Posted on 10/25/2007 2:21:28 PM PDT by blam
Halle Berry apologises for 'Jewish nose' gaffe
By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 1:40pm BST 25/10/2007
Halle Berry, Hollywood's leading black actress, has been forced to apologise after making a joke about the size of Jewish people's noses on a US television chat show.
The Oscar-winning star remarked that a digitally-altered photo of her face made her look like her "Jewish cousin", during an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.
As Leno squirmed and the audience sat in embarrassed silence, Berry appeared to appreciate the gravity of her error.
"Oh God, Have I just ruined my career?" she asked.
The word "Jewish" was cut from the dialogue when the show was broadcast on Friday night, but audience members leaked full details of the exchange onto the Internet, prompting Berry, a vociferous critic of Hollywood racism, to issue a full apology.
"I didn't mean to offend anyone. I didn't. I didn't mean any harm … It was just supposed to be a silly segment. I am so sorry, and I apologize," she told The New York Post newspaper.
The actress, 41, went on to claim that her Jewish assistant had actually come up with the nose "joke" backstage, whilst leafing through the distorted photos that were to be used on the show.
"I guess it was fresh in my mind and it just came out of my mouth. But I didn't mean to offend anybody," Berry said.
The photos had been created by Berry herself using computer software which allows people to warp their own images.
Three of her assistants were Jewish, Berry added.
The one-time Bond girl, who was close to tears during her phone call to the Post according to the newspaper, said that she had asked the programme's producers to cut out her remarks after she realised the offence they may cause.
Berry, who is four months pregnant, is currently in London promoting her new film Things We Lost In The Fire.
In 2002 she became the first black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar when she was honoured for her role in Monster's Ball.
She has also appeared in the Bond film Die Another Day, Catwoman and the X-Men series.
John Kerry would have said: “It was a nose joke, and I blew it.”
Nice to see her squirm!
good times...good times
Lefty.
this Halle gaffe is no big deal to me at all
i could care less
stereotyping about noses is no worse than doing it about dingalings
that said...Berry is moonbat like the rest of them out there
she’s Obama black (when it suits her)
Good grief- America, LIGHTEN UP!!!!
PC is killing us.
I don’t believe for one second that she’s anti-semitic..particularly considering her jewish assistant made the remark first- AS A JOKE!
Oh, is she the actress whose black father left her stranded with her white mother, and who now continues to call herself black, because all black things are good, and whites things are not good? Isn’t she the one who is flaunting her unwed pregnancy to the public even though unwed pregnancies are a MAJOR problem in the black communities nation-wide (70%)?
Too bad we are still counting blacks and whites because NONE of us are black or white. Basically, we’re all Americans (well, most of us). So she’s displaying the trendy and highly accepted black racism that so permeates America today.
Of course, if she were a smart as she is beautiful (and she IS beautiful), she wouldn’t make such stupid comments. But she’ll be excused . . . she’s “black.”
She doesn’t look Druish to me?
I remember Paul Lynde on the Hollywood Squares. The question was what those things are that little Mexican children like to break with sticks. His answer was, “Church windows.” Nowadays...
Bumper sticker on muslim car:
My wife is an honor student at Abu Abbas Elementary School.....
I loved Rickles when I was a kid. Funny guy. And probably still funnier than half the ones out there now.
A long time ago, I was listening to the Jim Bohannon show. He had an expert on terrorism on his show, and a caller asked if it was possible to hide plastic explosives up your nose. Bohannon seemed extremely offended at the question, and did not ask the guest for comment.
I thought to myself, “Plastic explosives that look like boogers...I guess that would be hard to detect.”
It finally dawned on me that Middle Easterners have larger than average sized noses.
It’s Steve Jobs’ fault.
Well, she did the photo funnies on a Mac with an iSight camera, right?
That's the best photo I've ever seen of her. She looks like someone from India. In "Swordfish" and the usual photo her hair is way too short.
ping
That last one looked like Rosie O’Doughnut.
Oh hell it’s just a damn joke.
Watch an SNL episode from the 70s...or Blazing Saddles...and realize that half that stuff would be “offensive” today.
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