Neil Patrick Harris responds to James Woods’ attack on boys who wear makeup

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 21: Actor Neil Patrick Harris speaks onstage during Neil Patrick Harris: In Conversation in the AT&T Studio during the 2017 Vulture Festival at Milk Studios on May 21, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Vulture Festival)

Neil Patrick Harris has hit out at James Woods, after the actor took to social media to criticise a couple’s parenting.

Woods, a former Hollywood star who appeared in classic films including Once Upon a Time in America and Videodrome, shocked fans with a tweet last night.

The actor, a strong supporter of Donald Trump, shared a photo of a boy wearing make-up and attacked his parents for letting him do so.

He wrote: “This is sweet. Wait until this poor kid grows up, realises what you’ve done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage.”

James Woods tweet

The comments have been condemned by How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris, who happens to be a friend of the couple in the photo.

He tweeted: “Utterly ignorant and classless, Mr. Woods. I’m friends with this family. You know not of what you speak, and should be ashamed of yourself.”

Harris, who has two children with his husband, is a strong defender of LGBT equality.

His rebuttal to Woods received almost 60,000 likes.

The original photo featured the boy with his smiling, proud parents, holding signs saying: “I love my gender creative son” and “My son wears dresses and makeup, get over it.”

Earlier this year, the Trump-supporting actor made a homophobic comment about gay broadcaster Anderson Cooper.


Woods tweeted a photo of Cooper making a funny face, captioning it: “His butt plug dislodges during a newscast”.

Back in 2015, Woods appeared in a PSA on LGBT youth homelessness for the LA LGBT Center.

In it, he claimed: “We’ve got you,” along with stars like Elton John and Jamie Foxx.

Harris, who was the first openly gay man to host the Academy Awards in 2015, played the title character on Doogie Howser in the early 1990s, and more recently starred in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother and the thriller Gone Girl.

He married his partner David Burtka, an actor and a professional chef, in 2014, after more than a decade together.

Harris recently starred as evil villain Count Olaf in the Netflix TV series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The 43-year-old actor looked different from his usually-pretty self in the series, buried under prosthetics and a large stage wig.