Matthew Perry has promised to remove his controversial comment on Keanu Reeves from his new book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. The Friends star infamously asked why River Phoenix and Chris Farley are dead yet Reeves gets to go on living. Perry confirmed that future prints of his memoir will no longer feature the line about Reeves at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday.
“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” Perry said at the festival. “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.” He added that he hasn’t had the chance to apologize to him in person. “If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid,” said Perry.
Matthew Perry At The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
As for the controversial passage in question, it reads: “River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. 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? River was a better actor than me; I was funnier. But I certainly held my own in our scenes — no small feat, when I look back decades later.”
The John Wick star hasn’t commented on the book publically but a source for Us Weekly said after it was published that “Keanu thought the comments came out of left field. It’s kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize.” After the backlash came in the wake of the book’s release, Perry quickly released a statement apologizing.
[Via]