Richard Simmons Might Be Missed, but He’s Not Missing
Officially, Richard Simmons is not missing.
His publicist, manager, brother and two officers from the Los Angeles Police Department have all said the 68-year-old fitness guru is at his Hollywood Hills mansion and doing fine. Simmons said the same himself when he called in to Entertainment Tonight last year, explaining he was safe and well and that “it’s time right now for Richard Simmons to take care of Richard Simmons.”
But he has been missing from the spotlight for three years — and that was enough for Dan Taberski, a former producer of The Daily Show, to create the Missing Richard Simmons podcast. Taberski has spent six episodes investigating his subject’s whereabouts, making the podcast the most popular one in the country and inspiring a national obsession with Simmons’ well-being. The final episode was released this week.
So how can a public figure step away from the spotlight in this plugged-in, celebrity-obsessed culture, where everyone has a camera in his pocket and a potential podcast in the making? And what are the ethical implications of publicly searching for someone who says he or she needs some private time?
Billed as an act of love by Taberski, Missing Richard Simmons has been “harmful,” said Michael Catalano, Simmons’ manager and friend for 30 years. It resurrected old rumors — that Simmons is changing his gender or being held hostage by his housekeeper — and heaped unwanted attention on his respite.
“He didn’t need this intrusion to validate his contribution to people,” Catalano said in an interview Tuesday. “He knows the reception (the podcast) is having. He knows how people are responding to it. But it’s also hurtful. It’s humiliating, you know? It’s damaging. It just is….
“Anywhere he goes now there’s going to be — more than there was before — pointing and speculation. Has he transitioned into a woman? Is that him behind that beard? I don’t envy that. I don’t envy that for someone, who at this time, has chosen to retreat. He has the right! I just don’t think because you are on the public stage for 40 years that you have to continue to remain there until your last breath.”
Simmons did not participate in the podcast and…
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