THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND GETS FRISKED

Who in the world does not know Forest Whitaker? He was only in some of the best movies known to man like "Platoon", "Good Morning, Vietnam", "Phone Booth", and who can ever forget his Oscar-winning performance in "The Last King of Scotland"? Well, apparently, an employee at a Morningside Heights deli has never seen any of his movies because they felt the need to stop Whitaker on his way out and pat him down to check him for shoplifting. That's right! If this isn't a case of racial profiling, I'm not sure what is. 

The Oscar-winner visited the Morningside Heights gourmet deli, Milano Market, this past Friday around lunchtime. As he was walking out, an overzealous employee stopped him, charged that he stole something from the store shelves, and proceeded to pat him down. The humiliating episode was confirmed by a store employee, "It was around lunchtime and the store was packed. We were like 50 people deep. The person walked in and out really quickly so our person just made a mistake. The employee apologized immediately. It was an honest mistake. I've been here 14 years and nothing like this has ever happened." Right! And nothing like this should happen. Why were they so quick to jump on Whitaker? Because he was black? If I was Forest Whitaker, I'd be pretty pissed off about the situation. Technically, that is defamation of character, and this guy has a pretty high profile to be defaming him in front of a packed deli. 

Supposedly, many stars frequent Milano Market, a Columbia University-area gourmet deli specializing in Italian fare. Tobey McGuire and Sarah Jessica Parker have also been seen at this upscale shop. Whitaker's reps say that the star was troubled by the incident. His publicist said that Whitaker did nothing more than just walk into the deli and what is most unfortunate about the situation is the inappropriate way the store employees are treating patrons of their establishment. 

Whitaker, who lives in California, was in New York working on a project and was unavailable to discuss the incident. His publicist did say that 51-year-old Whitaker opted not to call the police about the allegation because the worker was afraid to be fired. Whitaker did ask the employee, in the future, to change their behavior and treat the public in a fair and just manner. Screw that! I would've taken this place down and taken them for everything they have. Then again, I'm not Forest Whitaker and I don't have the fame and fortune that he has, so I can make that statement. Due to his high profile and the fact that he probably has more money than God, I guess it was best that he took the high road and looked at this as a silly mistake.