Law and Order Star and AWHS Alum Richard Belzer Under Fire Over Unreturned Phone Call

The following news story was sent to me from Judd Magilnick of the Andrew Warde High School Class of 1970. Judd lives in Santa Monica, California. A friend of his from Teaneck, New Jersey, sent the New York Daily News article to him. TV's Law and Order star Richard Belzer is a graduate of Andrew Warde High School.

Hey, Shamsher Wadud, Richard Belzer, pictured below, still wants to speak to you — just as soon as your people place a call to his people.

Three months ago, we reported that Wadud, the ailing former owner of Central Park South celebrity hot spot Nirvana, was hoping for a get-well call from the comic and "Law and Order: SVU" actor, who he fondly recalled from high school.

That call never took place — even though last year Lynn Robnett, a rep from Belzer's management company, informed us that the actor would be happy to talk to Wadud — and had even volunteered the proceeds from a future stand-up comedy appearance to help his old school mate.

That was in late November. Since then, we hear that Wadud, who's bankrupt and suffers from Parkinson's disease, among other ailments, has become seriously bummed that the Belz hasn't called.

"I am deeply hurt," he told us through his loyal pal and unpaid publicist Sy Presten.

And yet, a rep from Belzer's management company says she's made a "couple of attempts to reach Wadud via his cell phone to set up a call between him and Belzer, but he hasn't answered or returned her calls.

"I don't think it's necessary to portray Richard in a bad light," wrote Robnett when Shamsher "is the one not returning" calls.

Robnett says she has the "phone records to prove it," but Wadud's friends counter that no one from Belzer's camp has called.

"Why in the world would Shamsher not return the phone call he's been waiting for for several weeks?" says Presten, who adds: "Shamsher doesn't want anything from Belzer. He just wants to hear some encouraging words and recall old times."

Wadud was an exchange student at Andrew Warde High School in Fairfield, Conn., when he met Belzer and nicknamed him "Jerry Lewis" because the future comic was always cracking jokes.

The future restaurateur lost track of Belzer until 2000 when he learned the he was on "Law and Order." That year, Wadud threw Belzer a lavish birthday party at another eatery he owned, The Landmark, that drew Belzer's castmate Mariska Hargitay and his bud, "Late Show with David Letterman" bandleader Paul Shaffer.

One of Wadud's friends says, Belzer "forgot to thank" Shamsher for the party, but Robnett replies: "Richard is not an ungrateful guy."

She also points out that Belzer and Wadud haven't exactly been close. "Richard hasn't heard his name in 10 years," she says, but she adds, "we get requests like this all the time" and if Wadud will just contact her, she'll set up the call.

Belzer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Frances and Charles Belzer. His father was a candy and tobacco wholesaler. Belzer grew up with his parents and older brother, Leonard. As a youth, Belzer worked as a paperboy and at Modern Tobacco (his parents' business) part-time while attending high school. He was "kicked out of every school he attended." Nonetheless, Belzer attended and graduated from Andrew Warde High School in the neighboring town of Fairfield, Connecticut. Both parents died while he was young; he was 18 when his mother died of cancer and 22 when his father committed suicide.