Patricia Heaton Rails Against AMAs

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday January 17, 2003 12:19 PM EST

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Perhaps Patricia Heaton and Sharon Osbourne should go on "The View" together.

Heaton, the star of "Everybody Loves Raymond," took a hike Monday night at the 30th annual American Music Awards.

Her reason? She was disgusted by what she considered "an onslaught of lewd jokes and off-color remarks" from the event's hosts, the Osbournes, as well as from many of the presenters, she tells her hometown newspaper, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

"I'm no prude, but this was such a vulgar and disgusting show," Heaton, 44, tells the paper, where her brother, reporter Michael Heaton, now works and her father, Chuck Heaton, is a retired columnist.

Describing her experience at the AMAs, Heaton says, "I was going to present what's called a video package -- a look at 30 years of the American Music Awards. Well, what was passing for humor basically ranged from stupid to vulgar, and I just thought, 'I'm not going to be part of this.' So I walked out and said, 'Get me my car. I'm leaving.'"

A prerecorded audio clip replaced Heaton to introduce the retrospective.

Describing the Osbournes' ongoing, expletive-laced banter, Heaton says, "The entire evening became about bleeping ... It was as if they were trying to become more like the MTV awards. But it's one thing if this kind of stuff is on MTV at 10 at night. It's quite another if it's on ABC at 8 o'clock. I don't know what (producer) Dick Clark was thinking."

She also singled out presenter Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol") for pulling open his co-presenter's shirt, then noticing there was a 12-year-old girl in the front row. And he says, 'Don't worry, honey, you'll have a pair of these soon.' And everybody went crazy. It felt like I was in the Roman Coliseum. As far as I'm concerned, it was an affront to anyone with a shred of dignity, self-respect and intelligence."

Heaton says she is not expecting a backlash from her gesture of defiance. "And if there is," she said, "who cares?