Tina Fey on Tracy Morgan’s homophobic rant: ‘Doesn’t line up’

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Tracy Morgan (pictured in March) has bothered NBC executives before with his gay jokes, a network insider says. | Dimitrios Kambouris~Getty Images

Updated: August 3, 2011 7:37PM

Even though Tracy Morgan has apologized for his homophobic comments at a June 3 stand-up show in Nashville — and received some support from “30 Rock” boss Tina Fey — it seems the firestorm Morgan unleashed is not dying down.

Fey quickly distanced herself from Morgan’s violence-tinged comment (about killing his son if he learned he was gay), but released a statement saying his rant “was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT community.

“It also doesn’t line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person.”

Fey also hopes Morgan’s gay and lesbian colleagues at “30 Rock” will accept his apology, or else “Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket.”

† I’ve learned from an NBC source that Morgan’s many previous anti-gay cracks have long rankled a number of his network colleagues, both gay and straight. “All those gay characters he portrays — it’s always clear he’s making fun of gay people, merely fueling those lispy-voiced stereotypes that have really gotten so stale,” added my source.

BROADWAY BOUND: A big contingent of prominent Chicagoans — including many who have invested in the long-delayed opening of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” — are enroute to the big official New York opening Tuesday night. Originating producer David Garfinkle, Sugar Rautbord, Nick Pritzker, Jeffrey Hecktman and Diane and Richard Weinberg likely will rub shoulders at the posh opening with show co-creators Bono and the Edge from U2, Donald and Melania Trump, Liz Smith, Janet Langhart and her husband, ex-Sen. William Cohen, and possibly Ivanka Trump.

Don’t know if this will happen, but there has been talk about one empty seat at the opening having a spotlight focused on it — to tweak an absent Julie Taymor. The show’s original director and co-writer is demanding a $300,000 royalty payment — despite having been fired for bloating the production’s budget by tens of millions, making “Spider-Man” the most expensive musical in Broadway history.

STAR GAZING: Now that Katie Holmes and her fashion partner Jeanne Yang have decided to open their first freestanding Holmes & Yang clothing boutique in Beverly Hills later this year, I’m hearing the duo already is thinking of going nationwide — with shops being considered in numerous major markets, including Chicago.

† That May-December romance between actor Jeff Goldblum, 58, and 26-year-old publishing heiress Lydia Hearst is going strong, and getting more and more serious.

SEEN ON THE SCENE: Yes, that was Joe Jonas slurping some sushi at Japonais Friday night, then on Saturday he checked out Sunda and walked over to the Underground, where he was happy to hear the DJ play his new song “See No More.” … Hub 51 was hopping — thanks to the presence of Hawks Patrick Sharp, Jake Dowell and Ryan Johnson, plus Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. … Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts lunched with Chicago’s “first lady of baseball” Dutchie Caray at Harry Caray’s on Kinzie — appropriately eating a Ricketts Family high plains bison filet — and ran into fellow luncher Brotha Fred of KISS-FM.

Bill Zwecker is seen regularly on WFLD-Channel 32.