Jason Alexander has offered a public apology for a 2012 comedy sketch that resurfaced this month — a gesture Courtney Stodden says is welcome but not enough. The exchange has refocused attention on Stodden’s larger campaign to end child marriage in California, where she is now working with advocates to push for lasting legal change.
Alexander’s apology and the controversial sketch
On Wednesday, the “Seinfeld” actor issued a statement acknowledging the sketch and expressing regret. “Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it,” Alexander said in a statement to Variety. “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
The parody — a take on “Dr. Phil” called “The Donny Clay Show” — was released in January 2012 on the Funny or Die website and its YouTube channel (it has since been taken down). Alexander co-wrote and performed in the sketch as a creepy talk-show host who, while on camera, fondled a then-17-year-old Stodden’s breasts with a cell phone and said that when she turned 18 he would “take her behind the couch and have his way with her.” Stodden appears in the video alongside Doug Hutchison, an actor who married Stodden in 2011 when he was 51 and she was 16.
Stodden’s reaction and calls for action
Stodden, now 31 and divorced from Hutchison, posted about feeling “alone” and exploited while making the video. Her Instagram post recounting that experience prompted Alexander’s apology. https://www.instagram.com/p/DbAgY7qI0M0/
Stodden told Variety she was “pleasantly surprised” by Alexander taking responsibility, calling it “the first step in change.” She also urged him to go further: “I’m very taken aback that an adult was actually able to take accountability because I haven’t heard a lot of adults take accountability,” Stodden explains. “When I first got word that he publicly apologized I was grateful because I think that’s the first step in change. At the same time, I think it would be even better if he put that into action, so I would urge Jason Alexander to support AB 1267 and support what’s happening in California or even donate to Unchained at Last.”
Context: past responses and exploitation
For Stodden, the sketch was part of a pattern of exploitation in the public eye. She says it was only years later, when watching “Pretty Woman” for the first time, that she recognized how the sketch had mirrored an on-screen assault. “I was in shock,” she says of watching the “Pretty Woman” scene. “It felt very close to home, and like he pulled from ‘Pretty Woman’ and thought it would be funny to recreate that with a child. I didn’t know he was going to be feeling me up on set.”
Stodden also notes a lack of accountability from others in the media who further exploited her when she was underage. Although she has received public apologies from Chrissy Teigen for cyberbullying, and now from Alexander, she has not received one from Dr. Drew Pinsky, who, when she was 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. “Getting an apology from an actor and not a doctor is kind of diabolical.”
Reflecting on her experience, Stodden says she felt manipulated and trusted the adults around her. “I was very manipulated. Even if I didn’t look like a child, or what a ‘victim’ should look like, there was a child buried under there. I really just trusted the adults around me, and this is the effect of that. Looking back on it, it’s really damaging. This isn’t about revisiting my past but changing the experiences for minors going forward so they don’t have to experience what I had to experience.”
Advocacy: AB 1267 and Unchained at Last
Beyond seeking acknowledgments and apologies, Stodden has been working with Unchained at Last, the only U.S. nonprofit dedicated to ending child marriage, to push for AB 1267. The bill would set 18 as the minimum legal age to marry in California, effectively banning child marriage in the state. https://www.unchainedatlast.org/
“It’s really frightening that there’s no minimum age for someone to get married in California,” Stodden asserts. “There are only two other states that allow this, Mississippi and New Mexico, and to think that California allows this is shocking. ”
Stodden and other survivors affiliated with Unchained at Last plan to visit the California State Capitol next month to speak with legislators about ending child marriage. She is also focused on finishing her memoir and may participate in a docuseries documenting her advocacy.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to be remembered for what happened to me,” Stodden states. “I want to be remembered for helping make sure that this doesn’t happen again to another child.”
