Pauly Shore is showing love to the late Richard Simmons.
The comedian and actor, 56, posted a tribute to the famous fitness guru on Instagram after Simmons died at 76 on Saturday at his home in Los Angeles.
“I just got word like everyone else that the beautiful Richard Simmons has passed. I hope you’re at peace and twinkling up in the heavens,” Shore wrote in a post on Saturday, alongside a photo of Simmons.
“Please give my mother Mitzi and my father Sammy a big hug and kiss for me. You’re one of a kind, Richard. An amazing life. An amazing story,” he added. “They broke the dolphin shorts when they made you.”
Simmons was pronounced dead at his home, and authorities said he appeared to have died from “natural causes.”
Shore, who is slated to portray the late fitness instructor in an upcoming biopic, was at a crossroads with Simmons over the project before his death. Shore previously portrayed him in “The Court Jester,” a short film that premiered at the Sundance film festival in January.
In a Facebook post that month, Simmons blasted the film.
“Hi Everybody! You may have heard they may be doing a movie about me with Pauly Shore. I have never given my permission for this movie. So don’t believe everything you read,” Simmons wrote in a Jan. 17 Facebook post.
The late aerobics king also told People in a statement back in April via his publicist Tom Estey that the Shore production ”does not have my blessing.”
“Some major studios are interested with me being involved in MY story. Who should play me? Tom Cruise lol,” he added in his statement at the time.
Simmons doubled down on his criticisms of the project in an April 24 post on X (formerly Twitter).
“I just read that a man that I don’t know is writing my bio pic starring Pauly Shore. I do not approve this movie,” he wrote. “I am in talks with major studios to create my own bio pic with some help. Wait for this movie.”
Despite Simmons’ disapproval, Shore reacted to the fitness coach’s issues with the biopic by sharing that his condemnation left him “up all night crying.”
“Richard, how do you not approve of this movie? I mean, really, who’s better to play you in a movie than ME?” he wrote in an April 25 Instagram post.“Leonardo DiCaprio’s not gonna play you. Brad Pitt’s not gonna play you. I’m perfect. Everyone already thinks I’m you. We’re the same. Beautiful, inside and out.”
