Earlier this week, The Cut resurfaced a 1998 Newsweek story that revealed director Peter Farrelly was infamous for whipping his dick out on set “as a joke.” Considering his body of work leading up to Green Book—like 2001’s Shallow Hal, in which Gwyneth Paltrow inexplicably wears a fat suit—none of this is surprising. Farrelly has issued an apology.
Here’s the excerpt from the Newsweek profile, emphasis my own:
“THE FARRELLY BROTHERS HAVE something they want to show you — and it isn’t their new movie. In fact, it’s something you’d probably rather not see at all. Something of Peter’s. Something anatomical in nature. The Farrellys have concocted a variety of clever ploys designed to get you to look at it. Bobby, 40, is the straight man, all innocence as he lays the trap. Then Peter — lankier, edgier and a year older — delivers the coup de grace. You may think you’re going to be examining a mysterious blotch on Peter’s torso, or checking out his new watchband. The reality is a good deal more shocking, but as actress Cameron Diaz puts it, “When a director shows you his penis the first time you meet him, you’ve got to recognize the creative genius.”
Farrelly apologized for the not-surprising behavior on Wednesday, releasing a statement through his publicists (via The Hollywood Reporter):
“I was an idiot. I did this decades ago and I thought I was being funny and the truth is I’m embarrassed and it makes me cringe now. I’m deeply sorry.”
Green Book’s Golden-Globe winning co-screenwriter Nick Vallelonga is in the public hot seat as well; after an Islamophobic tweet of his from November 2015 resurfaced, he deleted his Twitter account.
According to Page Six, the tweet read: “@realDonaldTrump 100% correct Muslims in Jersey City cheering when towers went down. I saw it, as you did, possibly on local CBS news,” which was likely referring to a Trump rally where President Trump said, “Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
Vallelonga has yet to comment.