Molly Ringwald Gets Apology From Jeffrey Katzenberg For Disgusting Comment—22 Years Too Late
Molly Ringwald didn’t name names in her New Yorker op-ed about sexual harassment in Hollywood, but the former ’80s movie queen didn’t exactly hide who she was talking about, either. In her extremely personal essay, Ringwald referenced a 1990s Movieline article about her “fall” from pop culture grace. In the article, a major studio head was quoted as making a disgusting comment about the Sixteen Candles star. Twenty-two years later, Molly remembers the quote well.
“In that article,” Molly Ringwald wrote the following.
“The head of a major studio—and, incidentally, someone who claims himself to be horrified by the Harvey [Weinstein] allegations—was quoted as saying, ‘I wouldn’t know [Molly Ringwald] if she sat on my face.'”
Ringwald went on to say she was just 24-years-old at the time that the Movieline quote was published. But she even tried to give the famous studio head the benefit of the doubt.
“Maybe he was misquoted,” Ringwald wrote.
“If he ever sent a note of apology, it must have gotten lost in the mail.”
It’s not hard to find the 1995 Movieline article, which is titled “Molly Ringwald: 16 Candles in the Wind,” because Ringwald revealed she had been on the cover of the issue of the movie magazine that she referenced. In the 1995 article, the explicit quote about Molly was attributed to Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and CEO of DreamWorks Animation, who now runs the digital media firm WndrCo.
Here is the context in which Katzenberg’s alleged quote about Molly Ringwald was used:
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who says he's offended by Weinstein's behavior, said this about @MollyRingwald in 1995. https://t.co/ayvC1TfL2G pic.twitter.com/sCYZTRHI5q
— Yashar Ali ? ????? (@yashar) October 17, 2017
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Jeffrey Katzenberg said he is mortified that Molly Ringwald had to read such a quote. But in a carefully crafted apology statement, Katzenberg stopped short of actually admitting that he made the crude comment.
“That Molly Ringwald had to read those words attributed to me and believe I said them is horrifying, mortifying and embarrassing to me,” Katzenberg told THR.
“Anyone who knows me now or back then knows I do not use language like that as a matter of course, or tolerate it. Ms. Ringwald, 22 years too late, I am deeply, deeply sorry.”
While his apology for the Movieline quote is two decades late, Katzenberg has been vocal about his disgust over the Harvey Weinstein scandal and was one of the first Hollywood heavy hitters to condemn the disgraced film producer amid the dozens of sexual harassment allegations against him.
Jeffrey Katzenberg told THR he “was paralyzed” when Weinstein asked him and other Hollywood executives to publicly vouch for his character ahead of his termination from The Weinstein Co. The longtime DreamWorks exec went on record as saying Harvey Weinstein has “done terrible things to a number of women over a period of years,” and said he was “sickened, angry” and “disappointed” in the former movie mogul. Now, Jeffrey Katzenberg seems to be disappointed in himself, too.
Take a look at the video below to see Molly Ringwald talking about her reign as a teen movie star.
[Featured Image by AP Images]
