Hugh Laurie backtracks in ‘House’ social media row, admitting he was “slightly drunk”
Hugh Laurie has seemed to backtrack in his social media spat with a journalist over House, with the actor admitting he was “slightly drunk” when he sent the initial post.
The British actor got into an argument on X with journalist Janet Murray over the weekend, in which she criticised the Fox medical drama House, which Laurie fronted from 2004 until 2012.
After Murray derided the show’s seemingly repetitive structure, Laurie responded at the time by saying: “One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??”
He added in the moment: “The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you. Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”
Murray called this response “Unexpected. And not the slightest bit patronising”, to which Laurie finally seemed to back down and somewhat admit the error of his ways.
Posting to X later in the evening on June 8th, he said: “I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet. Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you. If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too.”
He continued: “I’m a thin-skinned twat, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin. I was sticking up for the writers who I adored. Obviously I shouldn’t have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore – asking for trouble – and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs written around the same 12 bar chord structure.”
Laurie finished off by saying: “I’ve listened to most of them and will keep doing so. Because we love what we love.”
This ultimately brought an end to the feud, with Murray responding once more saying she had “respect” for the actor from his apology.
The argument was somewhat contextualised by the fact that Laurie has long cited House as one of his favourite-ever roles, admitting in 2020: “I just thought it was an amazing experience, I was so lucky; so lucky.”
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