Comic 'humiliated' socialite at 2007 MTV aweds

It may have been 14 years ago, but Sarah Silverman has apologised to Paris Hilton for making her the butt of jokes at an awards bash.

The socialite was at  the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007 just hours before she was jailed for violating probation on a drink-driving conviction, when  Silverman cracked jokes at her expense

She joked: ‘She’s 25 years old and she’s already achieved everything she’s going to achieve in her life’, called her children ‘mistakes’ and said they were ‘as cute as the hairless vagina they came out of’.

And when Silverman said ‘Paris Hilton is going to jail’, the audience cheered

But now the comedian has apologised, admitting: ‘I said some very hardcore jokes.... Paris, I am really sorry’"

Hilton said she was ‘shocked... and pleasantly surprised’ at the apology.

She added: ‘I felt emotional hearing it and I could tell she really did mean what she said when she was apologising. Thank you, I really, really appreciate you doing that.’

Earlier this week, Hilton revealed on her podcast that the ‘mean, cruel’ jokes had left her fighting back tears,  at what she described as ‘my own surprise public humiliation’.

She said: ‘I was sitting there wanting to die... I was trying to hold back my tears so hard. I had tears welling in my eyes, I wanted to run out of the entire room, but I just was trying to be strong and sit there, and the whole audience is laughing and she would not stop. It was so painful.’

In response, Silverman said she would not tell those jokes today.

She said: that even as she told the jokes she felt some remorse.  ‘While I was thrilled at the success of my monologue, I remember spotting her in the audience. And I remember seeing that look on her face, and my heart sank because there was a person under there.’

She added that she wrote to Hilton to apologise at the time, but it apparently did not arrive.

‘So here I am, 14 years later, telling you Paris that I am really sorry,’ she said. ‘I can't imagine what you were going through at the time. I hope you accept my apology and I hope that you feel my remorse.

‘I felt it the second I saw your face that night. It feels terrible to know you have hurt someone and it's important to make it right. So I hope this does that.’

Last month, Silverman also said she regretted her ‘unfortunate’ jokes about Britney Spears in the same year, in the wake of the documentary Framing Britney Spears, about the singer’s treatment in the media.

Published: 5 Mar 2021