Washington Post critic Hornday responds to Rogen, Apatow rebuke

LOS ANGELES, May 27 (UPI) -- Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen took to Twitter Monday to respond to an article by a Washington Post movie critic who said films were partly to blame for the California shooting that took place Friday.

In her piece titled "In a final videotaped message, a sad reflection of the sexist stories we so often see on screen," Ann Hornaday compares deceased mass murderer Elliot Rodger to a character from one of director Peter Rodger's movies.

"As important as it is to understand Rodger's actions within the context of the mental illness he clearly suffered, it's just as clear that his delusions were inflated, if not created, by the entertainment industry he grew up in," Hornaday writes.

Rodgers, 22, was identified as the suspect in the killing of seven people, including himself, in a shooting and stabbing rampage near the University of California on Friday night.

"How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like Neighbors and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of "sex and fun and pleasure"? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, "It's not fair"?" Hornaday continues.

Rogen, 32, was the first one to address the article on social media tweeting at Hornaday that the piece was "horribly insulting and misinformed."

"@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage," he added later.

Apatow chimed in a little later commenting on Rogen's first post that Hornaday "uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts."

"Here is how it all works," he explained. "Anne says something thoughtless. I say it is wrong then CNN asks everyone to debate and it becomes TV."

The acclaimed director went on to call out the media and Hornaday for turning "tragic events" intro "profit centers for media."

Hornaday replied to her article's feedback in a video where she claims that "by no means" she meant to "cast blame" on either Apatow or Rogen, adding that instead she wanted to shed light on the "narrow range of stories that [films] constantly go back to."

You can check out the response below.