Jason Alexander apologized to Courtney Stodden for an inappropriate 2012 Funny or Die sketch in which Seinfeld the actor rubbed his mobile phone over Stodden’s chest when she was just 17 years old.
“Looking back at the comedy sketch that Ms. Stodden and I participated in in 2012, I fully agree that it was inappropriate and I sincerely regret it,” Alexander said in a statement shared with Hollywood Reporter. “But more importantly, I deeply regret any harm or distress this has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincere apology.”
However, in a subsequent statement released TPP After Alexander’s apology was widely reported in the press, Stodden said, “I appreciate Jason Alexander’s public apology. People keep asking if he apologized privately, and he hasn’t. A private apology would be meaningful, but meaningful action would be even more powerful.”
“If he truly regrets what happened, I would encourage him to support Unchained at Last and the fight to end child marriage through AB 1267,” she continued. “This is how we turn accountability into lasting change.”
In an Instagram post on Monday, Stodden shared a photo from the sketch where she was wearing a red bikini top and Alexander was holding a phone over her chest. In the caption, she explained that she was underage when it was filmed. She wrote: “Jason Alexander repeatedly rubbed the phone on my chest, saying there was ‘no signal’ in my head but ‘lots of signal’ in my chest.”
“Later in the sketch, he joked that when I turned 18, he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’. IMDb lists him as one of the writers of the episode. As an adult, this fact has become harder, not easier, for me to understand,” she continued. “I was a minor. I had no legal authority to decide if I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug (Hutchison). The production moved forward. I was the only kid in the room. I felt so alone.”
The model married her ex-husband Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison when she was 16 years old. He was 51 years old. In an Instagram post, she said that looking back, she wonders how any adult allowed the sketch to happen.
“Looking back, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body was part of an adult joke. People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions on my own. That’s the whole 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 it was acceptable?” she wrote. “That’s why I’m speaking today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They don’t have to be adults before they understand that the law should have protected them from the beginning.”