When Matthew Perry’s celebrity memoir Friends, Lovers, and Terrible Things came out in November 2022, there was a line that really bothered a lot of readers.
In a section reflecting on River Phoenix’s tragic death in 1993, Perry wrote:
“River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
Later, when writing about Chris Farley’s struggle with addiction, Perry continues:
“His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word ‘heroin,’ a fear we did not share.) I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.”
He italicized it as a way to call back the reader’s memory to the previous reference. An attempted “wink-wink” to tell the reader, “See, isn’t it terrible that these important, creative people died, but Keanu Reeves is still alive?”
Wow, Matthew. Those are some low blows, don’t you think?
Early Negative Reactions to the Attack on Keanu
The lines about Keanu Reeves were included in some of the early press coverage for the book before it was officially released to the public.
People immediately objected to the accusation, which was both mean-spirited and unclever.
In October, Buzzfeed documented some of the backlash, and Perry issued a public apology through People Magazine. He said, “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
There are a few things to note about that apology:
- Picking a name at random for a mean-spirited joke just shows that Perry doesn’t think about his words can affect people.
- Perry doesn’t seem to know that Keanu Reeves is an absolutely beloved pop culture icon.
- As a creative writing instructor for the past 15 years, I have to agree that using his own name would have been a much more creative and effective way to c communicate his point. The question, “Why am I still alive when [Fill-in-the-Blank] is dead?” is far richer and more meaningful than, “Why is [Beloved Global Icon] alive when [Fill-in-the-Blank] is dead?”
The Latest Development: Perry Plans to Remove the Keanu Line
Earlier this week at the LA Times Festival of Books, Perry shared that he would remove the Keanu Reeves lines from any future printings of the book.
Variety reports that Perry said:
“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do. I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it… If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid.”
Some might say this has the potential to be a Streisand Effect event, but there is really no erasing the paper trail on this particular screw-up. For the foreseeable future, whenever someone looks up Matthew Perry’s book, they will likely discover the mean-spirited and uninspired joke that he included at his neighbor’s expense.
