Kim Kardashian Gets Apology From 'Blackface Kanye' After Vienna Ball Debacle

It wasn't all waltzes and strudel for Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner in Vienna Thursday night.

Kim was the victim of not one, but two racially charged incidents at the Vienna Opera Ball — and now one of the comics involved is apologizing for an ill-conceived "joke."

Kardashian, 33, was the guest of billionaire Richard Lugner, who reportedly paid the reality star half a million dollars to escort him to the soiree.

Almost every social group and profession in Austria throws balls, but according to Reuters, the Opera Ball "is the most elite" of them all. Lugner likes to upstage the event with an array of celebrity guests, which have in the past included Pamela Anderson, Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, and the late Larry Hagman. But none of those stars never had to endure what Kardashian did.

While Kim was posing for pictures with Lugner, a Sacha Baron Cohen-type guerrilla comedian named Christian Stephan approached Kim in blackface, pretending to be her fiancé, Kanye West. Kim reportedly stayed calm during her encounter with Stephan — whose shtick involves dressing up in an attention-grabbing crazy costume every year — and then walked away.


On Friday, Stephan took to his Facebook page to apologize for his remarks and appearance. According to a Web translation of the mea culpa from the original German, he includes the words "I'm sorry" and calls the ill-fated encounter a "misunderstanding."

Later, an Austrian TV host was interviewing Kardashian alongside a German comedian and former late-night TV host named Oliver Pocher, when Pocher dropped the N-word in the middle of their interview (at the 3:13 point in the video). He tried to make a joke about "Ni---z in Vienna."

Sounds like a classy event, huh?

It's not the first time Pocher has offended a major celeb. He had his own German talk show from 2009 to 2011 and four years ago he managed to offend Shakira, too. (Fast-forward to the 6:45 mark… although the whole interview's pretty darn awkward.)

The "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" reality cameras were following Kardashian and Jenner while they were at the ball, so presumably, we'll get to see all of this play out on E! sometime in late summer.

[Related: Kim Kardashian Slams Photoshop Claims: 'I Work So Hard!']

Kardashian stayed at the ball following both incidents, but reportedly took off an hour and a half later. And Lugner wasn't exactly happy with the $500K he shelled out for his date. After Kardashian announced on Thursday at Lugner's shopping center that she wouldn't waltz, he later gave an interview in which he said Kardashian was annoying him for not sticking to the agreed upon schedule of events.

Neither Kardashian nor E! immediately responded to calls seeking comment about the trip. But she was back in Los Angeles on Friday, reunited with daughter Nori — and no doubt happy to bid auf Wiedersehen to Vienna.