The Razzies, the usually gross group that names the “worst” movies and performances of the year, were once a fun, witty bunch, but in recent years they’ve morphed into something mean and relentlessly mean.

It was – shocking! – the case again this year, when the group named 12-year-old actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who starred in last year’s “Firestarter” remake, as the worst actress. outrage was, as you can imagine, fast. And on Wednesday, the Razzies issued a predictable weak tea response apologizing. What nobility!

You can read the statement below, which is attributed to John Wilson of the Razzies, someone who we can only assume has created as much art, provided as many jobs, and generated as much happiness as all artists and filmmakers rewarded regularly, cruelly. dive on it. (We’ve cleaned up some of the weird spacing and spelling errors as a courtesy.)

“Sometimes you do things without thinking and then you get called out for it. So you get it. This is why the Razzies were created in the first place,” Wilson wrote.

He continued: “The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11-year-old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards has drawn our attention to our callousness in this case. Accordingly, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the final ballot that our members will cast next month. We also believe that a public apology is due to Ms. Armstrong and would like to say that we regret any harm she has suffered as a result of our choices.

Having learned from this lesson, we would also like to announce that effective immediately, we are adopting a voting guideline prohibiting any artist or filmmaker under the age of 18 from being considered for our awards.

We never intended to bury anyone’s career. This is why our Redeemer Award was created. We all make mistakes, ourselves included.

Since our motto is ‘Own Your Bad’, we realize that we ourselves have to rise to the occasion.”

Why anyone pays attention to the Razzies is a real mystery, but the fact that they shoot stuff like this almost every year should really solidify their obsolescence. Child actors who have been nominated in the past include Gary Coleman, who was nominated just before his 13th birthday, and Macaulay Culkin, who was nominated for three films including ‘Richie Rich’ in 1994 when he was 13. .

The awards came under fire last year for giving Bruce Willis his own ‘worst’ category and eventually rescinded the award after it was revealed the ‘Pulp Fiction’ star was suffering from aphasia.

In 2022, they also vacated Shelley Duvall’s 1980 Worst Actress award for “The Shining.”

Sharon Knolle contributed to this article.