Justin Timberlake has posted a open letter of apology about the joke video allegedly shown at his wedding to Jessica Biel. The letter was first posted on his official website on Friday.
The joke video, showing homeless people wishing Biel and Timberlake wedding well wishes, was hammered for its insensitivity and tastelessness. TMZ managed to track down one of the homeless people in the video; he said he was paid $40 and was upset by the footage's use (a snippet of the offending video is available at the linked report).
On Friday, Timberlake addressed the incident himself. The full letter is available here. Among the highlights of the letter were:
I'd like to start off by saying that I don't live my life making fun of people (unless, of course, I'm making fun of myself on SNL)... Especially, those who are less fortunate or those in need. [...]
1. I had no knowledge of its existence. I had absolutely ZERO contribution to it.
2. My friends are good people. This was clearly a lapse in judgment which I'm sure no one who is reading this is exempt from. But, I don't believe it was made to be insensitive. More so, I think it was made as a joke on me not having that many friends attending my own wedding(which IS kind of funny if you think about it).
3. Like many silly rumors that I have been made aware of about the week: It was NOT shown at my wedding.
4. I think we can all agree that it was distasteful, even though that was not it's intention. Once again, in the world that we live in where everyone thinks that they know everything, I want to be very clear... I am NOT defending the video. I agree with the overall consensus. But, to use another "pants" analogy... It seems that these days, misconception gets around the world before the actual truth even wakes up and gets it's pants on. [...]
I am deeply sorry to anyone who was offended by the video.
Finally, in a postscript, Timberlake said that those of his friends who were directly involved with the video would be doing community service (though we doubt it).
P.S. You can bet your ass that I'm having my friend do at least 100 hours of community service... Boom.
This will probably lay the issue to rest. It's sad to see a memorable event such as a wedding turned into a contentious issue over someone's thoughtlessness.
We expect that people will think twice or even three times before doing anything similar in the future.
