Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander issues apology to Courtney Stodden as ‘inappropriate’ sketch resurfaces

Jason Alexander has offered his 'sincerest apologies' after he was called out for an 'inappropriate' sketch online.

The American actor and comedian is best known for his role as George Constanza on the long-running comedy series Seinfeld, which saw him win an Emmy award and earn four Golden Globe nominations.

It's fair to say that comedy has evolved in recent years and jokes that might have landed in the 90s simply wouldn't be accepted these days, as SNL discovered when they were widely criticised for mocking Aimee Lou Wood in a sketch last year.

And reality star Courtney Stodden has now publicly called out Alexander for his role in a 2012 'Funny or Die' sketch that they starred in together, after he rubbed a a cellphone on Stodden’s breasts because it was the only area with 'plenty of signal'.

If that wasn't troubling enough already, Stodden was just 17 at the time and she's now spoken out to suggest that her role has become harder to understand as she's grown older, especially since the money that was made from it went straight into the pocket of her ex-husband Doug Hutchinson.

In a statement issued to Variety, 66-year-old Alexander has now apologised for the sketch, which he helped to write as well as performing in.

He said: “Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it. But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”

Stodden made headlines when she was just 16 after the former child beauty pageant star married Green Mile actor Doug Hutchinson, who was 35 years her senior and was only permitted to marry the teenager after getting permission from her mother.

Now 31 and divorced from Hutchinson, Stodden is campaigning for a change to the laws in California to stop children from going through the same experience she had to, and she used the sketch as just another example of how she was sexualised from a very young age.

Posting on Instagram, she wrote: "I was 17 years old in this photo. The older I get, the more impossible this is to understand. During this comedy sketch, Jason Alexander repeatedly rubbed his phone across my breasts while saying there was ‘no signal’ in my head but ‘plenty of signal’ in my chest. Later in the sketch, he joked that when I turned 18 he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’ with me. IMDb credits him as one of the writers of the episode. As an adult, that fact has become harder — not easier — for me to understand. I was a minor. I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The pay check went to [ex-husband Doug Hutchison]. The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room. I felt so alone.”

“Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke,” Stodden continued. “People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions for myself. That’s the point. I can’t change what happened to me but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable? That’s exactly why I speak out today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realising the law should have protected them all along.”