- Sarah Silverman apologized to Paris Hilton on Thursday for making fun of her 2007 prison sentence.
- “Here I am, 14 years later, telling you, Paris, that I am really sorry,” said the comedian.
- She said she immediately regretted the roast and wrote a letter to Hilton apologizing.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
Sarah Silverman apologized to Paris Hilton on Thursday for making jokes about her 2007 prison sentence at the MTV Movie Awards.
While presenting the show, the comedian told the audience that the guards would “paint the bars to look like a penis” to make Hilton more comfortable. She then said that the socialite “would break her teeth with these things”.
Hilton, who had been sentenced to 45 days in prison after a judge ruled that she had violated her probation for a previous traffic offense, was at the hearing.
On Monday’s episode of the “This Is Paris” podcast, Hilton recalled “sitting there, wanting to die”, while everyone around him laughed at Silverman’s jabs. She also said she was going to the prison right after the show.
The stand-up comic replied to Hilton a few days later on “The Sarah Silverman Podcast” and said “I would never make those jokes today.”
She explained that, as the program’s host in 2007, “roasted all the nominees and biggest names of the day”.
Hilton, she said, was “the biggest news back then.”
At the time of the MTV Movie Awards, Silverman said he did not know that Hilton would be in the audience, nor about his plans to go to jail right after the event.
But when she caught a glimpse of Hilton, the damage was done.
“While I was thrilled with the success of my monologue, I remember seeing her in the audience. Really. I remember seeing that look on her face and my heart sank. There was a person there,” said Silverman.
Sarah Silverman at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
Rich Fury / VF20 / Getty Images for Vanity Fair
The comedian “regretted the jokes” immediately, she said, explaining that she wrote a letter to Hilton a few days later apologizing. Silverman said he never had an answer and suspects that Hilton never received his ticket.
So, she took the opportunity to apologize directly on her podcast.
“Here I am, 14 years later, telling you, Paris, that I am really sorry. I was then, and I am much more complete and much more understanding now,” she said.
Silverman continued, “I can’t imagine what you were going through at that time. My understanding of humanity through the lens of my work as a comedian had not yet merged. I’m sorry to hurt you. Comedy is not perennial. We can’t change the past. What is crucial is that we change over time. “
Hilton representatives did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on whether or not she received Silverman’s letter.
Silverman was also criticized for his jokes about Britney Spears
Silverman recently addressed another controversy a decade after the release of “Framing Britney Spears” by The New York Times.
The TV documentary, available on FX and Hulu, includes a clip of Silverman baking Spears after the singer’s highly criticized performance at MTV’s 2007 VMA.
The comedian joked that, at 25, the pop star “had already achieved everything she will achieve in life” and called her children “adorable mistakes”.
—Britney Fan 🌹 (@BritneyHiatus) February 7, 2021
More than a decade later, people appealed to Silverman for perpetuating the misogynist treatment of women in entertainment.
In response, she tweeted, “I was known at the time 4 baked goods. MTV asked me to make a Britney mini roast after her big performance. While she was performing, I was having diarrhea and going over my jokes. I didn’t idea that she didn’t kill. Unfortunately. Art changes over the years as we know more and the world changes. “
Silverman continued, “I wish I could delete it, but I can’t.”
—Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 8, 2021