WWW- They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but funnyman Robin Williams is neither flattered nor amused by a man he says has been impersonating him for all the wrong reasons. Now, the Oscar winning star of “Good Will Hunting” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” is fighting to protect his good name in a court of law.
Michael Clayton runs a website in which he claims to be a Robin Williams impersonator, but in a lawsuit obtained by “CJ,” Williams says Clayton and his agent, Michael Pool, have taken their Robin Williams act to a reprehensible level, allegedly conning people.
“CJ” spoke with Shirley Collins, one of the alleged victims mentioned in lawsuit. A fundraiser for the Pumpkin Center Volunteer Fire Department in Missouri, she told us, “The last time I spoke to Mr. Pool I asked him straight out, ‘Are you trying to scam me?’ He said, ‘No, this is the real thing.'”
As told in the lawsuit, on the day Collins met Pool, she thought she had struck gold. “He said, ‘Why don’t you have a fundraiser?’ and I said, ‘Who can you get me?’ He said, ‘I can get you Robin Williams.'”
When Shirley expressed doubt, she got a call. “This person on the phone said he was Robin Williams and he would be attending the fundraiser,” she told us. “He then switched over to the Mrs. Doubtfire voice. Very good, sounded just exactly like Mrs. Doubtfire. He said, ‘Oh the “Show Me State,” I guess we’re just gonna have to show them.’ So this convinced me, ‘Okay it’s real. It’s a real thing.'”
According to the lawsuit, Collins claimed the cruelest twist came when Pool wanted money in exchange for delivering Robin Williams. “Mr. Pool mentioned $2500 and I said, ‘You gotta be kidding,’ and he said, ‘No, Robin’s doing it for the charity that’s just gonna cover his plane fare and transportation.'”
But Collins says her dream fundraiser went up in smoke when she learned that Pool had allegedly duped a popular columnist for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis-Saint Paul with a fake Robin Williams.
We spoke with CJ, the columnist who interviewed Clayton believing he was the real Williams. Her story is also outlined in the lawsuit. “[Clayton] looked like Robin Williams, and also he was walking through the airport with a Northwest Airlines escort,” she told us. “You’d think that Northwest Airlines would know what celebrity they were escorting through the airport.”
But when CJ she learned the truth, she told us she blew Clayton’s cover: “I thought people should know that this guy was out pretending he’s Robin Williams.”
According to the suit, the real Robin Williams wants a judge to force Clayton and Pool to stop passing themselves off as the real deal. The women who say the fake Robin duped them are standing by the real one and cheering him on.
“I think it needs to be stopped before they do it to somebody else,” Shirley told us.
Added CJ, “You can’t go around impersonating a celebrity without telling people you’re an impersonator.”