Steve Martin deleted a tweet intended to honor his longtime friend Carrie Fisher, who died Tuesday at 60, amidst a barrage of anger on social media and the internet.
On Tuesday, shortly after the actress died in a hospital after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight Friday, Martin tweeted, “When I was a young man, Carrie Fisher was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. She turned out to be witty and bright as well.”
Here's Steve Martin's fine little tweet praising Carrie Fisher that some grumps pressured him to delete. pic.twitter.com/A1W5qYkdwI
— Capitalics1 on Threads (@Capitalics) December 28, 2016
Fisher had repeatedly spoken out against being a sex object and hated the gold slave bikini her character was forced to wear in “Return of the Jedi,” which made her the center of numerous ’80s teen boy fantasies.
In light of that, Martin’s tweet, which touched on Fisher’s appearance in a way many found inappropriate or even sexist, crediting her for being “witty and bright” as somewhat of an afterthought to her appearance sparked plenty of backlash.
New York Magazine even published an entire post critical of Martin’s tweet, originally headlined “Steve Martin, This Is a Bad Tribute to Carrie Fisher.”
Steve Martin's tweet about Carrie Fisher is extremely bad https://t.co/if7QV6Ow3b
— The Cut (@TheCut) December 27, 2016
Martin took down the tweet a few hours after posting, which sparked a new round of social media garment rending from people upset that he decided to respond to the criticism in that way.
https://twitter.com/BloatedCarcass/status/814115607587287041
