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Having deemed Jerry Lewis's recent off-color remark about an "illiterate faggo" (he stopped himself before completing the final hard consonant) as being unacceptable televised-fundraising humor, self-appointed Voice of the Downtrodden Gay GLAAD demanded an apology from the comedian on their website. Lewis has since released the following statement:

"I apologize to anyone who was offended., I obviously made a bad choice of words. Everyone who knows me understands that I hold no prejudices in this regard. In the family atmosphere of the telethon, I forget that not everyone knows me that well."

"That something like this would distract from the true purpose of the telethon pains me deeply...The success of the show and all the good that will come from it shouldn't be lost because of one unfortunate word. I accept responsibility for what I said. There are no excuses. I am sorry."

We can only hope that GLAAD finds Lewis's swift and humble mea culpa satisfactory, and that they don't insist on trotting out his mostly forgotten 1967 box office flop, The Illiterate Faggot Professor, as proof that France's clown hero still harbors deep-seated prejudices against reading-challenged sodomites a full 30 years after he lampooned the disadvantaged minority on the big screen.