Jason Biggs is trying to be a bigger man. After stirring up controversy on Thursday, July 17, with a couple of seemingly callous jokes about the Malaysia Airlines tragedy, the Orange Is the New Black actor attempted to make amends by deleting the offending tweets from his account and replacing them with an apology.
"1). Hey all – ok, so – I am deleting my previous tweets," he wrote late Thursday night. "People were offended, and that was not my intent. Sorry to those of you that were."
"2). This is obviously a horrible tragedy, and everyone – including myself – is sad and angry about it," he continued. "Sending positive thoughts to the victims and their families. P.S. No one is making me send these tweets – I simply understand that my comments might have come off as insensitive and ill-timed. For that I apologize."
The controversy began earlier in the day, when Biggs, 36, tweeted about the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane that was shot down while flying over the Ukraine. "Anyone wanna buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier miles?" the American Pie alum wrote.
He followed that with this post: "In all seriousness, tho – HOW DO YOU MISTAKENLY SHOOT DOWN A COMMERCIAL PLANE?! It's saddest for the victims and their families, obviously. But Malaysia Airlines is apparently a GREAT airline. Gonna be tough to recover."
Twitter users immediately jumped online to criticize him for making light of a tragic situation, which resulted in the loss of all 295 passengers on board. "Hey all you 'too soon' a–holes – it's a f—ing joke," he replied at the time. "You don't have to think it's funny, or even be on my twitter page at all."
"The idea that I wouldn't have any empathy 4 the victims or their families because I make a joke is absolutely ridiculous," he added. "U know that, right? Truly – you losers are literally trying to find s–t to get angry about. Channel your issues elsewhere."