‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry cutting ‘mean’ Keanu Reeves insults from future editions of memoir

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Friends star Matthew Perry is planning to remove insults aimed at Toronto-raised actor Keanu Reeves from future editions of his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

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“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” Perry, 53, said at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books over the weekend. “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”

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Perry stoked controversy last fall and fans noticed passages that seemed to question Reeves’ pedigree as an actor.

In one section, Perry opened up on his friendship with the late actor River Phoenix and wrote, “River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”

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Later, when he recounted his reaction to his Almost Heroes co-star Chris Farley’s death, Perry added, “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.”

“Keanu thought the comments came out of left field,” an insider told Us Weekly after the digs made the rounds on the Internet.

“It’s kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize,” the source added.

Various celebrities waded into the fray, with West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler tweeting she is “personally thrilled that Keanu Reeves walks among us.”

“Come on…” former Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter tweeted, “Keanu Reeves is like one of those frozen cakes. Nobody doesn’t like him!”

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In a statement to PEOPLE shortly after the book was released, Perry apologized for insulting Reeves saying: “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”

Perry went on to add that he hasn’t apologized to the John Wick star in person but added, “If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid.”

Elsewhere at the festival, Perry addressed Friends’ lack of diversity during its 10-year run as one of television’s most popular sitcoms.

“It was a different time,” he said. “Nobody talked about diversity.” He added, “we were all stupid … diversity is a huge issue. It’s the right thing to do.”

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Perry’s book mostly centred on his struggle with fame and substance abuse during his time on Friends and the years since the show ended in 2004.

“I have been to six thousand AA meetings. (Not an exaggeration, more an educated guess.) I’ve been to rehab fifteen times,” he wrote. “I’ve been in a mental institution, gone to therapy twice a week for thirty years, been to death’s door.”

But he also included other sordid bits from his past including the time he made out with Valerie Bertinelli while her then-husband, the late Eddie Van Halen, was passed out drunk just a few feet away

“Valerie and I had a long, elaborate make-out session. It was happening — maybe she felt the same way I did. I told her I had thought about doing that for a long time, and she had said it right back to me,” Perry wrote.

Bertinelli, 63, responded to Perry’s revelations in a TikTok video set to Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero as the lyrics, “It’s me, hi. I’m the problem,” played and she tearfully waved at the camera.

“Anyone misbehave in their 20s and early 30s?” Bertinelli captioned the clip. “Are you mortified?”

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