Howard Stern Defends Brett Ratner, Slams Hollywood As 'Loony' (Video)

Howard Stern called out Hollywood for hypocrisy on Wednesday, saying the entertainment industry has celebrated a director (Roman Polanski) who drugged and had sex with a 13 year old girl and an actress (Hilary Swank) who attended the birthday party of a notorious human rights abuser while deeming Brett Ratner's use of the the word “fag” unforgivable.

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Stern began his show on Sirius XM Radio with a defense of Ratner, who stepped down as producer of the next Oscars telecast after saying “rehearsal’s for fags” at a screening for Tower Heist, which he directed.

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The fallout from that indiscretion continued Wednesday when Tower Heist star Eddie Murphy bowed out of Oscar-hosting duties.

Stern, who learned of Ratner’s “fag” slur from The Hollywood Reporter, said he stopped using that word a while ago, but that Ratner wasn’t gay-bashing when he used it, therefore he shouldn’t have lost his job as producer of the 84^th Academy Awards telecast.

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Stern also presumed that Ratner’s problems began when the director was a guest on Stern’s show Monday and spoke in graphic terms about his sex life. A video from HowardTV, below, includes portions of that Monday interview and some of Stern’s follow-up comments Wednesday morning.

“I’m now the producer of the Oscars, so I really can’t talk about all the sex I got,” Ratner told Stern before talking about his “huge balls,” large sperm count, proclivity for oral sex and how he made actress Olivia Munn “look like a whore.”

Listen to Howard Stern's comments below

Ratner, Stern told his audience on Wednesday, "was nice enough to call our show the other day, and it seems it cost him the ability to produce the Oscars, which was a dream of his."

“I thought it was very interesting,” Stern said Wednesday of his interview with Ratner two days earlier. “Honestly, I found his conversation refreshing because he was being honest.”

Then he laid into Hollywood, calling it "a town where people have to run around closeted for many different things."

"The Oscars are the same place where Charlie Sheen-types can go and get applauded," Stern said. "God knows who's coming across that stage and what they're up to," added co-host Robin Quivers.

"This is the same industry, by the way, that wants Roman Polanski to be forgiven for raping a 13-year old, that it's time he be let back in the United States. I would hang him by his balls," Stern said.

"There's a lot of confusing morality here," Stern said. "And I know the industry wants to think of themselves as pristine, but I believe they've given two Academy Awards to a woman who just honored the president of Chechnya... this guy is despicable."

Swank, whom Stern was referring to, won Oscars for Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don't Cry.

If Ratner hadn't stepped down as producer of the Oscars, Stern said, he'd be "in charge of an awards show for lunatics. There's a lot of loony people in Hollywood who do a lot of loony things."

When one of Stern’s on-air sidekicks mentioned that an L.A.-based journalist wrote that Ratner was a “knucklehead” for appearing on Stern’s show, Stern went back to the Polanski analogy.

"What's going on out there? I told you, this is the same knucklehead industry that says Roman Polanski should be allowed back in the United States and all should be forgiven."

Stern also predicted that Murphy would back out of the Oscar-hosting job since Ratner was no longer producing, and about five hours later Murphy announced his decision.