VIDEO - Reporter disrupts ‘Ted Lasso’ cast appearance at White House

A White House press event featuring “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis was rocked by Hollywood-worthy drama Monday when a reporter went rogue on Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

“You’ve been discriminating against me, you’ve been discriminating against some people in the briefing room!” Simon Ateba of Today News Africa loudly shouted at Jean-Pierre, criticizing her for not calling on him, a repeated complaint of his.

The White House press secretary shot back, “We’re not doing this” — and said it again several times as Ateba continued to heckle her from the gallery.

Meanwhile, Sudeikis and his hit show’s co-stars Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, Brett Goldstein, and Toheeb Jimoh awkwardly stood behind Jean-Pierre before their visit with President Biden and first lady Jill Biden to discuss mental health.

An embarrassed Jean-Pierre turned around and quipped to the stars, “Welcome to the press briefing room.”

She then said to Ateba, “Are we ready? Are we going to behave?”

When he continued to shout, she turned to Sudeikis and said, “I apologize.”

The “Saturday Night Live” alum responded, “No, it’s OK, it’s alright.”

But even after Sudeikis addressed reporters about the group’s mental-health cause, Ateba’s outburst continued, with Jeff Mason of Reuters finally jumping in to try to calm things.

“If you have grievances, you should bring them to her later,” Mason told the griping reporter.

"Irish is I come over there and smack that dumb look off your face."

Jason Sudekis plays a rather bellicose Joe Biden in SNL’s Veep debate with Paul Ryan from 2012🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/sITvq81kAQ

— Oliver Barnes (@mroliverbarnes) September 29, 2020

“Right now, this is for the entire press corps, and the press corps is tired of dealing with this,” Mason said.

Ateba – a frequent sparring partner of both Jean-Pierre and ex-Press Secretary Jen Psaki –  took to Twitter after the contentious exchange to announce that he would be appearing on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Monday to discuss how the White House “disrespected” him by not allowing him to ask a question in seven months. 

During calmer moments at the presser, Sudeikis previewed his meeting with the Bidens, who are said to have gotten a kick out of the “message of positivity, hope, kindness and empathy” in the cast’s Emmy-winning Apple TV+ show about a clueless but hopeful American soccer coach in London.

The president was expected to discuss “the importance of addressing your mental health to promote overall well-being” with the cast, according to officials.

Sudeikis said “the wish fulfillment of the show” is helping people take care of each other like the players on his fictional AFC Richmond team do.

“No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter who you voted for, we all probably, I assume, we all know someone who has, or have been that someone ourselves actually, that’s struggled, that’s felt isolated, that’s felt anxious, that has felt alone,” said the 47-year-old comic actor.

“It’s actually one of the many things, believe it or not, that we all have in common as human beings,” he said.

“It’s something that we can all – and should – talk about with one another when we’re feeling that way or when we recognize that in someone feeling that way.”

“Ted Lasso” actor James Lance posed as the show’s fictitious reporter Trent Crimm for the event, making himself part of the press corps to ask Sudeikis how he felt about the funnyman’s hometown of Kansas City being tapped for a World Cup game.

“Trent Crimm, The Independent,” Lance said in introducing himself in his character’s trademark style.

Sudeikis quipped in response to “Crimm’s” question, “Here I was hoping for a softball,” before singing the virtues of the Missouri city.

In addition to “Lasso,” Sudeikis is well known for lampooning Biden on “SNL,” when the Democratic pol served as Barack Obama’s vice president and in the run-up to the 2020 election.

But Sudeikis deferred when asked by reporters Monday to do his impersonation of Biden, saying, “We have the real one here” — adding that besides, he didn’t have “fake teeth” to complete the picture.

Biden, 80, touted his upcoming meeting with the cast on Twitter on Sunday with a yellow “Believe” sign above the door to the Oval Office, accompanied by the simple caption, “Tomorrow.”

In the show, Lasso has the sign above his office door to motivate his middling team to make the most of their potential.

Biden’s administration secured hundreds of millions of dollars last year to expand mental-health services nationwide.

With AP wires