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Actor Neil Patrick Harris is doing damage control after a photo from a 2011 Halloween party mocking the death of singer Amy Winehouse resurfaced.
The photo, taken just months after Winehouse's death in July of that year, featured a meat platter of beef ribs, pulled pork, chicken sausage in a spicy BBQ sauce labeled "Amy Winehouse's Corpse," meant to resemble the dead body of the late singer.
The controversy began after a since-deleted viral tweet mentioned the previous controversies over the photo, and reached such a fever pitch Harris issued a public apology in a statement to Entertainment Tonight.
The "How I Met Your Mother" actor hosted a party with a "regrettable" meat platter featuring a fake corpse of the late "Rehab" singer.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/neil-patrick-harris-amy-winehouse_n_62839484e4b04353eb0972b9\u00a0\u2026— HuffPost (@HuffPost) 1652807372
The tweet that ignited the uproar, which misidentified the meat platter as a cake, read:
"I cannot believe how many very online people over the age of 25 are just now finding out about Neil Patrick Harris’s disgusting Amy Winehouse cake…"
The photo was first posted in a since-deleted tweet in 2011 by Justin Mikita, husband of Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, after attending the party. It has resurfaced several times in the 11 years since, including in a viral Jezebel story in 2018.
But this is the first time the backlash has been sufficient for Harris to respond.
The statement read:
"A photo recently resurfaced from a Halloween-themed party my husband and I hosted 11 years ago."
"It was regrettable then, and it remains regrettable now."
"Amy Winehouse was a once-in-a-generation talent, and I'm sorry for any hurt this image caused."
Winehouse was indeed an iconoclastic talent who found success in multiple genres, including jazz, pop and R&B. After a long bout with drugs and alcohol, which she ironically chronicled in her biggest hit "Rehab," she died at just 27 of alcohol poisoning in 2011.
Scores of people called the How I Met Your Mother actor out for the photo, which many called "tasteless" and "disturbing."
And Harris' apology seems to have done little to calm down the furor.
neil patrick harris gets the award for worst apology ever this month lol— marl (@marl) 1652830512
Cancel or don't cancel Neil Patrick Harris, I don't care. We're still friends regardless.\n\nBut I'mma tell y'all, this cake the dude had made for a Halloween party mocking Amy Winehouse's corpse is fucking disgusting.— Chris Parker (@Chris Parker) 1652291302
Her eyeliner was more iconic than his entire careerhttps://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1526394322098065408\u00a0\u2026— Mabel\ud83c\udf39 (@Mabel\ud83c\udf39) 1652760805
What is wrong with y'all?https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1526593390107820036\u00a0\u2026— firms \ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf9 (@firms \ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf9) 1652803713
As tragic as her life was, I can't imagine going the route you did. Her pain will help heal lifetimes to come. You really didn't have to do that. Please uplift her memory in a powerful way instead of BS apology. She's a legend.— derple (@derple) 1652752896
"Regrettable" is a pretty clean pr term for something so unspeakably disrespectful and shamefulhttps://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1526394322098065408\u00a0\u2026— Illuminari (@Illuminari) 1652760638
Society is way overdue for a discussion about the way Amy Winehouse was treated in the early 2000s and 2010s by the misogynistic celebrity media machine and the people who were a captive audience to it. Neil Patrick Harris' fucked up corpse cake is just the tip of the iceberg.— Figging Gingers (@Figging Gingers) 1652297865
Long after people forget about NPH, Amy will live on.— Lisa Lindemann (@Lisa Lindemann) 1652817605
As an alcoholic, Amy Winehouse\u2019s death shook me to the core. It\u2019s one of the few celebrity deaths that impacted me on a bigger scale + it deeply hurt to see how ppl reacted to her death. I realize this was years ago but JFC this is absolutely disgusting.https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/neil-patrick-harris-backlash-amy-winehouse-corpse\u00a0\u2026— Shannon McGrew \ud83c\udf83\ud83c\udf6d @ Screaming Into the Void (@Shannon McGrew \ud83c\udf83\ud83c\udf6d @ Screaming Into the Void) 1652459730
Harris is currently starring on Broadway in Into the Woods and the Netflix series Uncoupled.
Both projects have so far been unaffected by the scandal.