Jason Alexander apologises over lewd skit involving underage model
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Seinfeld star Jason Alexander has apologised to model and media personality Courtney Stodden for a lewd comedy sketch the pair performed in 2012, when Stodden was just 17.
The apology comes after Stodden publicly called out the sketch, which was performed for the US comedy website Funny Or Die, in a long Instagram post earlier this week.
Jason Alexander has apologised to Courtney Stodden over a 2012 sketch.
“ Jason Alexander repeatedly rubbed his phone across my breasts while saying there was ‘no signal’ in my head but ‘plenty of signal’ in my chest,” Stodden, now 31, alleged in the post, which included a photograph from the sketch in which Stodden is dressed in a red bikini top and Alexander appears to be touching her chest with a mobile phone.
“Later in the sketch, he joked that when I turned 18 he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’ with me,” she alleged.
“I was a minor. I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults.
“Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke,” she said.
She alleged that Alexander had written the sketch, which was titled The Donny Clay Show with Courtney Stodden and Alexander’s IMDB page does include a credit for it.
On Thursday morning (AEST) Alexander – who came to fame as George Costanza, the best friend of Jerry Seinfeld’s titular character in the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld – gave a statement to Hollywood gossip site TMZ apologising for the incident.
The cast of Seinfeld: Michael Richards as Kramer, Jerry Seinfeld as Jerry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine and Jason Alexander as George.AFP
“Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it,” he told the outlet.
“But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
Following media coverage of the apology, Stodden told The Hollywood Reporter she had not heard from the 66-year-old star personally.
“I appreciate Jason Alexander’s public apology. People keep asking if he’s apologised privately, and he hasn’t. A private apology would be meaningful, but meaningful action would be even more powerful,” she said.
“If he truly regrets what happened, I’d invite him to support Unchained At Last and the fight to end child marriage through AB 1267,” she continued. “That’s how we turn accountability into lasting change.”
Courtney Stodden and Doug Hutchinson in 2013.WireImage
Stodden is involved with the charity Unchained At Last, which seeks to end forced marriage and child marriage; AB 1267 is a proposed law in California that would set a strict minimum age of 18 for marriage or entry into a domestic partnership.
Stodden was a child model who first came to widespread fame when she married The Green Mile actor Doug Hutchinson when she was 16 and he was 51.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday (US time) Stodden made reference to the proposed law and her own experience.
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life proving why what happened to me was wrong. I want to spend it making sure the next child never has to explain why they deserved protection in the first place,” she said.
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Chris Hook is Culture News Editor Sydney for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.