Neil Patrick Harris faced backlash after a photo went viral on social media showing a buffet platter resembling Amy Winehouse's body at a Halloween party he hosted in 2011, three months after her death.
The corpse-inspired Halloween dish was not a cake as initially reported, but rather a meat-based creation.
Neil Patrick Harris, known for his roles in "How I Met Your Mother" and "Gone Girl," stirred controversy after a photo revealed what was described as a "cake" resembling the corpse of Amy Winehouse, which he and his then-fiancé, actor and chef David Burtka, served to guests at a Halloween party three months after Winehouse's death in 2011.
The image surfaced again in early 2024 on social media platforms including Reddit, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). Many commenters condemned the actor for what they perceived as a disrespectful and tasteless portrayal of Winehouse.
Because the claim that Harris had a cake made resembling Winehouse contains elements of truth and falsehood, we rate this a "Mixture."
When the image made the rounds on social media in 2022, various news outlets reported the backlash against Harris, with headlines labeling the platter as a "corpse cake" and documenting the public outrage directed at the actor.
"Ohmigod, this is so much worse than I pictured," one person wrote, while another responded, "Yeah it sounds silly, but if ever a cake needed a nsfw warning, it would be this one. It's ghastly. I forgot how horrible it looks."
However, the Halloween dish was not a cake, as initially reported, but rather a meat-based creation. This distinction is crucial in evaluating the accuracy of the claim.
(Chilipepah/Reddit)
The photo depicted a gruesome meat platter inspired by Winehouse, who died in July 2011 at age 27 due to alcohol poisoning. A small handwritten note visible next to the spread read, "The Corpse of Amy Winehouse." The platter consisted of "beef ribs, pulled pork, chicken sausage in a spicy BBQ sauce," according to the note, and was arranged to mimic Winehouse's body, complete with exaggerated facial features, a beehive hairdo and a cigarette sticking out of the mouth.
In 2022, Rolling Stone published an article addressing the controversy, clarifying that the photo depicted a meat platter, not a cake. Also in 2022, Entertainment Weekly published a statement from Harris in which he acknowledged the backlash and apologized for any offense caused by the photo, explaining that the meat platter was part of a Halloween party he hosted alongside Burtka and admitted that the choice of decoration was in poor taste:
"A photo recently resurfaced from a Halloween-themed party my husband and I hosted 11 years ago," Harris tells EW in a statement. "It was regrettable then, and it remains regrettable now. Amy Winehouse was a once-in-a-generation talent, and I'm sorry for any hurt this image caused."
Snopes has previously reported on other food-based controversies, including the claim that Bill Gates owns a farm that produces potatoes used in McDonald's french fries, and whether ice sinking in a drink means that it's been spiked.