Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

ADL: Charlie Sheen’s Rant ‘Borderline Anti-Semitism’

Actor Charlie Sheen’s rant against the executive producer of his hit TV sitcom is “borderline anti-Semitism,” the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman said.

Sheen, in a radio interview Feb. 24 and in a letter posted on the TMZ website, called the “Two and a Half Men” executive producer Chuck Lorre a “contaminated little maggot,” said he was a “clown” and “stupid,” and referred to him several times as Chaim Levine.

Lorre’s given name is Charles Michael Levine.

“By invoking television producer Chuck Lorre’s Jewish name in the context of an angry tirade against him, Charlie Sheen left the impression that another reason for his dislike of Mr. Lorre is his Jewishness,” Foxman, ADL’s national director, said in a statement. “This fact has no relevance to Mr. Sheen’s complaint or disagreement, and his words are at best bizarre, and at worst, borderline anti-Semitism,”

Sheen went on the defensive over the weekend, saying his statements were not anti-Semitic. He said in his letter to TMZ that he was “referring to Chuck by his real name because I wanted to address the man, not the bulls**t TV persona.”

“So you’re telling me, anytime someone calls me Carlos Estevez, I can claim they are anti-Latino?” Sheen continued, referring to his given name.

The CBS network on Feb. 25 canceled filming of the final four episodes of the popular sitcom starring Sheen and could cancel the show all together.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.