WEST HOLLYWOOD — Hopper Penn, the hither to unknown son of Sean Penn and Robin Wright, has made his Hollywood media debut one to remember by shouting faggot and the N-word to a Black paparazzo who was trying to take his picture.
Hopper, 19, bumped into the Splash News photographer while walking into an office building. The photographer called Hopper out for bumping him. But instead of saying “hey dude, my bad,” Hopper flips his middle finger, calls the camera guy a gay slur, and then slings the N-word.
Hopper is the son of Haitian relief group J/P HRO’s most famous board member, Sean Penn, who has raised millions to help Haitians recover from the devastation of the 2010 earthquake that killed over 200,000 and left hundreds of thousands more destitute and at risk of contracting cholera.
Hopper has since apologized for his shockingly crude and insensitive epithets. “I was accosted by paparazzi and made to feel like an animal — threatened and under attack, but that does not condone my own actions,” he told TMZ.com. “I deeply regret my choice of words.” Great. But does he understand he should also correct the underlying homophobia and racist attitude? It’s one thing to be angry. It’s another to be hateful toward minority groups, especially when your dad is an advocate for at least one of those groups.
Sean Penn, who allegedly once hung a paparazzo outside a hotel room window and was most recently arrested in 2010 for kicking a photographer (he later pled no contest to vandalism in the case and got three years’ probation), has famously rehabilitated himself from his bad boy past by involving himself in J/P HRO, which has acted to make sure Westerners remain aware of Haiti’s ongoing plight.