Ugh, I totally missed this last week. So, Mark Wahlberg’s interview with Men’s Journal came out last Wednesday, and Mark managed to offend pretty much everyone. Specifically, though, he offended the families of 9/11 victims, especially the families of those people in the hijacked planes. Mark told Men’s Journal, “If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’” Within hours, Mark sacked up and issued a poorly worded apology (non-apology, really) to People Mag, saying in part: “To suggest I would have done anything differently than the passengers on that plane was irresponsible. I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive. It was certainly not my intention.”

I thought it ended there, with everyone still thinking that Mark was a d-bag, but most people not wanting to push the issue because… really, it’s Mark Wahlberg. Anyway, after the controversy faded a bit, Mark did a radio show and he talked about his controversial comments even further. I think he managed to re-offend:

Mark Wahlberg spoke to Kidd Kraddick in the Morning on Friday where he tried to explain his statement, and said he’s just a regular guy who said something wrong.

“I would never disrespect the victims of 9/11 or their families. It was completely misunderstood. My only intention was to explain the fact that I would do anything to protect my family – I would put myself in harms way to protect my family or innocent people. That was it.”

“First and foremost, I am not an actor. I am a real guy from the streets and I’ve been in a lot of situations, so I was probably speaking out of line and I wasn’t thinking about the real heroes and the guys, women, children, fathers, sons, daughters who were on those flights.”

Wahlberg, who is promoting his movie Contraband, which was #1 at the box office last weekend, then said his good deeds are usually overlooked in the media.

“And it’s important to me because you know what, people don’t have a tendency, especially the media, don’t want to talk to me about going to Afghanistan at Christmas or raising $2 million a year for inner city kids and at risk youth.,” Wahlberg continued. “And all of a sudden this thing became this thing — I didn’t know where it came from.”

“I don’t go out doing publicity for movies or a magazine cover talking about what’s important to me. I want to promote the movie and whatever questions they want to ask me I am more than comfortable talking about. But it wasn’t a Q&A where it was the exact question and my exact response. It was somebody’s interpretation of it and you know… that’s not OK because I don’t want people to be offended. I would never do that.”

Wahlberg said he was frustrated with the line of questioning during the Men’s Health interview. “This guy is asking me about sexual questions and I’m married and I have 4 kids, how inappropriate is that?”

[From Radar]

Damn, how many different explanations did he give in one interview? First, he would NEVER disrespect 9/11 families. Then he only disrespected the families because he’s not really an actor, he’s a tough dude from the streets and he just wasn’t thinking. Then he just said that stuff because no one ever wants to talk to him about all of the charity work he does! Then he only said it because he was asked about it and he is forced to go wherever the interviewer wants to go. And finally, he only said that stuff because it’s just the interviewer’s interpretation. For God’s sake, just APOLOGIZE. Just sit down and simply say “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. My bad, I was acting like a d-bag.” The cover-up is more offensive than the crime.

Photos courtesy of Fame.