Gary Oldman Apologizes for Defending Mel Gibson's Anti-Semitic Comments

Gary Oldman is apologizing for an extremely controversial interview he gave to Playboy, in which he defended the antics of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin against what he called the double standards of the liberal media.

In light of the resulting firestorm, Oldman has apologized.

Credit: Warner Bros.

Wrote Oldman in a statement obtained by Deadline:

Dear Gentlemen of the [Anti-Defamation League]:

I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people. 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. Anything that contributes to this stereotype is unacceptable, including my own words on the matter. 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.

I hope you will know that this apology is heartfelt, genuine, and that I have an enormous personal affinity for the Jewish people in general, and those specifically in my life. The Jewish People, persecuted thorough the ages, are the first to hear God’s voice, and surely are the chosen people.

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–Gary Oldman.

Said the director for the ADL in response, "We have just began a conversation with his managing producer. At this point, we are not satisfied with what we received. His apology is insufficient and not satisfactory."

Oldman's cringe-inducing commentary included mentions of Mel Gibson's Anti-Semitic outburst and his downfall being the fault of Jewish Hollywood as well as the recent antics of Alec Baldwin, a fan of using and then denying homosexual slurs.

"I don’t know about Mel," Oldman explained. "He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things. We're all f--king hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word 'n--er' or 'that f--king Jew'? I’m being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy. Or maybe I should strike that and say 'the N word' and 'the F word,' though there are two F words now."

He continued of Gibson, "He's like an outcast, a leper, you know? But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn’t turned and said, 'That f--king kraut' or 'F--k those Germans,' whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me. It's just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going, 'Isn't that shocking?'"

"if I called Nancy Pelosi a c--nt ... I can't really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody's going to stop them from working because of it ... Is that more or less offensive than Alec Baldwin saying to someone in the street, 'You f--g'? I don’t get it."