14 Years Ago, Comedian Mocked Paris Hilton. Now, an Apology

Sarah Silverman sorry about 2007 jokes
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 5, 2021 1:00 PM CST
14 Years Ago, Comedian Mocked Paris Hilton. Now, an Apology
Paris Hilton speaks in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 18, 2020.   (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

A recent podcast by Paris Hilton dredged up old hurts, with herself as the subject of jokes by prominent comedians, including David Letterman and Sarah Silverman. Now, the latter is offering an apology that goes back all the way to 2007, when the now-40-year-old Hilton was in her mid-20s. That was the year that, at the MTV Movie Awards, host Silverman went for the jugular on the socialite, who was about to go to jail for an alcohol-related driving offense. Silverman delivered explicit jokes, leaving the reality star humiliated and fighting back tears at Silverman's "cruel" barbs, Hilton said in Monday's This Is Paris podcast. When Silverman noted "Paris Hilton is going to jail," the audience cheered, per the BBC, at which point the cameras cut to an anguished-looking Hilton (Yahoo has a pic). "I was sitting there wanting to die," she said on her podcast. "It was so painful."

On Thursday, Silverman offered her apology. "Here I am, 14 years later, telling you, Paris, that I am really sorry," Silverman said in an Instagram video. The comedian added she hadn't known initially that Hilton was in the audience that night, and that when she finally spotted her and saw "that look on her face ... my heart sank because there was a person under there." Silverman said she'd felt bad immediately and sent out a letter of apology, which Hilton says she never received. "I hope that you feel my remorse," Silverman, 50, said. In an unplanned podcast Thursday, Hilton said she'd heard Silverman's "sweet" and "genuine" apology. "I felt emotional hearing it and I could tell that she really did mean what she said," Hilton said, adding to Silverman: "Thank you, I really, really appreciate you doing that." (More Sarah Silverman stories.)

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