Will Smith hits back over Hitler remarks

Actor Will Smith has spent his Christmas holiday defending remarks he made about Adolf Hitler, after internet gossip sites alleged that the I Am Legend star had said that he thought Hitler was a good person. In an interview published last weekend in Scotland's Daily Record newspaper, Smith said: "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today'. I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good'. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming."
 
In a statement on Monday, Smith, who was recently named 'most powerful actor on the planet' by Newsweek, said the allegations were "an awful and disgusting lie," and that he was furious about his remarks being misinterpreted. Hitler was a "vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet," Smith added.
 
The Anti-Defamation League has accepted the actor's statement, saying that, "He did not mean for his remarks about the Nazi leader to be mistaken as praise," said  Abraham H Foxman, the League's national director. Smith "took immediate steps to clarify his words," Foxman added. "This is why all celebrities bear a special responsibility to weigh their words carefully, and an obligation to speak out against racism and bigotry whenever even a whiff of it appears." ·