Fourteen and a half years passed before Jason Alexander finally apologized. On Wednesday, the “Seinfeld” actor publicly apologized to Courtney Stodden for a “comedy” skit the two filmed together in which Alexander, who was 52 at the time, fondled 17-year-old Stodden’s breasts with a cell phone and told her that when she turned 18, he
Fourteen and a half years passed before Jason Alexander finally apologized.
On Wednesday, the “Seinfeld” actor publicly apologized to Courtney Stodden for a “comedy” skit the two filmed together in which Alexander, who was 52 at the time, fondled 17-year-old Stodden’s breasts with a cell phone and told her that when she turned 18, he would take her behind the couch and have his way with her.
“As I look back on the comedy sketch that Ms. Stodden and I participated in in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it,” Alexander said in a statement to Variety. “But most importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress I have caused Ms. Stodden. I offer my sincerest apologies.”
The sketch, a “Dr. Phil” parody dubbed “The Donny Clay Show” with Alexander playing a creepy talk show host, was released in January 2012 on Funny or Die! website and his YouTube channel (it has since been deleted). Stodden appears in the video alongside Doug Hutchison, a journeyman actor who married her in 2011, when he was 51 and she was just 16. At the time, the media treated Stodden primarily as a punchline and did not hold Hutchison accountable for her predation. Alexander apologized after Stodden, now 31 and divorced from Hutchison, made an Instagram post about how “alone” and exploited she felt making that video.
Stodden says Variety He was pleasantly surprised that Alexander took responsibility for his role in the disturbing sketch, which he also co-wrote, but was able to go a step further. “I’m very surprised that an adult was able to take responsibility because I haven’t heard many adults take responsibility,” Stodden explains. “When I first heard that he had publicly apologized, I was grateful because I think it’s the first step toward change. At the same time, I think it would be even better if he put it into action, which is why I urge Jason Alexander to support AB 1267 and support what’s happening in California or even donate to Unchained at Last.”
Recently, Stodden has been working with the group Unchained at Last, the only nonprofit in the US dedicated to ending child marriage, to convince California to pass AB 1267, a bill that would effectively ban child marriage by setting the minimum legal age for marriage at 18.
“It’s really scary that there is no minimum age for marriage in California,” Stodden says. “There are only two other states that allow this, Mississippi and New Mexico, and to think that California allows it is shocking.”
As for Funny or Die! sketch, Stodden says it was only years after appearing in the video that he realized how disgusting it was. He realized it when he was watching “Pretty Woman” for the first time and came to the scene where Jason Alexander’s villain attacks Julia Roberts’ prostitute in a hotel suite.
“I was shocked,” he says of watching the “Pretty Woman” scene. “It felt very close to home, and like I pulled out ‘Pretty Woman’ and thought it would be fun to recreate it with a girl. I didn’t know what I was going to get on set.”
Stodden continues: “I was very manipulated. Even if I didn’t look what a child should look like, or what a ‘victim’ should look like, there was a child buried there. I really trusted the adults around me, and this is the effect of that. Looking back, it’s really damaging. “It’s not about revisiting my past, but about changing the experiences of minors in the future so that they don’t have to experience what I had to experience.”
Although she received public apologies from Chrissy Teigen for cyberbullying her, and now from Jason Alexander, Stodden has never received any kind of mea culpa from Dr. Drew Pinsky who, when she was just 16, performed an ultrasound on Stodden’s breasts on his show “Lifechangers” to prove they were real.
“Dr. Drew actually doubled down and had his wife sarcastically invite me on his podcast to further exploit me,” Stodden recalls. “Receiving an apology from an actor and not a doctor is something diabolical.”
Stodden, along with a group of other survivors affiliated with Unchained at Last, will visit the California State Capitol again next month to speak with lawmakers about ending child marriage in the state she calls home. She is also focused on finishing her memoirs and can will participate in a documentary series that chronicles her fight to end child marriage.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to be remembered for what happened to me,” Stodden says. “I want to be remembered for helping make sure this doesn’t happen to another child again.”
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