Hugh Laurie has apologised for his lengthy response to a journalist’s criticism of his hit medical drama House as he says he was trying to defend writers he “adored” and was drunk at the time
Hugh Laurie has apologised for his rant at a review of his TV show House, explaining that he was “slightly drunk” at the time. The actor, who played the grumpy but brilliant doctor Gregory House from 2004 to 2012, issued his apology on X.
The apology came after he posted a scathing response to a journalist who critiqued House’s formulaic storylines. Janet Murray had said that the show followed the same pattern every episode: “Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wring.
“Patient nearly dies. Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly died again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired.”
Laurie responded with a scathing remark. He said: “Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.
“One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what?? The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you. Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”
While many seemed delighted by Laurie’s response, Murray had to return to X to share what she had experienced since he wrote “witty riposte”. She said that while it was “genuinely amusing”, it had resulted in “horrific trolling”.
In response, Laurie issued an apology and admitted to being drunk when he posted his response. The actor said: “I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet. Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about someting that had nothing to do with you.
“If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I’m a thin-skinned tw*t, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin. I was sticking up for the writers who I adored.
“Obviously I shouldn’t have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore – asking for trouble – and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues sings written around the same 12 bar chord structure. I’ve listened to most of them and will keep doing so. Because we love what we love.”
House ran for eight series and received a number of Emmy nominations, including four for Outstanding Drama Series and six nominations for Laurie himself.
Laurie’s Vicodin addicted diagnostician was a modern take on Sherlock Holmes. In the series, he worked in a New Jersey hospital, consulting on medical cases that confounded the rest of the medical field. He was joined by a team of doctors, who were played by the likes of Jennifer Morrison, Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde and Jesse Spencer.
He was also joined by his very own Dr Watson – in this case, he was an oncologist and long time friend called Dr James Wilson, played by Robert Sean Leonard. The whole team were overseen by the Dean of Medicine, Dr Lisa Cuddy, played by Lisa Edelstein.
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