Kaufman's grudge was fake

Professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler has finally admitted that his feud with American comedian Andy Kaufman was all set up.

The supposed acrimony between the pair reached its apex in 1982, when they came to blows on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

Kaufman - an innovative stand-up best known to TV audiences as mechanic Latka in the sitcom Taxi - had already met the grappler in the ring. Bizarrely, he was into wrestling women, and had taken on Lawler as his first male opponent.

On the show, Lawler slapped the comic, who retaliated by throwing coffee over him as Letterman looked on in concern and shock.

Now Lawler has confessed in his new autobiography that It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes that the incident was a set-up - although no one on the Letterman show was in on the secret.

However, this is not the first time the truth has come out. The 1999 Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon portrayed the feud as fictional, as did Bob Zmuda's biography, released in the same year. Jerry Lawler even played himself in the movie, opposite Jim Carry's Andy Kaufman.

However, Lawler claims that the details have remained a well-kept secret since Kaufman's death in 1984.

To buy Man On The Moon on video

Published: 26 Dec 2002