Film critic Roger Ebert has apologized for the tweet he wrote just hours after the death of “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn.
Hours after Dunn’s death was announced Ebert tweeted, “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive.” This insinuated that the car crash Dunn was involved in was a result alcohol consumption. This has not been confirmed yet, and the public will not have the results for another four to six weeks.
Dunn’s best friend since high school years, Bam Margena, was outraged at Ebert’s tweet. He tweeted back, “I just lost my best friend, I have been crying hysterical for a full day, and piece of s*** Roget Ebert has the gall to put his 2 cents about a jackass drunk driving…F*** you!”
Ebert expressed his apology in his blog, and what he actually meant in his tweet. He posted: “I offer my symapthy to Ryan Dunn’s family and friends, and to those of Zachary Hartwell, who also died in the crash. I mean that sincerely. It is tragic to lose a loved one. I also regret that my tweet…was not intended as cruel. It was intended to be true…I wasn’t calling Ryan Dunn a jackass…I was referring to his association with Jackass. I thought it was clear.”
According to Philly.com the collision with the guardrail and trees was so strong that the car was left in pieces, and was only recognizable by a car door that had not burst into flames, unlike the rest of the Porsche 911 GT3. The car flew forty yards beyond the highway and into trees before coming to a stop and catching fire.
At the end of his apology, he notes that he does not think that anyone should be driving 110 mph on a highway, just as Dunn was doing before the crash. He also mentioned that hours before Dunn’s death, he tweeted a picture of him and his friends drinking together. He says that this reckless driving could be the result of drinking, and how much worse it could have been (if possible), if Dunn’s car had hit another car.
