“Seinfeld” alum Jason Alexander issued an apology to reality star Courtney Stodden after she called him out on Instagram for filming an inappropriate comedy sketch her when she was a minor. Stodden was 17 years old when she filmed a Funny or Die sketch with Alexander that parodied “Dr. Phil” and other daytime talk shows. The sketch went online in 2012 and featured Alexander rubbing a cellphone on Stodden’s breasts because it was the only area with “plenty of signal.”
“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,” Alexander said in a statement to TMZ. “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
Variety has reached out to Alexander’s representatives for additional statement.
Stodden resurfaced the sketch in an Instagram post in which she wrote: “I was 17 years old in this photo. 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. 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. 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 [ex-husband Doug Hutchison]. The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room. I felt so alone.”
“Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke,” Stodden continued. “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? That’s exactly why I speak out today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.”
Stodden is currently advocating for California to pass AB1267, a bill that would ban child marriage by making the legal minimum age 18 years old. Stodden wed 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison in 2011 when she was just 16 years old.