JUSTIN Bieber is apologising after a years-old video surfaced showing the then-teenager telling a racist joke with the N-word. In a statement to The Associated Press yesterday, Bieber said when he was a kid he didn’t realise how certain words could hurt. Brady Bunch actress Ann B Davis dies in TexasRay J arrested at Beverly Hills hotel

He says he learned from his mistakes and apologised for them, and now is apologising again because they have become public. “I’m very sorry,” Bieber said.

“I take all my friendships with people of all cultures very seriously, and I apologise for offending or hurting anyone with my childish and inexcusable behaviour.”

The British tabloid The Sun first published the video, which is five years old. In it, a then 15- year-old Bieber tells a joke about black people that has the racial epithet as the punchline. Before he says it, someone warns him not to — but he says it anyway, amid laughter.

“I thought it was OK to repeat hurtful words and jokes, but I didn’t realise at the time that it wasn’t funny, and that in fact my actions were continuing the ignorance,” the statement said.

“Thanks to friends and family I learned from my mistakes and grew up and apologised for those wrongs. Now that these mistakes from the past have become public, I need to apologise again to all of those who I have offended.”

It’s the latest controversy for Bieber who, over the past couple of years, has suffered from brushes with the law and other problems that have dealt a blow to his once wholesome image.

The video was taken when Bieber was just emerging as a pop sensation. In his statement, Bieber said that “ignorance has no place in our society, and I hope the sharing of my faults can prevent others from making the same mistake in the future. “I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say, but telling the truth is always what’s right.” He ends the statement by saying “Once again … I’m sorry.”

– AP

EMMY-WINNING actress Ann B Davis, who became the country’s favourite and most famous housekeeper as the devoted Alice Nelson of The Brady Bunch, died yesterday at a San Antonio hospital. She was 88. Bexar County, Texas, medical examiner’s investigator Sara Horne said Davis died in the morning at University Hospital.

Horne said no cause of death was available and that an autopsy is planned for today.

Bill Frey, a retired bishop and a long-time friend of Davis, said she suffered a fall Saturday at her San Antonio home and never recovered.

Frey said Davis had lived with him and his wife, Barbara, since 1976. More than a decade before scoring as the Bradys’ loyal Alice, Davis was the razor-tongued secretary on another stalwart TV sitcom, The Bob Cummings Show, which brought her two Emmys. Over the years, she also appeared on Broadway and in occasional movies. Davis considered her ordinary look an asset.

– AP

POLICE arrested singer Ray J at a Beverly Hills hotel after they say he became belligerent with staff, kicked out a patrol car window, and spit at an officer.

A statement from the Beverly Hills Police Department says officers came to the hotel, Friday evening, to investigate a report that the 33-year-old singer had inappropriately touched a woman at the bar.

Officers found the contact was incidental, and the singer agreed to leave. But police say Ray J, whose legal name is William Ray Norwood Jr, then refused to leave, became unruly, and used his feet to shatter a patrol car window after being taken into custody.

A representative for Ray J declined to comment about the arrest. The charges include vandalism, resisting arrest and battery on a police officer. Ray J is the brother of singer-actress Brandy.

– AP