‘Seinfeld’ alum Jason Alexander apologizes for ‘inappropriate’ Courtney Stodden comedy sketch
Jason Alexander is apologizing for his “inappropriate” comedy sketch with a then-underage Courtney Stodden.
“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 Page Six in a statement Tuesday.
“But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden,” he added. “I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
On Monday, Stodden took to Instagram and called out Alexander for the controversial 2012 “Funny or Die” sketch, titled “The Don Clay Show with Courtney Stodden,” in which the actor rubbed a phone against her breasts.
“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,” she began in the caption of the 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,” she recalled, noting that Alexander is listed as a writer on the sketch in addition to starring in it alongside Stodden and her then-husband, Doug Hutchison, according to IMDb.
“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.”
Stodden, now 31, said she doesn’t see the sketch as comedy looking back on it 14 years later and recalled being the “only child in the room” of the production and feeling “so alone.”
“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.”
“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?” she concluded her post. “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.”
In a statement to Page Six about the sketch, Stodden said: “At 17, I was a minor working in an environment where the adults around me were responsible for my safety and well-being. Looking back as an adult, I see those experiences very differently than I did at the time.”
“My reason for speaking out now isn’t about revisiting the past for its own sake… it’s about helping create a future where children are better protected and where adults in positions of power are held to a higher standard,” she added.
Stodden and Hutchison infamously wed in 2011 when he was 51 and she was just 16. She has since branded the “Green Mile” actor as a “predator” and “pedophile” for the union.
Hutchison, now 66, has dismissed his ex-wife’s claim.
Stodden filed for divorce from Hutchison in 2018 and their divorce was finalized in 2020.
She is now married to film and TV producer Jared Safier.
Stodden’s mother, notably, gave permission for Hutchison to marry her daughter — something Stodden has said her mother has repeatedly apologized for allowing to happen.
The “Celebrity Big Brother” alum currently uses her platform to advocate for the passing of AB 1267, a bipartisan bill that would set the minimum age for marriage to 18 with no exceptions in California.
