LOS ANGELES – The Ohio homeless man whose smooth radio voice made him an internet sensation has had another brush with the law.
Ted Williams was questioned by police after he and his daughter got into a heated argument at a hotel during a trip to Hollywood to appear on Dr Phil and Entertainment Tonight.
“I don’t know how loud they were,” Officer Catherine Massey said, but the argument around 9pm on Monday at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa led to a disturbance report.
“It was minor. Both parties were angry but there were no signs of visible abuse,” Massey said today. She said Mr Williams and his daughter “were brought in, calmed down, talked to and released” and she did not know the nature of the argument.
Williams and his daughter were held at the Hollywood police station for less than an hour and they were not arrested, Massey said.
She declined to name Williams’ daughter, but a statement from Entertainment Tonight identified her as Janey Williams and said the two would discuss the incident on the TV show.
It was not known whether the two returned to the hotel next to the Hollywood Boulevard home of the Academy Awards presentation.
“Due to guest privacy laws, we don’t share details of our guests or their stays,” said Dan Shaughnessy, director of sales and marketing for the Renaissance.
Williams’ manager, Al Battle, declined to comment about or provide details of the incident but said a statement would be issued soon.
“Once we get all the facts, it’ll be out there for everybody to have,” he said in a brief phone interview with The Associated Press.
Entertainment Tonight covered his meeting with voiceover actors at a Screen Actors Guild Foundation sound studio who offered to help Williams become a guild member voiceover artist, according to a show statement.
The two-part Dr Phil episode was taped over the weekend to air on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On the Wednesday segment, Williams meets with his ex-wife, Patricia, and five of his nine children, according to a statement from the show.
“In this emotional reunion, Williams talks openly with his family about the man he is today, the influences that threaten his sobriety and what his children can expect from him in the future. His children respond in a very raw and candid manner,” the statement said.
“Everyone is pulling for Ted, but his “15 minutes of fame” are going to be over and then he’ll be left to manage a life filled with temptation,” host Phil McGraw said.
“We’re going to try and help him prepare for that because it would be a real tragedy if he did not make the most of this extraordinary second chance.”
Williams, 53, trained to be a radio announcer but found his life derailed by drugs and alcohol in the 1990s. He has served time in prison for theft and forgery and has been cited with numerous misdemeanours, including drug abuse.
Williams became famous almost overnight after The Columbus Dispatch newspaper posted a web video of him last week. Viewers were enthralled to hear a deep, honeyed professional voice coming from the shabbily dressed man.
Since then, he has done a TV commercial for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, appeared on various news shows, recorded voiceover promos for cable news and was offered an announcing job with the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.
Although he says he has been clean for more than two years, the recovering addict has acknowledged that it has been challenging dealing with sudden fame.
“I wanted a nerve pill yesterday, to be honest with you,” he told CBS on Friday.
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