(JTA) — Actor Charlie Sheen has been fired from his hit CBS sitcom in the wake of a rant against the show’s executive producer that was called "borderline anti-Semitism."
Sheen was fired Monday, effective immediately, from "Two and a Half Men," for which he was paid $2 million per episode. The series was not canceled, however.
Warner Brothers said Sheen’s “statements, conduct and condition prevented him from performing his essential duties.”
Sheen, in a radio interview Feb. 24 and in a letter posted on the TMZ website, called "Two and a Half Men" executive producer Chuck Lorre a "contaminated little maggot," said he was a "clown" and "stupid," and referred to him several times as Chaim Levine. Lorre’s given name is Charles Michael Levine.
"By invoking television producer Chuck Lorre’s Jewish name in the context of an angry tirade against him, Charlie Sheen left the impression that another reason for his dislike of Mr. Lorre is his Jewishness," Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, said in a statement. "This fact has no relevance to Mr. Sheen’s complaint or disagreement, and his words are at best bizarre, and at worst, borderline anti-Semitism.”
Sheen has called on ADL to apologize.
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