Green Book director Peter Farrelly issues apology over past flashing incidents: Makes me cringe now

Los Angeles: After Viggo Mortensen, Green Book director Peter Farrelly and writer Nick Vallelonga have both landed in separate controversies which could adversely affect the movie’s Oscar campaign after its three wins at the Golden Globes . [caption id=“attachment_5875671” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Peter Farrelly (left); Poster of Green Book. Twitter[/caption] The film, featuring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortenson as a black concert pianist Don Shirley and his Italian-American driver Tony Vallelonga who become unlikely friends, won a Globe Award on Sunday for best musical or comedy film, besides writing and supporting trophies. Farrelly found himself embroiled in a controversy after an old story resurfaced where he admitted to flashing his privates as a joke. The Cut magazine republished excerpts from the director’s 1998 Newsweek profile, where Farrelly admitted to pulling out his penis in front of several people on his film sets. After the revelation, Farrelly issued a statement, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, corroborating the stories and apologised for his behaviour. “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,” the director said. In The Newsweek profile of Farrelly and his brother Bobby, which came before the release of their directorial There’s Something About Mary, features an anecdote from the film’s star Cameron Diaz. “When a director shows you his penis the first time you meet him, you’ve got to recognise the creative genius,” she had said. Meanwhile, the film’s writer Vallelonga found himself on shaky ground after his old tweets resurfaced in which he claimed to have witnessed thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrate the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.