"The League" star and comedian Steve Rannazzisi has admitted that he lied about escaping from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after The New York Times revealed falsities in his account.
"I was not at the Trade Center on that day,” he said in a statement, through his publicist Matt Labov, to the paper. “I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry ... It was an early taste of having a public persona, and I made a terrible mistake. All I can ask is for forgiveness."
Labov sent the actor's full statement to The Huffington Post Wednesday morning:
As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough. After I moved with my wife to Los Angeles from New York City in 2001 shortly after 9/11, I told people that I was in one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. It wasn’t true. I was in Manhattan but working in a building in Midtown and I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry. For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man. It only made me more ashamed. How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn't come clean about this? It is to the victims of 9/11 and to the people that love them -- and the people that love me -- that I ask for forgiveness.
Rannazzisi previously claimed he was working for Merrill Lynch in an office in the towers on Sept. 11 of that year and got out before the second plane hit. The 37-year-old was not only working in Midtown -- far from the towers -- at the time of the attack, but he was also working for another company. Merrill Lynch, which did not have offices in the trade center, has no record of his employment.
Over the years, the actor has given detailed accounts of that day, saying he was an account manager at Merrill Lynch for a year and a half.
"I worked on the 54th floor of the second tower," he said on the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast. "I was there, and then the first tower got hit, and we were jostled all over the place ... I went downstairs, saw all the pandemonium and then about five or six minutes later, bang ... I called up to the office and there was pandemonium, like, 'We're on our way down, we're on our way down.' And I just started f**king booking it."
He claimed a cab driver wanted to charge him $500 to leave the area, that he subsequently had "falling dreams" and that the day propelled him and his girlfriend, now his wife, to move to Los Angeles.
The actor has appeared in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," "Samantha Who?" and "Daddy Knows Best," but is most known for playing Kevin on FX's "The League" since 2009.
A rep for FX was not immediately available for further comment.
Also on HuffPost:
Celebrity News & Photos
For a constant stream of entertainment news and discussion, follow HuffPost Entertainment on Viber.