George Takei Apologizes for Jokes About His Sexual Behavior

After denying recent allegations of sexual assault from a former male model, “Star Trek” star George Takei found himself in an awkward position when audio of him on Howard Stern’s radio program began spreading across social media.

In the recent interview, Stern and Takei discussed allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The talk then turned to Takei himself — when Stern asked him if he had ever groped men without consent before.

What followed was uncomfortable and surprising, to say the least — Takei very nearly admitted to groping men in an effort to seduce them.

[lz_ndn video=33258196]

While it’s clear the two were having a laugh — the audio sounds a little more eerie when one considers that someone is actually accusing Takei of assault while the individual was passed out.

The audio has made its way around so much that Takei has now released a public apology.

“Many have raised concern over a back-and-forth between Howard Stern and myself, where we joked about me touching men during my ‘Star Trek’ days 50 years ago. Out of context, I agree that the joke was distasteful, and I’m very sorry he and I made fun out of a serious matter,” wrote Takei on Facebook.

“But I want to be clear: I have never forced myself upon someone during a date,” the actor continued. “Sometimes my dates were the initiators, and sometimes I was. It was always by mutual consent. I see now that it has come across poorly in the awkward sketch, and I apologize for playing along with Howard’s insinuation.”

Related: Corey Feldman Reveals Another Alleged Hollywood Abuser

While the apology was likely an attempt to calm the storm of controversy around him, it only makes matters more awkward and complicated. Takei says both he and Stern were joking about groping men. This is a misrepresentation of the audio. Stern is actually genuinely shocked after Takei takes a long pause and then talks about groping men. Stern even jokingly asks whether he needs to call the police.

To chalk Takei’s words up to a simple joke or bit is ridiculous. It’s clear he’s trying to make serious points between the laughs — and his original hesitance to answer Stern’s question about groping men speaks volumes.

This is actually the second ridiculous public statement Takei has made since his original denial of allegations against him. Before the apology for his jokes on the Stern show, Takei took to Twitter to seemingly blame the spread of allegations against him on Russian bots.

Related: Toby Keith Reveals Whether He Would Ever Run for Political Office

“A friend sent me this. It is a chart of what Russian bots have been doing to amplify stories containing the allegations against me,” wrote Takei. “It’s clear they want to cow me into silence, but do not fear, friends. I won’t succumb to that.”

“By way of background, when I criticized Putin’s anti-LGBT policies publicly, Russian bots attacked my [Facebook] page relentlessly, and we had to develop special security measures and ban all traffic from within the Russian Federation and the Ukraine,” he also wrote. “I am accustomed to their practices.”

Takei has since deleted the controversial tweets, but some users saved the screenshots.

[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/929768732410466304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fentry%2Fgeorge-takei-russian-bots_us_5a0a11bae4b0b17ffcdfb5de]

Allegations of sexual assault and harassment within Hollywood have become increasingly common in recent months, but what’s also become common are awkward and telling public apologies or attempts at explanations from the accused.

Related: Is This a Case of Yet Another Hollywood Sexual Predator?

First there was Weinstein’s response to allegations against him, in which he went on some strange diatribe about going after the NRA and excusing any bad behavior as his being “from a different time.” Then there was Kevin Spacey’s attempt at media manipulation — he used his response to allegations of pedophilia against him as a platform to finally and officially come out as homosexual. It was a clear attempt to distract, which people simply did not buy (though some in the media took the bait).

Takei’s allegations are still simply allegations so far, but his responses have been as strange as those of Weinstein and Spacey. He first tried to blame Russia (the new liberal go-to) for the spread of the allegations — and then sent an awkward and seemingly misleading apology for audio of him joking about doing exactly what he’s been accused of doing.

It is hard to tell where allegations against Takei will go and if the culture will face the same professional consequences of men like Spacey and Weinstein — but he has thus far, every single time he addresses the accusations of assault, only added to the storm of controversy.

(photo credit, homepage image: George Takei, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article image: George Takei, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)