Gary Oldman has already apologized for that interview

By Katie Rife  |  June 25, 2014 | 5:25pm
Aux Features Gary Oldman

Perhaps hoping to hasten the cycle of celebrity outrage that will see him spending a few weeks at a luxury rehab in Malibu, Gary Oldman has apologized for the anti-Semitic things he said in the naked lady magazine. After Playboy published a controversial interview with the actor wherein he defends Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin in the course of decrying political correctness, Oldman sent an open letter to the Anti-Defamation League saying he’s sorry everyone got so offended.

“I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy interview were offensive to many Jewish people,” the letter reads. “Upon reading my comments in print—I see how insensitive they may be, and how they may indeed contribute to the furtherance of a false stereotype.”

Oldman goes on to elaborate on his comment that Hollywood is “a town run by Jews,” saying that he just read a book about how Jews run the movie business, so they should take it as a compliment.

“If, during the interview, I had been asked to elaborate on this point I would have pointed out that I had just finished reading Neal Gabler’s superb book about the Jews and Hollywood, An Empire Of Their Own: How The Jews Invented Hollywood. The fact is that our business, and my own career specifically, owes an enormous debt to that contribution.”

Oldman then goes on to mention that he has Jewish friends and they “surely are the chosen people,” before concluding, “I would like to sign off with ‘Shalom Aleichem’—but under the circumstances, perhaps today I lose the right to use that phrase, so I will wish you all peace.” Almost immediately, the Anti-Defamation League rejected Oldman’s apology as “insufficient and not satisfactory.”

Oldman’s apologies to the LGBT community, African-Americans, Germans, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s family, the Pope, and The Fifth Element are presumed to be still forthcoming.

 
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