{"id":621359,"date":"2026-09-11T11:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621359\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:42:10","slug":"lee-pace-forced-to-apologise-as-hes-called-out-for-derogatory-woman-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621359\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Pace forced to apologise as he’s called out for ‘derogatory’ woman comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lee Pace in Practical Magic 2 (Warner Bros)<\/p>\n

Lee Pace<\/a> was criticised online after suggesting a woman\u2019s \u201cpower\u201d comes from her ability to cook, prompting host Craig Melvin to challenge the remark on air.<\/p>\n

The 47-year-old actor appeared on the programme on 10 September to discuss Practical Magic 2<\/a> with Melvin, also 47.<\/p>\n

During the conversation<\/a>, queer actor Pace<\/a> said: \u201cThis movie, it\u2019s a movie about witches and it\u2019s given me the opportunity to think about\u2026 I guess if you remove the word \u2018witch\u2019 from it, you think about powerful women,\u201d before adding: \u201cYou know, a woman who can cook you an incredible meal. You think, \u2018God, it\u2019s chicken and lemon, but why does it taste like that? Is that some kind of magic power or\u2026?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvin cut in: \u201cYeah, a lot of women, though, who heard you say that, the first superpower you mentioned was cooking,\u201d then added: \u201cI just wanted to give you the chance to amend the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pace, who is married to Matthew Foley<\/a>, accepted the point, replying: \u201cYou called me out for that, so thank you for that. Don\u2019t let me off the hook on that one, please, please.\u201d He went on to say there were \u201clots of different powers that you can have\u201d. <\/p>\n

Pace also joked during the segment: \u201cWell, we don\u2019t want to talk about evil witches because there\u2019s a lot of people watching and we don\u2019t want to get an evil eye pointed at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viewer reaction<\/p>\n

The exchange triggered a mixed reaction on social media. Viewers criticised the stereotypical gendered nature of Pace\u2019s views, while others suggested he was just clumsy with his words.<\/p>\n

\"LeeLee Pace appeared on the Today show (NBC)<\/p>\n

Reacting, one said: \u201cThank you for calling out the derogatory \u2018women cooking\u2019 comment Craig! I heard him say that and I about dropped my hand weight!\u201d<\/p>\n

One, defending him, said: \u201cLee doesn\u2019t need to be schooled about gender roles and stereotypes. He really doesn\u2019t. Look at his body of work (from Soldier\u2019s Girl to Angels In America) and at his life. Case closed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cWitches brew stuff up though in potions, surely cooking is the closest real life thing to that. That\u2019s all I think he meant \u2013\u00a0brewing a potion is cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Pace in Practical Magic 2<\/p>\n

Practical Magic 2 is set 25 years after the original film and is adapted from Alice Hoffman\u2019s 2021 sequel story The Book of Magic.<\/p>\n

Sandra Bullock reprises her role as Sally Owens alongside Nicole Kidman as her sister Gillian, with Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest also returning.<\/p>\n

Pace plays Ian Wright, the love interest of Bullock\u2019s character Sally who appears to be hiding some secrets.<\/p>\n

However while she appeared in the original as a child, Evan Rachel Wood has been recast<\/a>, with Joey King taking over her role. Maisie Williams also joined the cast. <\/p>\n

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Pace in Practical Magic 2 (Warner Bros) Lee Pace was criticised online after suggesting a woman\u2019s \u201cpower\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,183180,270,181028],"class_list":["post-621359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lee-pace","tag-movies","tag-practical-magic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}