We didn't know he had it in him, but Jon Lovitz has made Andy Dick a punchline.
What was supposed to be a stand-up act at Hollywood's Laugh Factory last week turned into a knockdown drag-out as the former NewsRadio cohorts clashed, apparently over the death of Phil Hartman and Dick's voodoo skills.
Lovitz, 49, and Dick, 41, literally ran into each other at the vaunted comedy venue last Wednesday. Lovitz was still stewing over what he perceived as a tasteless Dick joke, in which the out-there comedian put "the Phil Hartman hex" on Lovitz, referring to the tragic murder of the former Saturday Night Live star by his drug-addled wife, who subsequently killed herself.
Lovitz asked Dick to apologize for the remark. Dick didn't, according to witnesses.
"Jon lost his temper and took Andy's head by the hair and smashed it a couple of times on the bar in the lobby," Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada told E! Online Tuesday.
"Jon is a very gentle soul. It takes a lot to make him upset and we understood from everybody that Andy deserved what he got because you don't go around telling people 'I've got a spell on you and you're going to die.' [Dick] is known in the circle going around telling people he's the Prince of Darkness."
Lovitz and Hartman became close friends as members of Los Angeles' famed improv troupe the Groundlings in the 1980s, and it was Lovitz who helped get Hartman hired on SNL. Lovitz also replaced Hartman for the final season of NewsRadio, on which Dick costarred.
A year ago, during a chance encounter at a West Hollywood restaurant , Lovitz told the New York Post that Dick "looked at me and said, 'I put the Phil Hartman hex' on you—you're the next one to die.' "
Neither Dick nor his publicist have commented.
Lovitz signed lifetime performing contract with the Laugh Factory in May. Aside from his own stand-up schedule, Dick was recently roasted by Howard Stern on the shock jock's Sirius Satellite Radio show. He also costars in the Jessica Simpson comedy Blonde Ambition, due in theaters later this year.
Masada says that Dick's demented persona and guerrilla comedy routines can be off-putting to his peers.
"He has no consideration for other people...But hopefully this is a start for him to wake up. The comedy community is a family and you have to treat others with respect. I think this is, God willing, a wake-up call and he'll learn how to control himself and talk to people and be nice to people," said Masada.
"I'm hoping this is going to be over and he and Jon are going to move on and become friends."