Oscars hold bad memories for viral star Gary

There’s been plenty of unwanted off-screen drama for “Gary from Chicago” ever since he was abruptly introduced to the world at last year’s Academy Awards.

The viral star — whose full name is Gary Alan Coe — delighted audiences after the Los Angeles tour bus he was on last February stopped at the Oscars, allowing him and other tourists to meet celebrities at the award show during a televised segment.

But days after the Oscars, Coe’s criminal record began to garner attention from the media, much to his chagrin.

“It was horrible,” Coe told The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t ask to be put on the Oscars. I was minding my own business.”

Coe had been released from prison only three days earlier after 20 years behind bars. He’d been sentenced as part of the three-strikes law in California, with one of his arrests for an alleged attempted rape.

The 60-year-old Coe was accompanied during that surprise trip to the Oscars by his then-fiancee. Denzel Washington, seated at the front of the audience, memorably pretended to officiate their wed- ding during the show.

But their engagement end- ed within a week of the award show, and the Oscars saga was a factor, according to THR.

Coe, now engaged to a different woman, says the media attempted to make his Oscar moment “something ugly.”

“And how about the way it’s come down? Look what hap- pened to Harvey Weinstein!” he said. “Come to find out that the people up in really high places are the ones we should’ve been watching, and not some poor little black guy that’s been locked away in prison for the last 20 years!”