LIAM Neeson this week has demonstrated how an actor, after enjoying success for nearly 50 years, can put his career in jeopardy one statement.

This week the star declared that he once went out in the hope to harm a randomly selected black man after he learned his friend had been raped by a black man. The 'Taken' star said he: "Went out deliberately into black areas in the city looking to be set upon so that I could unleash physical violence"

Now he seems baffled that the response has not been overwhelmingly positive.

While I realize that finding out news like that would be confusing and incredibly difficult, and I am glad he did seek help eventually, I still find his angle hard to understand. If she had been raped by a white man would he have felt the need to bring race into it?

Should we forgive Liam Neeson? He insists now that he is not racist and that the act was carried out in frenzy of frantic rage. Some are applauding his honesty and for talking about an extremely difficult time. Does it really get more racist or stupid than attaching an atrocious act to the race of the perpetrator and seeking revenge on a person who had nothing to do with it? Can doing this be excused by trauma?

I do not think this is the reaction of a normal person, anyone would be angry, but most people's impulse would be to support their friend, the victim and put them first.

I often wonder whether celebrities should just shut up and enjoy being rich and loved. They will never have to worry about things like getting on the property ladder or running out of data, so they get bored and need to think of things to tell everyone about. Many seem to feel the only way to stay relevant in this day and age is to appoint themself the mouth piece of a shocking political cause, from Whoopi Goldberg to, Lorde, perhaps it is a by product of their extremely over inflated sense of self importance mixed with the twittermageddon taking over the world and making it only too easy to share ones views on everything.

However Neeson was being interviewed about his motivation for a role in a film at the time of the confession, so one could argue it was relevant.

But not every opinion and piece of personal information is necessary.