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A tall tale from Wesley Snipes?

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published October 31, 2006

The IRS has its I out for Wesley Snipes, indicted in Tampa on eight counts of tax fraud. But when and if the actor returns from a film shoot in Africa, will the feds looking for him high and low know exactly how high - or how low - to look?

The Blade star claims to be 5 feet 10. He's stretching the truth, say numerous contributors to CelebHeights.com.

Devotees of the site are big on height. They discuss how wee-seeming Clay Aiken turns out to be fairly tall (6-1), while TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman isn't at all (5-7). Here, they debate the size of Snipes.

- Rick Gershman, Times staff writer

J. says on 1/Feb/05

Today my teacher . . . initially didn't even notice that he passed by Wesley Snipes because (Snipes) was so small. He says that Snipes is no more than 5 foot 6, maybe 5-7 tops.

Julie says on 27/May/05

Wesley Snipes was in Montreal filming . . . and he had such a big ego and attitude on set. I know it sounds like (I'm) just saying this to be mean, but he is only about 5-7 or 5-8, not much more. Although maybe his fat head makes him think he's taller.

Height Police says on 9/Jun/05

Snipes is short. A friend of mine went to a party and met him and he was tiny, 5-6 or 5-7. The funny thing is there's no way he could actually dunk in White Men Can't Jump.

CelebHeights Editor says on 17/Aug/05

From some random forum, but another for the "Wesley is a shrimp" camp: "I was standing next to Wesley Snipes in South Beach. . . . That guy is not as big as you think. He's in great shape, but he's short as hell! Maybe 5-5. I was a lot taller than him and I'm only 5-8½."

EJ says on 20/Dec/05

My mom (with no prompting) even said he didn't look that much taller than Annabella Sciorra (5-2) when we were watching Jungle Fever. I think 5-8 sounds more plausible.

J-Dog says on 21/Dec/05

(In Blade: Trinity) the arrest sheet states 5-8 along with other characteristics. I doubt (the filmmakers) would round down Snipes' height by an inch.

sbell says on 17/Feb/06

Listen, ALL, I've met the dude, partied with him in the late eighties in Jacksonville, FL and the dude is . . . 5-6, 5-7 at the most! I'm 5-8½ and he looked like a midget to me with my heels on.

sgt pepper says on 30/Mar/06

I've long since become used to my height (5-6½ so I measure persons I meet relative to my height, and since I'm a decent artist, my eye is pretty good.

I actually like Wesley Snipes a lot. . . . So when I say he's 5-5, it's because I served him a drink at a function in Downtown L.A., and he wasn't quite eye to eye with me, and I was in comfortable shoes.

No one here should feel bad for him because he isn't 5-9. He's nice to his wife and can kick your a-- all day.

Word for Word is an occasional feature excerpting passages of interest from books, magazines, Web sites and other sources. The text may be edited for space but the original spelling, grammar and punctuation are unchanged.

[Last modified October 30, 2006, 22:14:31]