Winona Ryder tries laughter to defuse theft scandal

LOS ANGELES -- Winona Ryder has poked fun at her shoplifting arrest on "Saturday Night Live," the MTV Movie Awards and the cover of W magazine, which featured her wearing a "Free Winona" T-shirt.

Her publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said the actress -- who has pleaded innocent to shoplifting and drug charges -- has only been trying to be self-deprecating.

"The jokes that were made were self-mocking," Buxbaum said. "She was trying to joke about herself and at no level was she trying to be disrespectful to the courts and legal system."

But prosecutors aren't amused.

"This is a criminal case, these are serious charges and not really a joking matter," said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Ryder has been stuck trying to promote hew new comedy, "Mr. Deeds," while avoiding serious discussion of the felony case.

Other stars have used humor to blunt a scandal's edge, although usually not until the legal matter has been settled, said Alan Mayer, one of Hollywood's top crisis-management publicists.

"It's not necessarily a bad idea to appear in public and, not so much make light of it, but at least indicate this is not a nuclear confrontation in South Asia," said Mayer, who represented Halle Berry in her 2000 car-crash case.

Hugh Grant's appearance on "The Tonight Show" in 1995 shortly after his arrest with a prostitute is considered a prime example of using humor to defuse a scandal. But the actor joked only after apologizing publicly.

"I think it would be bollocks, really, to hide behind" excuses, he told host Jay Leno. "I did a bad thing ... There you have it."

Ryder, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was arrested in December at a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills for allegedly possessing painkillers without a prescription and stealing nearly $6,000 worth of designer merchandise.