Ricky Gervais makes Hollywood sex abuse joke in Walk of Fame speech
Ricky Gervais has made a controversial joke about sex abuse in showbusiness after accepting a Hollywood Walk of Fame award.
The 63-year-old actor and comedian posed with his star at the Los Angeles landmark on Friday.
He then joked how he was grateful to join the 'exclusive club', naming among its members the pop star Michael Jackson, the comedian Bill Cosby and the silent film actor Roscoe 'Fatty'Arbuckle. All three went on trial for alleged sex crimes.
Gervais said: 'Thank you so much for this honour. It's a genuine thrill to be part of such an exclusive club.
'And just looking around earlier at all the other stars, absolute icons, you know? Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, Fatty Arbuckle.'
Jackson, who died in 2009 aged 50, was accused of sexually abusing children at his Neverland ranch, but was acquitted.
Arbuckle was taken to court three times in the 1920s for the rape and manslaughter of the actress Virginia Rappe. He was also acquitted and received a written apology from the third jury. He died in 1933.
Cosby, 87, was convicted of sexual assault in 2018 and spent just under three years in prison. He maintains his innocence, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned his conviction.
On Friday, a casually dressed Gervais also addressed his look, saying: 'I should firstly apologise for how I'm dressed. This isn't me trying to be cool or disrespectful to the establishment. This is me not having a suit that fits any more.
'I tried on about five before I left England and the jackets weren't too bad, but the trousers were just depressing. Even my shirts were too tight. I looked disgusting. When a butcher ties up those joints of pork – it was like that.'
The multi-award-winning entertainer being awarded a star on Hollywood Boulevard as 'pretty crazy', adding: 'And I'm from England, so I have a strange mix of nothing good ever happens, and if it does I don't deserve it or it can't be as good as I thought it was.
'I'd love to claim that it was due to my unrivalled genius, but it truth be told, it's a cocktail of luck, persistence, and a little bit of pushing against the tide.
'You've got to polarise. You need to know that if you're doing anything of any worth, as many people hate you as love you. But the ones that hate you, they shouldn't affect you. The ones that love you, they buy your house. So I'd like to thank them.
'And we've had a few weird years of cancel culture, people telling you what you can and can't laugh at or talk about, but we pushed back and we won until the next time.'
Gervais previously attracted controversy over comments made during a speech at the Golden Globes in 2020.
In an eight-minute monologue, he criticised various aspects of Hollywood, bringing in issues of racism and the Epstein scandal. He was accused of being 'cruel' and 'unkind' the morning after the awards.
But hitting back on social media, he wrote: 'Thank you for all your amazing comments about my Golden Globes monologue. Best reaction ever, that means a lot to me.'
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