Steve Rannazzisi Talks To Howard Stern About The Origin Of His 9/11 Lie And How He Dragged His Loved Ones Into It

We’ve all lied. Hell, I’d be surprised if I haven’t lied today. Lying has a bad stigma, as it should, but sometimes lies are essential to maintain balance. Did I want to go to Linda from HR’s birthday party at TGI Fridays? Fuck no. Did I tell her that? No, I told her my cat was sick. I don’t even have a cat, but that’s erroneous. This way, Linda doesn’t think I’m a dick and I don’t have to suffer through droney conversations about her adorable nephew. It’s a win-win, and all thanks to lying.

But then there’s actor Steve Rannazzisi’s lie. A lie whose sole purpose is not to maintain a sense of equilibrium, but to bolster one’s value at the expense of others. The worst kind of lie.

A few weeks back, The League star was exposed for completely fabricating a story about his heroic role in 9/11.

From my co-worker Cass’ original post:

For years now Stephen Rannazzisi has been telling a story about how he was working for Merrill Lynch on the 54th floor of the South Tower on 9/11 when the first plane hit the North Tower. In that story he claimed that he was able to flee the South Tower just moments before the second plane hit in the catastrophic terrorist attack on Lower Manhattan, and that the experience was the catalyst for his move to Los Angeles where he discovered acting and went on to become a big television star.

As you may expect, the backlash from this fib was widespread and immense, maybe most notably being trolled by SNL’s Pete Davidson, whose firefighter father passed away on 9/11.

Rannazzisi went on Howard Stern’s show this morning and explained the phony story, talking about how the lie took on a life of its own, and how loved ones were forced into the lie.

Listen to the recording obtained from TMZ HERE.

And as a tangential reading, check out Chris Illuminati’s piece on our motive behind lying, and how to recover from a life-altering fib. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an awesome, informative read.

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.