HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Actor Will Smith is fuming mad after remarks he made to a Scottish newspaper about Adolf Hitler were misinterpreted by several celebrity gossip Web sites.
In a story published Saturday in the Daily Record, Smith was quoted as saying: "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backward logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.' "
The remark was proceeded by the writer's observation: "Remarkably, Will believes everyone is basically good."
Over the course of the weekend, several celebrity gossip Web sites posted articles about the comment, saying that Smith believed Hitler was a "good" person.
"It is an awful and disgusting lie," Smith said in a statement Monday through his publicist. "It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation.
"Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet."
The controversy caused the Jewish Defense League to initially criticize Smith, labeling his comments "ignorant, detestable, and offensive." They also said that Smith had "spit on the memory of every person murdered by the Nazis. His disgusting words stick a knife in the back of every veteran who fought (and sometimes died) to save the world from the intentions of Adolf Hitler."
The Jewish Defense League went as far as to request that Smith's new film, "I Am Legend," be pulled from theaters.
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