While on the red carpet for Wednesday’s Broadway premiere of New York, New York, reporter Rye Myers was the surprise recipient of some insulting behavior from actor Tony Danza, despite being nothing but kind to the former TV star.
Danza’s behavior has prompted over 900 comments on TikTok from people who are mostly referring to him as being “rude and condescending,” and even one person calling Danza “an a**hole.”
The brief encounter happened when Tony Danza and his former Who’s the Boss? co-star Judith Light, who were there to attend the show’s premiere, walked the red carpet to engage in questions with numerous reporters. Myers, who independently runs his own Broadway-related talk show, greeted the duo with his naturally outgoing personality to which Danza told him, “Relax a little. You’re more excited than we are.”
That’s when you knew things were gonna get sour and, sure enough, the disrespect was but a moment away.
After asking a question about Broadway, Myers followed it up with a more fun one which quite perturbed Danza. The question that set him off? “What’s your favorite New York City staple food item: pizza or hot dogs?”
That’s when Danza went up to Myers, patted him on his cheek and actually said to him, “You know what you gotta do, buddy? You gotta come up with better questions.” Danza then immediately departed in disgust with Light in tow.
Somehow, Myers stayed calm and cool which, ironically, was something Danza failed to do despite preaching earlier to the reporter to “relax.”
Hundreds of responses on social media included one who noted that the 72-year old is not as famous as he once was and stated, “He should be glad people still want to talk to him,” with many saying Tony should have been much nicer and that Judith Light would never have been a part of that if it weren’t for him.
“The touch of my face would have sent me into a fit of rage,” one commented, with another adding, “he showed his true colors.”
Perhaps the funniest response was on twitter where one user posted, “What’s he got against pizza and hot dogs?!”
Myers himself stayed professional and noted that he asked other stars that same question, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, and did not receive such a rude response.
