Rupert Everett Retreats from Soldier Diss

My Best Friend's Wedding star apologizes for calling military personnel "wimps"

By EOL Staff Jun 09, 2008 6:18 PMTags
Rupert Everett Jim Spellman/WireImage.com

Rupert Everett's foot just did a tour of mouth duty.

The star of My Best Friend's Wedding has issued a speedy mea culpa one day after calling British soldiers "wimps."

While promoting his new film, Victorian Sex Explorer, the British thesp attempted to make a point about the difference between military types during Victorian times and today, telling Britain's Sunday Telegraph: "Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such wimps now!"

But after a day of blistering criticism on the home front, Everett has beaten a hasty retreat from his "flippant and irresponsible" statements.

"Then death was glorious. Today it is what it really is. Each and every death is a terrible tragic loss...I apologize without reserve to anyone who has been insulted by my remarks."