Tony (Enemy of the State, Top Gun) and Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Blade Runner and Alien) have issued an apology Thursday for a trade-magazine advertisement that was placed by their ad agency, RSA USA, that attacked the striking Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Radio and TV Artists (AFTRA).?The ad noted that an RSA USA TV commercial director, Marcus Nispel, would be shooting commercials in South Africa because of the strike and showed the wrinkled breasts of an elderly black woman over the words: "In South Africa, this is what SAG means." In their statement, the Scott brothers said, "RSA USA made a huge mistake.?Our intent was not to offend people of color, women or anyone else by the use of our advertisement." The apology was ignored by the presidents of SAG and AFTRA, William Daniels and Shelby Scott (no relation), who called on RSA USA clients to dissociate themselves from the agency "and from the racist, sexist and union-busting principles of an ad so repugnant on so many different levels that it simply boggles the mind."
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