Courtney Stodden gives demand to Jason Alexander after apology
Courtney Stodden gives demand to Seinfeld star Jason Alexander after his apology for a crude 2012 Funny or Die sketch, saying she wants more than words. The 31-year-old urged Alexander to back California anti-child marriage bill AB 1267 and donate to Unchained at Last, calling action the next step beyond accountability.
Key Takeaways
- Stodden said she was grateful for Alexander's apology but wants concrete action, not only words.
- She urged him to support California bill AB 1267 to ban child marriage and to donate to Unchained at Last.
- Alexander told Page Six he truly regrets the "inappropriate" 2012 sketch and is deeply sorry for any harm to Stodden.
- Stodden was 17 in the Funny or Die sketch and later said she was manipulated into being groped as a child.
What did Courtney Stodden ask Jason Alexander to do?
After Alexander apologized, Stodden told Variety she was "very taken aback" that the 66-year-old actor took accountability, saying she has not "heard a lot of adults take accountability."
"When I first got word that he publicly apologized I was grateful because I think that's the first step in change," she said. Still, she argued it would be "even better" if he showed "action."
That demand is specific: support anti-child marriage laws and organizations, back AB 1267 in California, and donate to Unchained at Last, a nonprofit working to end child marriage. Stodden, who was underage when she married actor Doug Hutchinson in 2011, also called it "really frightening" that California still allows minors to marry.
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Why did Jason Alexander apologize for the sketch?
Earlier this week, Stodden publicly criticized Alexander over a 2012 Funny or Die sketch in which the comedian repeatedly rubbed his phone across her breasts while she wore a skimpy bikini.
"Looking back now, I don't see comedy," Stodden wrote on Instagram. "I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke."
In response, Alexander told Page Six he "truly regret[s]" taking part in the "inappropriate" sketch. "But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden," he said. "I offer her my sincerest apologies."
How did Stodden describe the 2012 Funny or Die sketch?
Stodden told Variety she realized years later how offended she was after watching a Pretty Woman scene in which Alexander's character assaults Julia Roberts' Vivian Ward. "I was in shock," she said. "It felt very close to home, and like he pulled from 'Pretty Woman' and thought it would be funny to recreate that with a child. I didn't know he was going to be feeling me up on set."
She said she "was very manipulated" into being groped when she was only a "child," adding that she trusted the adults around her and that looking back is "really damaging."
In a statement to Page Six, Stodden said speaking out "isn't about revisiting the past for its own sake." Her aim, she said, is to "create a future where children are better protected and where adults in positions of power are held to a higher standard."
What happens next in this story?
Stodden has framed Alexander's apology as a first step and put a clear public ask on the table: legislative and nonprofit support against child marriage. Whether Alexander answers that demand remains to be seen, but the exchange has pushed a decade-old sketch back into the celebrity news cycle with a sharper focus on accountability and child protection.