Maybe too little too late?
Matthew Perry, best known for playing Chandler in Friends, published his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing last year, talking about his life, fame and his well-known drug addiction during the 00s.
However there was a passage in the book that caused quite a backlash, and we're absolutely not surprised - we can't believe no one involved in the publishing process advised him to take it out!
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When he was talking about the grief he experienced when his good friend River Phoenix died tragically young, he took a completely unnecessary dig at widely-beloved actor Keanu Reeves.
"River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out," the passage read. "It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?"
Obviously in the immediate release of this book, this story went wild and Matthew Perry came under a lot of fire for this comment. Understandable as it was totally uncalled for!
I still can’t believe Matthew Perry did this and his publisher let him do it!
Of all examples?! https://t.co/J1uSMKwAg4
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 24, 2023
At the time of the initial backlash, Matthew Perry publicly apologised to Keanu, giving the explanation that he had "chosen a name at random".
Now he has come out to say that the comments will be removed from all future editions of the book. Is there a lull in sales or something that he needs to get us talking about this again 😂
"I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do," Perry said at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the weekend. "I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologised publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it."
He said that he hasn't apologised to Keanu in person - but he does plan to!
"If I run into the guy, I’ll apologise," he said. "It was just stupid."
Meanwhile Keanu Reeves has never responded publicly to any of this drama.
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