SECOND OPINION

Hugh Laurie Apologizes for ‘Drunk’ Post Attacking ‘House’ Critic

The actor went full Gregory House on a journalist who mocked his show’s formula.

Hugh Laurie has apologized for his viral takedown of a journalist who dared criticize House—revealing he was “very slightly drunk” when he fired off the testy reply.

The British actor, best known for playing the sardonic Dr. Gregory House across eight seasons on Fox, initially lit up social media with a withering response to freelance journalist Janet Murray, who had posted a spot-on breakdown of the show’s reliable formula.

MAD HOUSE

Hugh Laurie Tears Into ‘House’ Critic Over Viral Post

Leigh Kimmins

By Murray’s reckoning, every episode followed the same arc: mysterious illness, wrong diagnosis, near death, wrong diagnosis again, near firing, another near death—then a last-minute epiphany that saves both the patient and House’s job. “Eight seasons of this?” she concluded. The post racked up over two million views.

Laurie materialized in her replies with characteristic bite. “Thanks for your critique, Janet,” he wrote. “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.” He went on to invoke JS Bach, Frida Kahlo, and Henry Moore as fellow practitioners of inspired repetition, before signing off with, “Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”

Murray, for her part, took it in stride. “Well this was unexpected. And not the slightest bit patronizing,” she posted, sharing his response. She later said she “found his response funny.”

Then came the trolls—and the hangover of regret. After Murray directed her followers to an article she’d written about the exchange and the online abuse she’d subsequently received, Laurie stepped back in with an apology.

“I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet,” he wrote. “Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you.”

He added, with the self-deprecating candor that made him a beloved figure long before House ever picked up, “If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I’m a thin-skinned t--t, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin. I was sticking up for the writers who I adored.”

Laurie also walked back his high-culture references, conceding that invoking Bach, Kahlo, and Moore was “asking for trouble.” He said he “would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs 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 aired on Fox from 2004 to 2012, earning four Emmy nominations for outstanding drama series. Laurie was nominated six times for the lead role and never won.

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Leigh KimminsReporter

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