Leno's Artless Remark

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/13/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Jay Leno could be cruisin' for a bruisin' over some remarks he made on the air last week about Republican New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, whom the "Tonight" show host, 50, compared to Adolf Hitler. In reference to Giuliani's proposed "decency panel" to review art that is displayed in city-funded venues, Leno said: "Now, (Hitler) had an art program where any art which was abstract or cubist or any of this, was oh, this was just the worst thing, and unless it's a little house and was a son and a waiting family, it wasn't art." New Yorker William Fugazy, the head of the anti-bias National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and a longtime ally of the Giuliani's, has told the New York Post that he was so incensed by Leno's comments that his group will file a formal complaint with NBC this week. "We're very upset about this," said Fugazy. "To do this to Rudy Giuliani, who has been one of the strongest supporters of ours, is disgraceful." Calls seeking comment from Giuliani or representatives from the "Tonight" show were not returned to the Associated Press.