TV personality and E! host Giuliana Rancic criticized a black actress on Monday for showing up to the Oscars with dreadlocks, saying they probably smelled like weed.
Rancic’s comments about actress and singer Zendaya Coleman were made on Monday night during E’s Oscars edition of the show “Fashion Police.”
“I love Zendaya’s style, and I love when she has the little hair — she just had it,” Rancic said, critiquing an image of Coleman. “I think this — she’s such, she’s just such a tiny frame that this hair to me overwhelms her. Like I feel like she, she smells like patchouli oil. Or weed. Yeah, maybe weed?”
Coleman didn’t take kindly to Rancic’s comments and took to Twitter to respond on Monday. The actress noted that “there is a fine line between what is funny and disrespectful” and criticized the comments as “ignorant slurs and pure disrespect.”
— Zendaya (@Zendaya) February 24, 2015
Rancic apologized to Coleman on Tuesday via Twitter.
Dear @Zendaya, I’m sorry I offended you and others. I was referring to a bohemian chic look. Had NOTHING to do with race and NEVER would!!!
— Giuliana Rancic (@GiulianaRancic) February 24, 2015
h/t Gawker