Eric Braeden Snaps Back at 'Little Boy' Neil Patrick Harris for Twitter Slap

Iconic daytime actor Eric Braeden did not take to kindly to being called 'a D-bag' by How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris on Friday.

Following Harris' Twitter attack, Braeden shot back with some well chosen words of this own, saying that Harris "needs to be spanked" and that he could "get his teeth knocked in for that kind of nonsense."

"It was utterly inappropriate. He's a little boy," Braeden tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The Young and Restless star said he would not administer any beating or spankings to Harris.

"I need a worthy adversary," he says. "I don't even know who this fellow is."

Harris had objected to Braeden dropping out of an episode of How I Met Your Mother at the last minute because the part was not "substantial" enough -- and then wrote the offensive Tweet.

Harris did apologize, Tweeting later: "Now I feel bad for the D-bag comment. Don't know the guy personally. I'm just fiercely protective of our show."

But the damage was done.

"I don't have a Twitter thing," says Braeden. "But you have to be careful in this world."

Braeden did confirm he dropped out of the program because he was "exhausted" due to work and recent hip surgery and because the part only required two lines -- which he found out about at the last minute.

"Two lines, I don't do that for anyone," he says.

But in the end he called for peace on Earth.

“It’s Christmas time and I will forgive him for my verbal transgressions," he says.