Producers Apologize For McGowan's IRA Comments

Producers of IRA movie Fifty Dead Men Walking have apologized after the film's star Rose McGowan said she would have joined the terrorist organization if she was from Northern Ireland.

The actress made the controversial comments while speaking at a press conference for the movie at the Toronto Film Festival last week (beg8Sep08).

McGowan admitted that she felt empathy with the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and claimed she would have been a member if she had been brought up in Belfast during the Troubles. McGowan, whose father hails from Northern Ireland, plays a fiery IRA leader in the movie.

Now the film's bosses have issued an apology to anyone who may have been offended by her views, insisting her opinions were "private ones" and not the beliefs of the production team as a whole.

In a statement issued to industry publication Hollywood Reporter, the producers of Fifty Dead Men Walking say they "regret any distress" McGowan's comments may have caused "to people of Northern Ireland and particularly those who were victims of or caught up in the shocking events that existed during the conflict".

They add, "Ms. McGowan's views were private ones, and as such they greatly saddened the film's producers. (Her views) are not shared nor endorsed by anybody associated with the production or creative elements of the film." (MJ/WNWCHR/ZN)

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