Opinion: SCTV vs. the DSM: Body snatchers pursue Rosato; Robin Duke prepares for attack by invisible invaders
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Fairly obscure SCTV and Saturday Night Live legacy Tony Rosato has apparently gone bonkers and is at the center of a fascinating miscarriage of justice north of the border. Back in the Carter-Reagan era, Rosato made a brief splash when he and Robin Duke joined the SCTV cast at the end of its first-era instantiation. (I’ve always found the crabbed releasing and syndication history of SCTV impossible to untangle, but Rosato, I think, was there in the post-Harold Ramis/pre-Rick-Moranis interregnum.) And he was pretty funny, there and later at SNL. Like all the SCTV vets, Rosato ended up having a career about a tenth as large as it should have been, but things really began to head south a few years ago:
According to his Toronto lawyer, Daniel Brodsky, Rosato was arrested after repeatedly complaining to police that, in a scenario reminiscent of the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the actor’s wife and their infant daughter had gone missing, having been replaced by imposters.
Initially charged with public mischief for trying to get the police involved in the search for his changeling wife, Rosato eventually saw that charge dropped and was charged instead with harassment. They take a different view of public records in the Great White North, so some of Rosato’s court records are unavailable. Thus it’s not entirely clear why he has been in jail for more than two years without trial, but some elements are known:
Arraignment documents show Rosato was denied bail almost three months after his arrest, after undergoing a mental fitness assessment. He has never had a bail review, and his trial (by judge alone) isn’t scheduled until Nov. 13.
Whole story. His lawyer notes that the period Rosato has spent in jail awaiting trial exceeds the prison sentence for people actually convicted of criminal harassment in Canada. Is this out of concern for the estranged wife’s safety? Dissatisfaction with the pace of SCTV releases on DVD? The curse of the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players? Just about everybody quoted here seems to believe Rosato belongs in a mental hospital, not a jail (with the notable exception of Rostao himself).