Chevy Chase can’t change

Some highlights:

Two months earlier, in a New Yorker profile, Glover was asked about working with Chase on NBC’s late sitcom “Community.” According to the magazine, Chase, out of envy, tried to throw the younger actor off. Glover said Chase told him, “People think you’re funnier because you’re black.” The New Yorker termed the comments “racial cracks.”

By the time SNL co-creator Lorne Michaels texted Chase an invitation (“you’re still a legend here”) to the season finale in May, the New Yorker thing seemed to have blown over. Then, he ran into Glover, who was doing a cameo in the finale.

“I never saw a guy turn white so fast,” Chevy says.

The line almost sounds like a throwaway, which it is, until you think about how odd it is for Chase to deliver it. He’s only weeks removed from a potential publicity disaster centered on race, and here he is, reentering the minefield with a reference to Glover’s skin color.

Chase can be arrogant, unpredictable and mean. He is a masterful put-down artist. He can be blunt or tone-deaf, depending on what he fesses up to, and he doesn’t always seem to understand the fine line between comic provocation and publicity disaster.

But Chase can also be hilarious, sensitive and surprisingly supportive. Sometimes, he’s all of these things at once.

“I’ve already done what I’ve done. I can’t change anything. And I’m old. I don’t have to worry about what I did anymore. I know who I am. People know who I am who know me. And I’m proud to be who I am. Because I care about people, I care about feelings. I care about warmth, love. It’s everything.”

In a society desperate for confession and redemption, the Fruchter book offered Chase a perfect out. He could peg everything — his occasional outbursts, his bad career decisions, his battles with painkillers — to the horrendous way he was treated. Except Chase would prefer the book just disappear.

“Chevy Chase hiding in a closet from his mother?” he says. “Good God. Take me for who I am now.”