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Did apology for ‘offensive’ Asian jokes throw Chris Rock under the bus?

Chris Rock performing his skit about Asians at the Oscars.AP

Racial tensions over the Oscars are swirling anew after a group of insiders including Ang Lee and George Takei has now blasted the awards and host Chris Rock for being offensive to Asians.

The Feb. 28 awards faced a p.r. crisis when no black actors were nominated — but even after Rock took on the controversy, another group of voters said his material was “offensive” and “tasteless” to them.

“We are writing as Academy members of Asian descent to express our complete surprise and disappointment with the . . . perpetuation of racist stereotypes,” read a letter signed by Lee, Takei, Sandra Oh and 23 others. “The Oscars show was marred by a tone-deaf approach to its portrayal of Asians. We’d like to know how such tasteless and offensive skits could have happened.”

“Offensive” skits included Rock onstage with three Asian child actors he said were “accountants Ming Zhu, Bao Ling and David Moskowitz,” and that they had counted the Oscar ballots.

The academy quickly responded Tuesday, saying it “regrets that any aspect of the Oscar telecast was offensive,” and, “We are committed to doing our best to ensure that material in future shows be more culturally sensitive.”

But a Hollywood source countered that the apology has now thrown Rock under the bus.

“This is massive hypocrisy on the part of the academy,” the source said of the apology. “It wasn’t a surprise — they knew about this joke because it was rehearsed by Rock with the child actors in front of over 100 people before the show, including the academy’s representatives and the actors’ guardians or agents. Nobody had a problem with it at rehearsal.”

(One of the kids’ parents, Laura Kung, said in a radio interview that they didn’t know the content of Rock’s “inappropriate” joke till the rehearsal, after they’d signed a contract.)

But the insider said, “They hired Rock because he pushes the boundaries, they knew what they were getting. There is so much turmoil at the academy.” Reps didn’t get back to us.