Gary Oldman has been getting heat for what a lot of people are calling racist remarks that he made in an interview with Playboy magazine. Oldman defended Mel Gibson and his reportedly anti-Semitic quotes.

Oldman told Playboy that he thinks political correctness is going too far in Hollywood. The actor who played Sid Vicious in the biopic "Sid and Nancy" also defended Alec Baldwin, who reportedly made heated anti-sematic comments.

After the controversy spilled into the headlines Oldman issued an apology in an open letter to the Anti-Defamation League saying "I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people. Upon reading my comments in print - I see how insensitive they may be, and how they may indeed contribute to the furtherance of a false stereotype."

The Anti-Defamation League did not find the apology sufficient. Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the ADL, said "We have just begun a conversation with his managing producer. At this point, we are not satisfied with what we have received. His apology is insufficient and not satisfactory."

Goldman said that Mel Gibson's infamous anti-Semitic rant from 2006 was made worse because Gibson works "in a town that is run by Jews." Gibson disparaged Jews after he was arrested for drunk driving.

In the interview, Oldman told Playboy, "just think political correctness is crap. That's what I think about it. I think it's like, take a f-king joke. ... No one can take a joke anymore. I don't know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things. We're all fucking hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word n-- or that f-king Jew? I'm being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy. Or maybe I should strike that and say 'the N word' and 'the F word,' though there are two F words now."

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said "Gary Oldman wants Jews to 'get over' what Mel Gibson said. But what Gibson said was the slogan that Adolf Hitler used to murder six million Jews during the Holocaust. His own comment that Hollywood is a town 'run by Jews' has a very familiar sinister ring to it that is the anthem of bigots and anti-Semites everywhere. That has nothing to do with political correctness." 

On Tuesday, June 24, the Anti-Defamation League called Oldman defense of Gibson and Baldwin "irresponsible remarks."

The full apology from Gary Oldman reads:

Dear Gentlemen of the ADL:

I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people. Upon reading my comments in print-I see how insensitive they may be, and how they may indeed contribute to the furtherance of a false stereotype. Anything that contributes to this stereotype is unacceptable, including my own words on the matter. If, during the interview, I had been asked to elaborate on this point I would have pointed out that I had just finished reading Neal Gabler's superb book about the Jews and Hollywood, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews invented Hollywood. The fact is that our business, and my own career specifically, owes an enormous debt to that contribution.

I hope you will know that this apology is heartfelt, genuine, and that I have an enormous personal affinity for the Jewish people in general, and those specifically in my life. The Jewish People, persecuted thorough the ages, are the first to hear God's voice, and surely are the chosen people.

I would like to sign off with "Shalom Aleichem"-but under the circumstances, perhaps today I lose the right to use that phrase, so I will wish you all peace-Gary Oldman.