Artie Lange Back on Howard Stern, Celebs that Quit and Came Back

Artie Lange, the comedian who got into a fight with his assistant Microphone Teddy over who knows what, is back on the air with the Howard Stern Show. It has been reported by various media outlets that Lange and Microphone Teddy got into an all out battle on the air where in the end Stern fired Lange and/or that Lange walked off the show after telling Stern that he quit. Lange then left the studio with his famous last words on that show "I'm not a good person...I gotta leave...I love you."

As it turns out, there are countless fans that think that Lange is a good person. Upon his return to the radio, callers lit up the show's phone lines to show their support for Lange and a successful return. To come back to a job and continue working as if nothing out of the ordinary happened really does take chutzpah. We may never get the full story on what the differences actually were but either way Lange is back on the air as one of Stern's funniest (and we hear underpaid compared to the $500 million budget the show is rumored to have) comedian.

Could an underlying issue have caused this fight during the height of the merger between the two largest communication companies XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio? Or was there an actual change of heart between Stern and Lange? Or could we just toss this into the round file with the rest of the celebrities who have quit their jobs only to return again when things have calmed down? What follows are some highlights of famous celebrities who have quit and soon after have returned to continue with their show's filming, taping, or production.

Shelley Duvall, "The Shining"
The documentary in the DVD release about the production of "The Shining" was filmed by Stanley's daughter Vivian Kubrick and highlights how the director virtually tormented Shelley Duvall emotionally throughout the entire production. Duvall walked out of the filming on multiple occasions only to be coaxed back to finish shooting her scenes. It is generally assumed that this was part of Stanley Kubrick's directorial technique in order to put the actress into the right mindset to portray the extreme terror experienced by her character. At the time, Duvall was also battling an emotional breakup with her boyfriend and the demands of the film put enough pressure on her where at times she found it difficult to handle the work. In many key scenes it appears that she is genuinely terrified and some consider this to be real and not acting.

Luke Perry, "Beverly Hills 90210"
Perry's character, Dylan McKay was the suave rich boy gone wild that all the Beverly Hills High School girls wanted to be with. His on-again off-again disappearances were written in the script as part of his bad boy persona. Each of his disappearances and return to school included the drama of Dylan's dumping one girl in order to date another. The reality is that Luke Perry quit the show a number of times to pursue other projects. Perry quit once again after his character Dylan's marriage to Antonia Marchette, the daughter of a mob boss. In the script her father, not comfortable with the marriage, hired a hitman to kill off Dylan but instead mistakenly killed the wife (the mob boss's daughter) thus forcing Dylan's character to be written out of the show as leaving town by having entered the Witness Protection Program. Dylan appears again for a final time during the last season of the show to pay a visit to his 90210 friends.

Suzanne Somers, "Three's Company"
It seems Suzanne Somers quit "Three's Company" several times. The cast and crew reportedly hated to work with the woman they considered to be the spoiled diva to the point where Joyce DeWitt (who played the smart Janet) and John Ritter (who played the lady's man chef but acted gay when the landlord visited) refused to work with her. After the show's first season, Somers demanded that her salary be increased from $30,000 to $150,000 per episode, in addition to 10% of the show's profits. When the producers did not meet her demands, Somers went on strike and boycotted taping some of the show's episodes. As she was obligated to fulfill her contract, she finished taping scenes but only in short stand-alone scenes where the script had been written with her as having gone to stay with her ailing mother.

Marlon Brando, "Don Juan DeMarco"
It's been rumored that during the last days of shooting the movie Don Juan DeMarco, while clad in a costume consisting of a crisp white shirt, Brando became annoyed for having to wait for Faye Dunaway's makeup application to be completed. Looking for adventure, Brando whisked away co-star Johnny Depp to go off and have some drinks. When the producers finally found Brando and Depp drinking like fishes in a nearby cantina, to their bewilderment, Brando refused to come back to the set to finish his scenes. The producers supposedly were forced to resort to begging Mr Brando to continue filming. Reportedly Brando's reply to the producers begging was to smear salsa and guacamole all over his crisp white shirt. In the end it seems it was Depp who finally got Brando to agree to return to the set - but only after Brando ordered margaritas for the entire crew.

Dave Chappelle, "Chappelle's Show"
Stand-up comic turned sketch-comedy actor Dave Chappelle once had his own show on the cable channel Comedy Central. In June of 2004 while doing a stand-up comedy performance, audience members were acknowledging Chappelle's TV show. In reaction the comic walked off the stage. He returned a few minutes later and told the audience that his show "is ruining my life" and that he disliked "working 900 hours a day." He next told his audience "You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you're not smart enough to get what I'm doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong. You people are stupid."

Later in May of 2005, during the show's third season of taping, Chappelle walked off the production set. He claims that he was unhappy with the pressure coming from Comedy Central's executives and the direction that they were insisting he take with the show. He also claims that he felt some of the comedy bits on the show were "socially irresponsible." After quitting the show, he then embarked on a journey of self-reflection and eventually came back to the business to once again pursue his true passion, stand-up comedy. He completed a comedy tour and also recited his poetry on HBO's Def Poetry Jam. While the comic was defending himself to counterattack the rumors that he was mentally ill and/or on drugs, Comedy Central aired the first episode of his unfinished third season and also released an uncensored DVD of the episodes he had already made.

Vincent Pastore, "Celebrity Apprentice"
Vincent Pastore is the actor that was made super-famous for playing mob turncoat Big Pussy on HBO's "The Sopranos." Actor Pastore's star power increased with him being cast in numerous movies and reality television shows. Pastore was also a contestant on the fourth season of the "Dancing With the Stars" reality TV show and after one week of training, quit. Pastore told interviewers "When I initially committed to joining Dancing with the Stars I didn't realize just how physically demanding it would be for me."

Less than a year later, Pastore reappeared as a contestant on Donald Trump's reality TV show, "Celebrity Apprentice," and donated his $50,000 winnings to the memorial set up for his personal friend, Mitchell Berke, under the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer. The show's contestants were divided into two teams - one of the teams was the women's "Empresario" and the other team was the men's "Hydra." When the men discovered the women of Empresario spying on them, Morgan Piers on Pastore's team bullied him into becoming a "rat" by befriending their competitors on the women's team in order for Pastore to come back to the Hydra men and reveal the women's business strategies.

The women's team, having no clue as to Pastore's motives, accepted him to be a part of their team and received his creative input while he was covertly taking notes on their every move. Later, Pastore would be on the phone giving the men's team the information regarding the women's plans. Pastore eventually confided to Marilu Henner on the women's team that he was actually an informant for the men's team, but she found it hard to believe. The actor then had a change of heart and mind; wanting the women's team to win he took up the cause of the women's team and began working with them in earnest on their marketing projects.

Later on in the wrap-up in The Donald's Boardroom scene Pastore's betrayal as a double agent was revealed. The actor admitted to all present in the boardroom that he really was fishing on both ends of the boat. He then decided to resign from the show. The Donald refused. While the contestants continued to embattle in a heated verbal exchange, Pastore took back his decision to resign. At that point The Donald mustered up all his authority and announced that the men's team was the losers and that the women's team had won the challenge. The women were dismissed from the boardroom while the men's team remained rehashing the show's events and Pastore's disloyalty. The Donald finally decided that Pastore was "not fired" and shook hands before Pastore walked out. As all cats have nine lives, we'll keep our eyes and ears open to see on which show the "Big Pussy" will pop up on next.