Michael Moore: 'Oscar stagehand called me an asshole'

Michael Moore has revealed that an Academy Awards stagehand yelled "asshole" at him directly after his 2003 Oscars win.

The director picked up the gong for his documentary Bowling For Columbine and attracted controversy for his acceptance speech, an attack on "fictitious" President George W Bush and the US and UK invasion of Iraq.

"Champagne and breathmint are the first two words all Oscar winners hear," he reveals in his upcoming autobiography Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life, an extract from which appeared in The Guardian.

"But, lucky me, I got to hear a third. An angry stagehand came right up to the side of my head, screaming as loud as he could in my ear, 'ASSHOLE!'

"Other burly, p*ssed-off stagehands started toward me. I clutched my Oscar like a weapon, holding it like a lone man trapped and surrounded in the woods, his only hope being the torch he is swinging madly at the approaching vampires."

Moore added that he met the stagehand again years later on The Tonight Show, where they reconciled.

"I'm the guy who ruined your Oscar night. I'm the guy who yelled 'ASSHOLE' into your ear right after you came off the stage," the man reportedly told Moore.

"I thought you were attacking the president - but you were right. He did lie to us. And I've had to carry this with me now all these years, and I'm so sorry."

Moore revealed that he hugged the man and accepted his apology, before adding: "You do not need to apologise to me. You believed your president! You're supposed to believe your president! If we can't expect that as just the minimum from whoever's in office, then, s**t, we're doomed."

In 2008, Moore admitted to being surprised when his documentary Sicko received an Oscar nomination.

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Watch Michael Moore's 2003 Oscar acceptance speech below: