Fitness icon Richard Simmons is distancing himself from a new biopic about his life starring actor and comedian Pauly Shore.
In a rare social media statement, the reclusive former weight loss guru and pop culture personality denied having any part in the upcoming film about his life.
"Hi Everybody! You may have heard they may be doing a movie about me with Pauly Shore," Simmons posted to Facebook on Wednesday.
"I have never given my permission for his movie. So don't believe everything you read," he wrote. "I no longer have a manager, and I no longer have a publicist. I just try to live a quiet life and be peaceful. Thank you for all your love and support."
The upcoming film is being developed at The Wolper Organization, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. Despite the lack of endorsement from Simmons, the company remains committed to telling his life story.
“While we would love to have him involved, we respect his desire to privacy and plan to produce a movie that honors him, celebrates him and tells a dramatic story,” the Wolper Organization said in a statement. “He is an amazing person, that changed millions of peoples' lives and the effect he has had on the world needs to be recognized.”
Shore expressed his excitement about the project, saying he wanted to share Simmons' "life with the world."
"We all need this biopic now more than ever," Shore said in a statement. "Simmons represented mental health, getting people in shape and being his authentic silly self! Whenever he was on TV you could never take your eyes off of him and he brought such a joy to his appearances that represented nothing but a good time."
The biopic will not be the first time Shore plays the role of Richard Simmons. He stars in the new short film "The Court Jester," directed by Jake Lewis, which is not related to the upcoming feature film.
After decades of appearances on TV as a talk show or game show guest, and being a pitchman for diet plans and his own "Sweatin' to the Oldies" line of workout videos, Simmons stopped making public appearances in 2014 without any explanation.
Rumors and conspiracy theories emerged around Simmons' disappearance from the public eye. A theory claiming he was held hostage by his housekeeper was debunked by Simmons himself in 2016 when he called Savannah Guthrie for a phone interview on "TODAY."
In 2017, Simmons filed a defamation lawsuit against the National Enquirer and Radar Online for running a series of articles alleging he had undergone gender reassignment surgery. The suit was unsuccessful, and Simmons was ordered to pay around $130,000 in attorney fees to the media outlets and their publisher.
