Michael Bay: 'I truly respect' Kate Beckinsale

Michael Bay wants the world to know he and Kate Beckinsale are cool.

Earlier this week, Beckinsale made headlines after suggesting Bay body-shamed her while they were filming their 2001 blockbuster Pearl Harbor.

“I don't think I fit the type of actress Michael Bay had met before,” Beckinsale said on the Graham Norton Show last Friday. “I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren't bigger than my head and I wasn't blonde.”

In response, Bay posted a statement on his personal site, including a photo of a Pearl Harbor movie poster featuring Beckinsale on his wall.

"Really?" he wrote. "This poster has hung proudly over my desk for 15 years. Yesterday I read in the press that I don’t think Kate Beckinsale is “a stunning beauty,” huh? And they went on to suggest that Kate and I don’t like each other?"

"Well, totally untrue. Kate and I are friendly. She is a fantastic actress, very funny, witty lady, sassy, speaks her mind, and I truly respect her."

Bay blamed the media for inflating Beckinsale's quotes into a scandal, sharing that he "spoke to Kate today and she felt she told a funny story."

"This so called ‘problem of us not liking each other’ was reported by a tabloid-esque reporter after Kate appeared on an edgy English talk show, speaking about our meeting 16 years ago while casting Pearl Harbor," he wrote. "The reporter made her story into some scandalous confrontation, when it was nothing of the sort."

Bay also responded to Beckinsale saying she “was told that if I got the part, I'd have to work out ... and I just didn't understand why a 1940s nurse would do that.”

"So I guess I was the “bad guy” 16 years ago for suggesting a trainer because she just had her new beautiful baby girl—and she was about to enter into an intensive action movie," he wrote. "Note to reporters: 95% of leads in movies have trainers and drink green juice!"

In other "directors apologizing to their female leads" news, Begin Again director John Carney apologized for his harsh remarks about Keira Knightley's acting, tweeting that he felt "like a complete idiot" after saying "a number of things about Keira which were petty, mean and hurtful." 

So, is the Bay/Beckinsale beef quashed? Your move, Kate.