Hairdresser James Brown has apologised for racially abusing a TV presenter at the Baftas. The judge on E4 reality show Great British Hairdresser repeatedly called Ben Douglas a 'n****r' and referred to his female companion as a 'n****r's bitch'. Theatre academy founder Douglas had refrained from naming the crimper, who is close friends with Kate Moss, but Brown came clean and issued a full apology. In a statement reported by the BBC, he said: "I'd like to make a public apology to Mr Douglas, to his friends and to Bafta for my offensive and stupid comments. The simple truth is that I had drunk far too much on the evening and my behaviour was totally unacceptable. "Everyone who knows me knows I am not racist in any way whatsoever, but this incident has shown me that my drinking is way out of control and I need to take urgent measures to deal with it." Douglas confirmed that the pair had a 'full and frank conversation' about what happened. The statement continued: "I have been in touch with Mr Douglas and will be writing to him and to the Bafta organisers to apologise personally. I am very sorry and very embarrassed." Earlier, Douglas explained that he had gone public in order to expose increasing use of the abusive word. He said: "My motivation isn't that I want to ruin someone's career or to do a 'kiss and tell', but I feel it is an opportunity to raise awareness and to put a focus on the use of that word. I have seen the use of that word creeping into slang. Why did this individual feel that they were able to use that word to insult me and the person I was with?" A spokeswoman for Bafta said: "We were unaware of the incident until we read the newspaper story yesterday. Neither party has contacted Bafta directly about the matter but we will be investigating it further."
