Amy Heckerling Rips Chris Kattan’s “Idiot Book” and Lorne Michaels Sex Claim: “He’s a Nut”

Famed director Amy Heckerling is firing back at Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan after he claimed in his new memoir, Baby Don’t Hurt Me, that boss Lorne Michaels pressured him into having sex with her. In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Heckerling addressed the claim — which an SNL rep denied — head-on, saying that she “didn’t read” Kattan’s “idiot” memoir, and doesn’t plan to. “He’s a nut,” said the Clueless director. “I don’t even want to know or hear the dumb shit he came up with.”

When asked about Kattan’s allegations by The Daily Beast’s Matt Wilstein, Heckerling was clear. “Ugh, I didn’t read it. He’s a nut,” she said. “You know, I don’t comment about that, because basically I have no interest in helping his book sales. I don’t even want to know or hear the dumb shit he came up with.” Heckerling went on to say that he has “nothing to say about [Kattan] or his idiot book,” adding, “I don’t feel like helping him at all.”

In Kattan’s recent memoir, he recalls that in 1997, he was attached to star in A Night at the Roxbury, a feature film based on his recurring sketch with SNL co-star Will Ferrell. At the time, Heckerling was also attached to direct, and Kattan claims that she made a pass at him one night during pre-production. Kattan writes that he denied the offer, but the next day, he received a call from SNL boss Lorne Michaels, a producer on the film. Baby Don’t Hurt Me explains that Michaels told him “Paramount would only do the movie if Amy signed on as a director, not as producer,” and if he “wanted to make sure the movie happened, then [he] had to keep Amy happy.” According to Kattan, Michaels continued, “Chris, I’m not saying you have to fuck her, but it wouldn’t hurt.”

Kattan adds that Michaels warned him “it was best if [he] didn’t mention it” to Ferrell or “anybody else,” and he was “too scared” to ignore the prolific producer.  “To this day, whenever I think about that conversation with Lorne, I still feel repellingly pathetic,” writes the comedian. He goes on to say that a few weeks later, he and Heckerling slept together. “She thought it would be fun to have sex on Lorne’s desk,” he writes in Baby Don’t Hurt Me. “I said a polite ‘Fuck, no!’ to that, so we ended up going to her office and having sex on… yep, you guessed it, the ‘casting couch.'”

After Kattan’s allegations made headlines, an SNL representative denied the claims on Michaels’ behalf. “This did not happen,” they said, adding that, according to show reps, the publisher never verified the claims made in Kattan’s book. Decider reached out to the publisher for comment at the time, but did not hear back.

Chris Kattan’s memoir, Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live, is available for purchase on Amazon. Read Amy Heckerling’s entire interview with The Daily Beast here.

Where to stream A Night at the Roxbury