Two men wearing anti-Ryan Lochte shirts were arrested after they took to the dance floor of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” at the live broadcast of its season premiere at CBS Television City in the Fairfax district.
The protesters were apparently against the appearance of Lochte, a swimmer who made headlines with a false account of being robbed at gunpoint by police during last month’s Summer Olympics in Brazil.
The men walked onto the dance floor as judges discussed Lochte’s performance with dance partner Cheryl Burke Monday night.
“Two individuals stormed the dance floor tonight and were immediately subdued and escorted out of the building,” a spokesperson for BBC Worldwide Productions, which produces “Dancing with the Stars,” told City News Service.
ABC7’s entertainment reporter tweeted a photo of the forlorn-looking men, identified by the Los Angeles Police Department as 48-year-old Sam Sododeh and 40-year-old Barzeen Soroudi, both of Los Angeles, who wore shirts bearing Lochte’s name in a circle with a line through it.
Several women were removed from the audience after they shouted anti- Lochte chants, ABC7 reported.
Sododeh and Soroudi posed as audience members and were arrested on suspicion of trespassing, according to Officer Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section.
—City News Service