Courtney Stodden called out “Seinfeld” alum Jason Alexander over a controversial 2012 “Funny or Die” sketch she filmed with him when she was underage.
“I was 17 years old in this photo,” Stodden began, sharing an image of Alexander holding an iPhone against her breast. In the snap, the actor — who was 52 at the time — is wearing a polo and blazer while Stodden is clad in a skimpy bikini.
“The older I get, the more impossible this is to understand,” Stodden continued, recalling how Alexander “repeatedly rubbed his phone across my breast while saying there was ‘no signal’ in my head but ‘plenty of signal’ in my chest.”
Stodden added that later in the sketch, the Emmy- and Tony-winning actor “joked that when I turn 18 he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’ with me.”
Alexander, now 66, is listed as a writer on the sketch, titled “The Don Clay Show with Courtney Stodden,” in addition to starring in it alongside Stodden and her then-husband, Doug Hutchison, according to IMDb.
“As an adult, that fact has become harder — not easier — for me to understand. I was a minor,” Stodden said. “I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug.”
“The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room,” she added. “I felt so alone.”
Stodden, now 31, said she doesn’t see the sketch as comedy looking back on it 14 years later.
“I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke,” she explained. “People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions for myself. That’s the point.”
“I can’t change what happened to me but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable?” she concluded her post. “That’s exactly why I speak out today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.”
In a statement to Page Six, Stodden said: “At 17, I was a minor working in an environment where the adults around me were responsible for my safety and well-being. Looking back as an adult, I see those experiences very differently than I did at the time.”
“My reason for speaking out now isn’t about revisiting the past for its own sake… it’s about helping create a future where children are better protected and where adults in positions of power are held to a higher standard,” she added.
In his own statement to Page Six, Alexander said, “Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it.”
“But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden,” he added. “I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
In recent years, Stodden has branded Hutchison a “predator” and “pedophile” for marrying her when she was 16 and he was 51 — a union that sparked controversy when they tied the knot in 2011.
The “Green Mile” actor, now 66, has dismissed his ex-wife’s claim.
Stodden filed for divorce from Hutchison in 2018 and their divorce was finalized in 2020.
These days, Stodden is married to film and TV producer Jared Safier and is using her platform to advocate for the passing of AB 1267, a bipartisan bill that would set the minimum age for marriage to 18 with no exceptions in California.
Stodden’s mother gave permission for Hutchison to marry her daughter — something Stodden has said her mother has repeatedly apologized for allowing to happen.
The “Celebrity Big Brother” alum told Page Six experiences like hers with Alexander on the 2012 “Funny or Die” sketch are why she advocates for the legislation’s passage, as she believes “we need broader conversations about how minors are treated and protected in the entertainment industry and beyond.”
The post Courtney Stodden calls out ‘Seinfeld’ star for rubbing phone on her breast in resurfaced comedy sketch: ‘I was 17’ appeared first on Page Six.
