Thanks to his role on the popular CBS sitcom The King of Queens, Kevin James earned a reputation
in Hollywood as the "everyman" actor.
He's known as a clean comedian who doesn't use profanity or provocative material in his
stand-up - but he's also had his fair share of controversy.
Here are some of the sketchy things fans seem to ignore about Kevin James.
James returned to CBS in 2016 with a new sitcom called Kevin Can Wait.
While it made a strong debut, it didn't go over too well with critics.
New York magazine called it flat-out "terrible and unimaginative."
Others couldn't help but notice its similarity to The King of Queens, particularly after
James' TV wife, actress Erinn Hayes, was killed off, and his former King of Queens TV spouse,
actress Leah Remini, was welcomed aboard.
Shortly after it debuted, CBS ordered a full season - but things went sideways when showrunner
Bruce Helford allegedly quit over "creative differences with James," according to Deadline.
The news was shocking, considering Helford had previously worked with notorious Hollywood
bad boy Charlie Sheen on Anger Management and still managed to take that show all the
way to syndication.
How bad could James be?
In a piece about sexism in Hollywood, Salon noted that James is among the Hollywood actors
who often star in projects that feature a fun-loving husband with a nagging or no-personality
wife.
He also tends to be paired with remarkably attractive actresses.
In James' defense, sexism in Hollywood has plagued the industry long before he became
a star.
However, he is the creative force behind Kevin Can Wait, which certainly hasn't helped flip
the script.
As one Vulture writer commented,
"All the sitcom tropes that feel like they should be a thing of the past are here…
the gratuitous laugh track; the nagging, much hotter wife [...] the man-boy husband who
can't be bothered to rake leaves, pay attention to his kids' behavioral problems, or eat fewer
than four burgers in one sitting; and dialogue that sounds like it came from a spec script
written in the early '90s."
In 2007, James and Adam Sandler starred in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, a comedy
about two New York City firefighters who pretend to be a married gay couple so James' character,
a recent widower, can make sure his kids have access to his life insurance.
The movie ends with a unifying message of respect that was enough for GLAAD to give
it a pass, according to Entertainment Weekly.
However, the organization did acknowledge what it referred to as the film's "expected
stereotypes."
Years later, an Uproxx writer called the movie "blatantly homophobic," saying,
"It'd be equally silly to deny that a goodly percentage of the 115 preceding minutes [...] are
mostly about Kevin James and Adam Sandler's characters making it clear that in order for
Chuck and Larry to do some silly thing involving life insurance, they have to lower themselves
in the most humiliating way they can imagine, by pretending to be a gay couple."
The writer says the movie projects that, quote, "Being gay is gross" along with the notion
that gay men have access to super-hot women.
Take these with a grain of salt, but online chatter suggests James may not be so nice
to the little guys.
According to a commenter on a Reddit thread, the actor allegedly wouldn't let a waitress
ask him for his drink order while at a restaurant in Connecticut, and supposedly told her,
"You were told not to talk to me directly."
In a 2017 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, James seemed to directly refute
a similar tabloid account that claimed he sends his assistant into restaurants ahead
of him so he can avoid all eye contact.
"If there was ever honestly a situation where I needed someone's undivided attention, it's
gonna be when I'm ordering food at a restaurant, right?"
Still, another Reddit commenter claimed that when he got a chance to visit the King of
Queens set, James refused to acknowledge him the entire time - even when they were standing
right next to each other.
And yet another allegation from a commenter who worked at a car dealership near the set
of Grown Ups claimed that all dealership employees were specifically told by management not to
even look at James while he shopped there.
The claims are unsubstantiated, but they certainly don't paint a flattering picture of an actor
who butters his bread playing a perplexed everyman.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is the Casablanca of inept mall security guard comedies.
It seems unlikely that multiple people would come up with an idea about a Segway-riding
doofus, but there have been some clues that suggest James might have stolen the idea from
someone else.
According to The Wrap, lawyer and screenwriter Alfred Thomas Catalfo shopped a script called
Mall Cop in the early 2000s.
Like Paul Blart, Catalfo's story concerns a sad sack mall security guard who thwarts
a robbery.
Both movies have scenes set in the same specific locations - like the Rainforest Café.
Catalfo said he sent his script to Happy Madison - the production company that wound up making
Paul Blart, which was credited to writers James and Nick Bakay.
Duke McBride, who told The Wrap that he worked on Paul Blart, claimed,
"[Studio execs were] so shocked when they read the scripts side-by-side that that they
immediately sent a Sony bigwig [to Catalfo] with an apology and a check to 'work it out'
in typical Hollywood fashion."
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