SerpApi.Org
Jason Alexander is apologizing for filming a comedy sketch with then-17-year-old Courtney Stodden.
Stodden recalled the 2012 Funny or Die sketch and questioned why “so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable.”
“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,” the Seinfeld alum told TMZ in a statement.
He added, “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
Stodden resurfaced the sketch as she advocates for the state of California to pass AB1267, a bill that would ban child marriage. The television personality married 51-year-old Dough Hutchinson in 2011 when she was only 16 years old.
“The older I get, the more impossible this is to understand. During this comedy 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 wrote in an Instagram post. “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. IMDb credits him as one of the writers of the episode.”
Stodden continued, “As an adult, that fact has become harder-not easier-for me to understand. I was a minor. I didn't have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug. The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room. I felt so alone.”
As Stodden looked back at the moment, she said, “I don’t see comedy,” adding, “I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke. People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn't make those decisions for myself. That's the point. I can't change what happened to me but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable?”
Shining light on this past experience is why Stodden says she is speaking up today, adding, “Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn't have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.”
