Neil Patrick Harris has apologized for a joke about Amy Winehouse’s death that just resurfaced. Winehouse passed away in July of 2011 from alcohol poisoning, and just a few months later Harris and his husband David Burtka made light of her death at their 2011 Halloween party. After photos from the party resurfaced, Harris and Burtka came under fire all over again.
The particular photo Harris is apologizing for shows a meat platter that he and Burtka decorated and displayed for guests at their party. It was labeled “The Corpse of Amy Winehouse,” and it was arranged to look like a decaying corpse with Winehouse’s signature beehive hairdo. It reportedly contained “beef ribs, pulled pork, chicken sausage in a spicy BBQ sauce.” A photo of the platter just resurfaced thanks to an old tweet by one of the party attendees, and it went viral all over again.
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Harris issued a public apology for the joke in a statement published by Entertainment Weekly on Monday. It read: “A photo recently resurfaced from a Halloween-themed party my husband and I hosted 11 years ago. It was regrettable then, and it remains regrettable now. Amy Winehouse was a once-in-a-generation talent, and I’m sorry for any hurt this image caused.”
The decade-old controversy incited some conversation about how tastes and tolerance in comedy has changed over the last decade, though it’s worth noting that Harris faced some backlash for this joke when it was first made as well. According to a report by Entertainment Tonight, Harris apologized publicly at the time, too. The conversation also turned to the long memory of social media and the debate over how productive such re-litigations really are.
Winehouse was an acclaimed singer-songwriter from London, England who dabbled in a mixture of genres including blues, jazz and soul. She became a national sensation with the release of her debut album in 2003 and then found more international acclaim with her next album, Back to Black. It wasn’t long before she was a global superstar — and a paparazzi favorite. Winehouse’s struggles with substance abuse and mental illness were highly publicized, as was her family drama.
Winehouse passed away on July 23, 2011 at the age of 27. Her cause of death was ruled to be alcohol poisoning, as she had a blood alcohol content of 0.416 percent. Fans continue to mourn Winehouse to this day.
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