Director Todd Phillips has laughed off suggestions a monkey was trained to smoke during the filming of The Hangover sequel, insisting he made up the story as a 'joke'.
- April 18, 2011
AceShowbiz - The moviemaker, Todd Phillips talked about "The Hangover Part II"'s cigarette-puffing monkey in an interview with Total Film magazine and revealed the capuchin learned how to smoke and was left with a raging nicotine addiction.
Todd Phillips even claimed to have incurred the wrath of officials at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), saying, "I wanted the monkey to smoke so we had to train her to. Now I have PETA after me because the monkey's become addicted to cigarettes."
The director has now come clean about his comments, revealing he concocted the story because he was bored.
He tells Movieline, "This was a joke. I make comedies. When you are doing press for a film, it tends to get repetitive, lots of the same questions over and over."
"Sometimes I like to mix it up with the journalists. Obviously, the monkey in the film never smoked a single cigarette. Even if I wanted her to smoke it wouldn't be allowed."
