It's a case of he said, he said in the ongoing celebrity feud between Star Trek stars William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, and George Takei, aka Mr. Sulu. Last week, Shatner posted the following video rant about being snubbed by not being invited to Takei's wedding in September to longtime partner Brad Altman. Other Trek co-stars were invited, and even Nichellle Nichols and Walter Koenig (Uhura and Chekov) were the maid of honor and best man, respectively.
In the video, Shatner plays armchair psychologist. "Poor man. There is such a sickness there," he says. "It's so patently obvious that there is a psychosis there ... I pity him."
The video seems never-ending, with Shatner expressing condescension for Takei for holding such an unfounded grudge for so many years. Even though Shatner is outraged by not being invited, at the same time he claims, "I literally don't know him ... He makes this big deal about not inviting me to his wedding ... There must be something else inside George that is festering and makes him so unhappy that he takes it out on me, in effect, a total stranger."
So wait, Takei should want to invite strangers to his wedding? I don't get it.
Apparently, neither does Takei, who in an Entertainment Tonight interview on Thursday is absolutely gobsmacked on two counts. First, he claims that he DID in fact invite Shatner to the wedding, but true to form, Shatner didn't RSVP since he doesn't attend any important event for his former Star Trek cohorts.
"Every time there was something happy to celebrate amongst us, whether it's getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard -- whether it's DeForest Kelley, Jimmy Doohan, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols -- he never showed up," says Takei. "Even for [Star Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry. In fact, the most surprising thing was that he didn't show up for Gene Roddenberry's funeral."
Second, Takei expresses shock that Shatner claims they don't know each other and are essentially strangers. "We've done six movies together. We did three seasons of television together, we've been doing Star Trek conventions together for the last 40-plus years. Yes, I guess he doesn't know us."
The former Enterprise helmsman says the wedding invitation was another attempt to let bygones be bygones and that he'll continue to try and hold out the olive branch to Shatner. In fact, he invites Shatner to join him in the campaign against Proposition 8, an initiative measure in California that seeks to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.
