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‘Green Book’ Director Peter Farrelly Apologizes for Flashing Cameron Diaz, Others Years Before Golden Globes Win

'Green Book' Director Peter Farrelly Apologizes for Flashing Cameron Diaz, Others Years Before Golden Globes Win
Peter Farrelly and Cameron DiazKevin Winter/Getty Images; Earl Gibson III/Getty Images

No laughing matter. Green Book director Peter Farrelly offered up a mea culpa after first-hand accounts resurfaced of the Golden Globe winner flashing Cameron Diaz and other stars.

Related: Hollywood’s Sexual Misconduct Scandals

“True. I was an idiot,” Farrelly, 62, said in a statement to Us Weekly on Thursday, January 10. “I did this decades ago and I thought I was being funny and the truth is I’m embarrassed and it makes me cringe now. I’m deeply sorry.”

Diaz, who worked with Farrelly on the 1998 film There’s Something About Mary, previously spoke out about the director’s tendency to flash his penis at unsuspecting bystanders. “When a director shows you his penis the first time you meet him, you’ve got to recognize the creative genius,” the 46-year-old actress mused to Newsweek that year.

Related: Golden Globes 2019: Complete Nominees and Winners List

The filmmaker noted in a 1998 Observer article that showing Diaz his penis was “what got her in” the project. “It’s a joke,” he insisted at the time. “It’s not like I make a habit of just whipping it out and saying, ‘Hey! Look! My c—k!’” He also said that he did the bit “easily 500 times.”

The Charlie’s Angels star further detailed their encounter in a 1998 Sunday Times article when asked how the Shallow Hal director won her over. “We were in a restaurant and Peter Farrelly showed me his penis,” she told the newspaper. “That was enough, really. He got a positive response. That was all he needed to know. That was fine by me.”

Related: Stars at Court

Farrelly’s brother, Bobby Farrelly, was also apparently in on the charade, luring those who did not know what was coming into the siblings’ joke. “I have been flashed,” then-Fox executive Tom Rothman told Newsweek in 1998. “It wasn’t a pretty sight. In fact, I’m still recovering.”

The Cut was first to resurface the news, while CNN later brought attention to another instance of misconduct.

Peter — along with Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie — took home a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture for Green Book at the 2019 awards ceremony on Sunday, January 6. The film also earned accolades in the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture categories.

Furthermore, Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen are nominated for the 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for their roles as Don Shirley and Tony Lip, respectively, in Green Book.

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