A Night at the Roxbury Written with Richard Grieco in Mind?

This old article from Entertainment Weekly would have us believe so.  And, apparently the writers didn't approach him in advance, but simply named their character "Richard Grieco" and then sent him the script.

This run-down also affirms that Richard "porked up" to play himself after the glory days, and the writer indicates that he's "looking Teen Beat perfect" at the interview.

The article's author also shares that his web search for Richard turned up a "cache of nude photos" (there was an Internet in 1998?), but Grieco assures him that they must be fake.  Unless, of course, someone has been hanging out near his back yard snapping pictures.

Surprising Discoveries about Richard Grieco

Last night, I watched A Night at the Roxbury and learned that I'd been pronouncing Richard's last name wrong.  That shouldn't have been a big surprise since I'd only heard it spoken a few times a couple of decades ago, but it actually came as a shock to me.  I've always thought it was pronounced "Grecco". Then, suddenly, those SNL guys were calling him "Greeko" and it sounded all wrong to me.

Of course, the movie didn't entirely clear it up for me.  It WAS a comedy after all.  The guys who were calling him "Greeko" weren't getting much of anything else right.  A mispronunciation could have been part of the humor.  I was actually kind of hoping for that.  I like "Grecco" better.  Plus, you know, I've had nearly three weeks to get used to it.

This morning, I decided to check out a couple of interviews on YouTube and get the real scoop and...damn!  Apparently, they weren't kidding.

In researching that, I also learned that Richard usually prefers to watch the Oscars at home, thinks pizza is more for football games and was only supposed to be on 21 Jump Street for one episode. 

But I'm finding the name thing surprisingly disconcerting.  I'm thinking about sticking with my original pronunciation.  After all, how often does Richard Grieco come up in conversation?  And it's not likely that I'm going to have occasion to address him directly. 

A Night at the Roxbury was somewhat better than I expected. I'm not a Will Farrel fan at all, and though I do think SNL has produced some real talent (including Molly Shannon, who had a smallish role in the movie), the main characters were just a little too blech for my tastes.  There were some moments of humor,though, including Grieco's role.  He wasn't looking his best, but I'd read in advance that that was intentional.

All in all, not a bad experience except for the trauma of the name thing.