice.
In a video interview with his daughter, a common practice on his official Web site, Shatner said he pities Takei, and can't understand why he made such a big production of snubbing the "Boston Legal" star from his recent marriage to Brad Altman.
"There is such a sickness there," Shatner said of Takei. "It's so patently obvious that there is a psychosis there. I don't know what his original thing about me was. I have no idea."
There is just one problem with Shatner's statement: Takei, on his own official site, said the big man was on the guest list, but was actually a no-show.
"It is unfortunate that Bill was unable to join us for our wedding as he indeed was invited to attend," Takei said in a statement on his site. "It is our hope that at this point he joins us in voting no on Proposition 8, which seeks to eliminate the fundamental right for same-sex couples to marry in California."
So why is Shatner at a loss for words (and obviously a little confused)? Well, apparently, Takei was nothing more than one of the extras on the "Star Trek" set as far as he was concerned.
"I didn't know him very well on the series," Shatner said. "He would come in for a day or two, as evidenced by the part he played."
Takei's anger apparently is caused by something beyond spending decades hiding his homosexuality, at least from what Shatner can surmise. And in the end, he can't figure out why Takei won't hold out an olive branch.
"You think there would be an epiphany at some point where George may have said, 'Poor Bill Shatner. He's such a lonely, desperate, unhappy man, that he did all these terrible things.'"
Shatner says he is not sure what exactly it was he said to Takei, but sarcastically pointed out that it was probably something as simple as saying hello.
Takei invited many members of the original "Star Trek" cast to his ceremony, and castmates Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols even stood up for the happy couple.
Shatner didn't say if he would actually show up to Takei's wedding if he had been invited, but insisted the actor's homosexuality may have played a role in how he felt about Shatner.
"He has continued to speak badly about me for all these years, obviously hiding his homosexuality," Shatner said. "Talk about festering and not living the truth of your life and feeling badly about yourself, and being fearful somebody would find out about this terrible, terrible secret, so he thought.
"Finally, at the age of, I think, 70, he decides to come out of the closet and say, 'I'm gay.' Like who cares? Be gay, don't be gay. That's up to you, George."
Shatner does have some advice for Takei on how to handle his feelings in the future.
"It's too bad that he can't find enough peace in his life to either ... be positive and say I forgive [Shatner] for whatever those hurts were, or to shut up about it."
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