Chris Kattan claims he broke his neck during an SNL sketch, leading to years of addiction struggles

Variety

The 1996-2003 Saturday Night Live cast member is releasing a memoir on Tuesday, titled Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live. In it, Kattan claims he broke his neck on the May 12, 2001 SNL episode in an "MSNBC Investigates" sketch, about a group of kids who role play as The Golden Girls. Kattan was supposed to fall back in his chair, but he writes that he ended up hitting his head hard on the floor. In a separate interview, Kattan tells Variety that he broke his neck, and NBC paid for two of his five surgeries, but that he never really pushed for NBC, SNL or Lorne Michaels to pay for his full medical bills. "NBC had stopped paying my medical costs after the second surgery,” he writes in his book. “The SNL family I was part of had stopped taking care of me, and soon I wasn’t able to pay for everything myself. But I never really fought for myself or demanded anything. I never thought about the potential legal ramifications of what had happened to me on the set and what was happening now." Kattan couldn't provide documentation to Variety that NBC was aware of his injury, while Michaels declined to comment. An NBC spokesperson says there is no record of any claim. Meanwhile, Variety spoke to SNL insiders who don't remember Kattan's injury. "Insiders said they would have known had Kattan broken his neck on the show — it would have been a serious enough incident that the network’s legal team and human resources would have been involved, particularly because it happened on camera," reports Variety's Michael Schneider. "But they weren’t — leaving insiders to wonder if Kattan was remembering correctly." Kattan writes that the injury led to years of drug and painkiller addiction. “Even today, I still can’t open my hand wide enough to use my fingers normally on the keyboard,” he writes in his book. “The impact that my injury and subsequent surgeries had on my career was immense, but more importantly, the fallout proved to be devastating to some of the closest relationships in my life.” Kattan tells Variety he regrets not coming forward in 2001, pointing out that today is "a different day and age" when it comes to workplace "injury or harassment or anything." "This is not too long ago but it was more of a faux pas to say anything, especially if it has to do with your showbiz family," he says.