The most bizarre celebrity apologies of 2022

Apologizing. As any couples therapist worth their hourly fee will tell you, it's virtually always worth doing when someone's feelings have been hurt. Although as any couple will tell you, that policy sometimes results in some pretty ridiculous apologies.

Celebrities have a relationship to maintain with the public — an entity with infinite feelings that can be hurt. Their apologies, accordingly, can be deeply weird, bizarrely specific and pretty entertaining in their own right.

Not surprisingly, then, celebrities offered some truly silly statements of regret last year. Here are some of the weirdest things celebrities apologized for in 2022:

Asking why Keanu Reeves still 'walks among us'

In October, "Friends" actor Matthew Perry apologized for an excerpt that multiple publications ran from his memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing." Perry, 53, wrote, "Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?"

When Perry apologized, he told People magazine that he had simply chosen the name of the first actor he'd thought of. "I should have used my own name instead," he said.

Dissing Venus and Serena Williams for not playing tennis against men

In March, film director Jane Campion won a Critics' Choice Award for best director for her film "The Power of the Dog." During her acceptance speech, she looked toward American tennis greats Serena and Venus Williams, who were in attendance to support "King Richard," the biopic about their father, and said, "Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you don't play against the guys, like I have to."

Campion released a statement saying, "I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved. ... They have both raised the bar and opened doors for what is possible for women in this world."

Being a nightmare brunch patron

In October, Keith McNally, the owner of the restaurant Balthazar in New York City, posted on Instagram to complain about late-night host James Corden's antics when he'd dined there. Corden, 44, came in with his wife, who ordered an "all-yolk omelet." According to McNally (who cited a manager's report about the incident), Corden sent the omelet back because it contained a smidgen of white; after the kitchen remade the omelet, Corden yelled at the service staff "You can't do your job! You can't do your job!" according to McNally. "Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelet myself!"

On his show, Corden explained that his wife has a "serious allergy," which he said they had explained to the waitstaff. "As her meal came wrong to the table the third time, in the heat of the moment, I made a sarcastic, rude comment about cooking it myself," he said. "It is a comment I deeply regret." (In a New York Times article, however, Corden called the whole kerfuffle "silly.")

Lying down on the stage during an Emmys acceptance speech

The joke, it seems, was supposed to be that Jimmy Kimmel had gotten into a few too many margaritas and passed out before he and Will Arnett were supposed to present the award for comedy series writing. But few people remember that. Most only recall the part where Kimmel, 55, pretending to be passed out, continued to lie on the floor in front of the microphone as Quinta Brunson accepted the award.

To many, the gag seemed distracting. Kimmel apologized to Brunson on his show later that week. "They said I stole your moment, and maybe I did, and I'm very sorry if I did do that. I'm sorry I did do that, actually."

Giving women a tone-deaf pep talk

In a March profile, Kim Kardashian told Variety, "I have the best advice for women in business: Get your [expletive] up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days."

Predictably, receiving such a directive from a reality TV star whose parentage was her original claim to fame rubbed many people the wrong way. In an appearance on "Good Morning America," Kardashian, 42, said her words were "taken out of context." "It wasn't a blanket statement towards women, or to feel like I don't respect the work or think that they don't work hard," she said.

Signing books with an autopen

In November, 900 fans paid for signed copies of Bob Dylan's new book, "The Philosophy of Modern Song," costing $600 each. When fans started comparing their copies of the book, they realized that the signatures looked exactly the same.

Dylan, 81, came clean soon afterward in a Facebook post: He had used an autopen, a device that replicates a signature, to get all the books signed. "Using a machine was an error in judgment and I want to rectify it immediately," he wrote. The publisher offered refunds.

Flirting on Instagram

Did he have an affair? Or did Adam Levine just flatter an Instagram model named Sumner Stroh in one of the weirdest ways imaginable?

In September, Stroh accused Levine, 43, of cheating on his pregnant wife, model Behati Prinsloo, with Stroh. On TikTok, she posted screenshots of Instagram DMs from Levine: "It is truly unreal how [expletive] hot you are. Like it blows my mind,"

Levine issued a hybrid half-apology and half-denial on — where else? — Instagram. "A lot is being said about me right now, and I want to clear the air. ... I did not have an affair. Nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life."

Firing an actor for having 'dead eyes'

"Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" actor Connor Ratliff, 47, remembers the day so vividly he named his podcast "Dead Eyes" after it: Tom Hanks, as Ratliff tells it, fired Ratliff from his 2001 directorial project, "Band of Brothers," because Ratliff had ... well, you can guess.

When Ratliff told Hanks, 65, the story on the aforementioned podcast, Hanks said that "not a single moment of this rings a bell." Nevertheless, Hanks was aghast, and apologized. "This is a bone-chilling story, just bone-chilling," he said, and added that he took "full responsibility" for what happened.