Actor Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow lashed out at a film critic who blamed their movies for helping to fuel the Santa Barbara rampage — part of a growing culture war over the California killings.
The Hollywood funnymen fired back at Washington Post writer Ann Hornaday for citing their hit comedy “Neighbors” in a Sunday column blasting a “sexist movie monoculture” of “violence, sexual conquest and macho swagger.”
Their war of words came amid an escalating debate pitting liberals against conservatives over whether 22-year-old Elliot Rodger was a raging misogynist or just another crazy killer.
Tweets bearing the #YesAllWomen hashtag — in which women describe harassment — passed the million mark Tuesday after trending in the wake of Rodger’s rampage.
But some women’s groups challenged claims that Rodger — a self-described “kissless virgin” — killed six people, wounded 13 more and then fatally shot himself simply because he loathed women.
“Yes, he clearly did hate women, but there are all sorts of men with ‘mother issues’ who don’t ever act out violently,” Penny Nance, head of Concerned Women for America, told The Post.
“This tragedy is one more reminder that we are not appropriately dealing with mental illness in this country.”
In her column, Hornaday wrote, “How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, ‘It’s not fair?’ ”
“@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed,” Rogen fumed.
“How dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage.”
Apatow — whose filmography includes “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” — accused Hornaday of exploiting Friday’s carnage in Santa Barbara to “sell papers.”
“She uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts,” Apatow tweeted Tuesday.
He also wrote: “Most of Earth can’t find a mate — someone to love. People who commit murder of numerous people have mental-health issues of some type.”
Hornaday answered her own critics in an online video Tuesday, saying, “I certainly understand why Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow might feel defensive.”
“In singling out ‘Neighbors’ and Judd Apatow, I by no means meant to cast blame on those movies or Judd Apatow’s work for this heinous action. Obviously not,” she said.
“But I do think, again, it bears all of us asking what the costs are of having such a narrow range of stories that we constantly go back to.”
Right-wing radio talk-show host Erick Erickson said “cries about misogyny” ignored the fact that Rodgers was insane.
“Making this about violence against women or misogyny, when in fact he also killed men, overshadows the greater mental health issue and what we are seeing culturally with young men being more likely than anyone else to engage in these mass shootings,” Erickson said.
In a post titled “Elliot Roger Wasn’t a Misogynist,” Donald Douglas of the “American Power” blog wrote that Rodger “was a misanthropic and narcissistic postmodern leftist,” citing a section of his manifesto that discussed his desire to kill “young couples.”
“The males deserve it for taking the females away from me, and the females deserve it for choosing the males instead of me,” Rodger wrote.
Conservatives also have noted Rodger subscribed to the progressive “The Young Turks” YouTube channel, co-founded by former MSNBC political commentator Cenk Uygur.