Hanks' Blackface Skit Defense? 'I Was Blindsided'

It took Tom Hanks less than 24 hours to respond to an ugly video taken back in 2004.

The Oscar-winning actor attended a fundraiser that year in which he and fellow celebrity Glenn Frey of The Eagles fame shared the stage with a white man dressed in black face. Frey and Hanks engaged in racial jokes without condemning the man’s appearance. The Daily Caller published the video clip earlier today, and Hanks sent a written statement to the site a few hours later trying to clarify his behavior that day.

I was blindsided when one of the parents got up on the stage in a costume that was hideously offensive then and is hideously offensive now,” Hanks’ said in a statement provided by his New York City publicist. “What is usually a night of food and drink for a good cause was, regrettably, marred by an appalling few moments,” said Hanks, who is a prominent supporter of President Barack Obama.