Matthew Perry to remove 'stupid' Keanu Reeves comments from his memoir

Matthew Perry intends to remove negative comments about Keanu Reeves from any copies of his memoir published in the future.

Last November, the actor released his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

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In it, he shares candid stories about his battles with drug and alcohol addiction, with a particular focus on his time in Friends. In one section, he references the death of his friends River Phoenix and Chris Farley, plus Heath Ledger, while lamenting the fact Reeves was still around.

"It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down," he wrote.

"Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?"

It was seen as an unnecessary attack on Reeves, who is recognised by many to be one of the kindest celebrities in Hollywood.

Perry would subsequently apologise for the passage in the book, and he has not confirmed that it will be removed from his autobiography.

"I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do," he said at the Los Angeles Festival of Books.

"I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I've apologised publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it. If I run into the guy, I'll apologise. It was just stupid."

Perry sober for only one season of Friends

Perry's addiction was on alcohol and Oxycontin, an opioid pain relief medication. It was his dependence on the latter that ultimately led to the perforation of his colon and his hospitalisation which nearly killed him.

As for alcohol, he says he was sober for only one season of Friends,

"I could handle it, kind of," he said of when he first started drinking in the early days of the show.

"But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble.

"But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, 'That should tell me something.'"