Pauly Shore faces pushback for Richard Simmons biopic plans

Shore questioned Richard Simmons' involvement in remarks against his biopic plans, sparking controversy.

Pauly Shore is pushing ahead with his plans to star in and executive produce a biopic about fitness icon Richard Simmons, despite recent social media backlash. 

In an interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Shore expressed doubts about whether the critical remarks attributed to Simmons on social media were genuinely from him. “I know he wanted me to do it,” Shore said about the biopic. 

“I don’t even know if that was him tweeting the whole time. I don’t know who that was,” he added.

Simmons' staff responded firmly to Shore's comments on social media. In a post on Simmons’s official X account, they clarified the situation, emphasizing that the fitness guru was personally involved in crafting his posts. 

“Pauly Shore has recently made comments to Entertainment Tonight concerning his attempts to proceed with an unauthorized movie about Richard. You’ve seen here on Richard’s account what he had to say about the biopic,” the post stated.

The staff further quoted Simmons’s brother, Lenny, who confirmed the authenticity of the posts. “Dicky absolutely wrote his own posts. 

He worked on them a week in advance, going over and over them to get the right message,” Lenny stated, adding that Simmons “would often read them to Cathy and I beforehand. What he has NOT done was to text, email, or call Pauly with anything; not even to wish him ‘Good Luck; as Pauly has stated many times.”

Shore's planned portrayal of Simmons in a film titled "The Court Jester" has been met with resistance from Simmons himself. Simmons addressed the biopic directly in his social media posts, stating, “You may have heard they may be doing a movie about me with Pauly Shore. I have never given my permission for this movie. So don’t believe everything you read,” he wrote. 

“I no longer have a manager, and I no longer have a publicist. I just try to live a quiet life and be peaceful. Thank you for all your love and support.”