Michael Douglas Backtracks On Oral Sex Statement

Michael Douglas Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen June 4, 2013

Michael Douglas dropped a major bombshell on Monday when he told the Guardian newspaper that his throat cancer was caused by oral sex.

When asked about his cancer, Douglas said, “without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV (human papillomavirus), which actually comes from cunnilingus.”

Well, the actor must be in some hot/boiling/scorching water with his wife (actress Catherine Zeta-Jones), because he has backtracked on his statement. Spokesman Allen Burry said Douglas’s meaning was misinterpreted by the news outlet: Oral sex wasn’t the cause of the cancer, but just one of many causes.

“In a discussion with the newspaper, they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now,” Burry said.

The “Behind the Candelabra” star admitted to the Guardian that he didn’t regret his years of drinking and smoking.

Smooth, Michael, smooth.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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