Probe of Racism Claim Dropped

The Anti-Defamation League has dropped its investigation into an actress’s claim of racism on the set of “E.R.,” the popular NBC medical drama.

Last week, the civil rights organization said it was conducting an inquiry into actress Thea Perkins’ accusation that actor George Clooney had made a derogatory racial remark on the set.

Randall Steinberg, regional assistant director of the ADL, a division of B’Nai Brith, said he interviewed 17 people, some of whom would have been eyewitnesses to such an incident and some of whom were character witnesses.

Warner Bros., which produces “E.R.,” investigated the charges last week and found them groundless, said spokeswoman Barbara Brogliatti.

Clooney had no comment. Perkins, a 27-year-old actress from Chicago, had a job as an extra on the set of “E.R.” She said she walked out after hearing Clooney make a remark about the Ku Klux Klan to actor Deezer D., an African American who plays an orderly.

But Deezer D. said that he, not Clooney, briefly mentioned the KKK: After Clooney put a yellow burn mask on his head, Deezer D. joked that he looked like a Klansman. Clooney, Deezer D. said, never responded.

Steinberg said that the witnesses he interviewed confirmed Deezer D.’s account. He said the ADL had never supported Perkins in her claim, but had merely agreed to investigate it.