Kevin Smith Gets an Apology, But...

Airline acknowledges "mistake" after director goes on tweet rampage about being bumped for being "a fatty"

The Too Fat to Fly controversy goes on.

As earlier reported, director Kevin Smith got bumped from a Southwest Airlines flight for being, in his words, "a fatty."

Now Southwest Airlines has responded to Smith's Twitter entreaties: first by contacting the Cop Out director on the phone, and then by—what else?—taking to the air carrier's blog.

And what's the airline's take?

"I told him we made a mistake in trying to board him as a standby passenger and then remove him. And I told him we were sorry," writes Linda Rutherford, Southwest's vice president of communications and strategic outreach, on the airline's blog. "Southwest could have handled this situation differently."

She says Smith's fare has been refunded.

Rutherford suggests poor communication on Southwest's part was partially at fault, as well as "a quick judgment call that he might have needed more than one seat for his comfort and those seated next to him."

Smith, for his part, ain't having it.

After giving his take on the conversation with Rutherford and her blog apology, the director writes that it still seems like he's being blamed for being fat, noting that Rutherford's blog post concludes with mention of the airline's policy "to assist passengers who need two seats onboard an aircraft."

"Once again: I know I'm fat. The point of all this? I'm not too fat for Southwest Air, yet someone deemed me so," he wrote in a long blog post. "Southwest, I appreciate you refunding my airfare. But if you're not gonna admit I wasn't Too Fat To Fly, then I'll cover it."

So does this mean the brouhaha is over—or just beginning to take flight?