Brett Ratner resigned as producer of 2012 Academy Awards

The filmmaker Brett Ratner has resigned as producer of 2012 Academy Awards after he used a gay slur at a screening of his latest movie, Tower Heist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says Brett Ratner, 42, submitted his resignation yesterday, one day after he apologized for using a gay slur.

According to Academy President Tom Sherak, Brett Ratner “did the right thing for the academy and for himself”.

Tom Sherak said: “Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable.”

Brett Ratner was named Oscar producer in August along with TV veteran Don Mischer.

The filmmaker issued an open letter explaining his resignation.

The letter read: “I called [the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president] Tom Sherak this morning and resigned as a producer of the 84th Academy Awards telecast.

“Being asked to help put on the Oscar show was the proudest moment of my career.

“But as painful as this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show were to be a distraction from the Academy and the high ideals it represents.”

On Tuesday, Brett Ratner apologized for using a gay slur during a question-and-answer session at a screening for his new film Tower Heist.

Brett Ratner used a pejorative term to describe gay men in response to a question asked at a screening of his latest movie.

In his apology, Brett Ratner said sorry “for any offense my remarks caused”, adding that the slur was “a dumb and outdated way of expressing myself”.

Brett Ratner said that “as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words”.

Initially Academy President Tom Sherak said Brett Ratner’s remarks were “inappropriate” – but said the academy had no plans to remove him from his Oscar-producing position.

Eddie Murphy, who worked with Brett Ratner on the new film, Tower Heist, was set to host the Oscars, but his role is now uncertain.

On Monday, Brett Ratner also recorded an expletive-laden interview with shock jock Howard Stern.

In the revealing interview, Brett Ratner discussed oral sex, masturbation and the size of his testicles.

The filmmaker admitted he was stunned he had never impregnated anyone because of his virility: “How lucky I am that I never got a girl pregnant. It’s crazy.”

Brett Ratner boasted a doctor had told him he had 10 times the sperm count of an average man his age.

He also claimed he asked Lindsay Lohan to get an STD test when they allegedly slept together when she was 19.

Brett Ratner praised her natural acting talent and claimed “everything f**ked up about her is because of her parents”.

Brett Ratner said: “I’m a hypochondriac. Before I go all the way, I send the girl to the doctor and check them for everything. My doctor has a test to tell if you’re going to catch something in the future even.”

It was not the first time Brett Ratner has shocked with his brash commentary.

He recently admitted to having had a fling with Olivia Munn – who had apparently referred to him in her book Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures Of A Hollywood Geek.

In one visceral and nauseating paragraph, Olivia Munn, 31, recounts walking in on the movie big-wig – who she doesn’t name – while he was pleasuring himself.

She recalls: “A grown man in an oversized shirt holding his undersized manhood in hands glistening with shrimp fat.”

Speaking recently on G4’s Attack of the Show, Brett Ratner revealed the man in question was him, in an apparent shameless bid to drum up publicity for Tower Heist.

Brett Ratner said: “I used to date Olivia Munn, I’ll be honest with everyone here. But when she was <<Lisa>>.

“She wasn’t Asian back then, she was hanging out on my set of After the Sunset, I banged her a few times, but I forgot her.

“Because she changed her name I didn’t know it was the same person and so when she auditioned for me for a TV show.

“I forgot her, she got p***ed off, and so she made up all these stories about me eating shrimp and masturbating in my trailer.

“And she talked about my shortcomings.”

Brett Ratner’s bitter response is baffling, particularly his “before she was Asian” comment as Olivia Munn is Chinese on her mother’s side.