After completing a program for minor sex offenses, actor Fred Willard will not face a criminal trial stemming from his arrest at a Hollywood movie theater.
Willard, 72, finished the program intended to divert minor sex offenders from the justice system, said Frank Mateljan, a city attorney spokesman.
Fred Willard was arrested in July at the Tiki Theater for being “engaged in a lewd act” by an LAPD unit assigned to crack down on sex crimes in the area.
Later that month, the actor appeared on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, joking about the lewd incident that ultimately got him fired from a PBS show.
“It’s the last time I listen to my wife when she says, ‘Why don’t you go see a movie?’” he joked, adding that he didn’t know adult theaters even existed.
“I see this one, it had a Polynesian exotic look to it. I say ‘maybe there’s hula dancers in here.’ I went in and I realized I was the only one awake, sober and conscious.”
“It’s very embarrassing,” Willard added on a more serious note. “It’s embarrassing as hell, but let me say this: Nothing happened. I did nothing wrong.”
He added that he has great respect for authorities in the city, “but if you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time, everything seems suspicious.”
PBS fired Willard, who appeared in Anchorman and Best in Show, from his job as narrator of its new Market Warriors series, following the incident.
In any case, he appears to be off the hook now.