Despite the headline (“James Van Der Beek Apologizes to Mike Birbiglia”) this is not an apology. James Van Der Beek never actually says “I’m sorry I gave you a look of horror when you said we looked alike…and I’m ALSO sorry that I called you out on Facebook and Twitter for lying about it ever happening.”
However, grading on the celebrity scale, this is a fine apology. Van Der Beek is self-deprecating about being wrong and being a dick. He plays along with a bit that acknowledges his past bad behavior; he owns what he did. He agreed to use the small amount of airtime he had to promote his own TV show to share the stage with another performer, and again, acknowledged his own jerkiness. And who knows, after they cut to commercial, maybe Van Der Beek actually apologized to Birbiglia. (Who, by the way, is a super-talented writer and comic who you should see if you can.)
Van Der Beek is a good example of how humbleness can be good business. (God, I sound like Dov Seidman.) He was purportedly a jerk when he became a young celebrity with ridiculous swoopy emo hair in Dawson’s Creek. But his post-Dawson career did not go so well. Years later, though, he’s living a second act as a self-deprecating, chastened, charming person who often plays comedically arrogant, un-self-aware characters who think they are hawt stuff. He seems amenable to being mocked, and level-headed about the nature of fame.
And now he owes Carson Daly an apology.
