In the 18th hour of his famous annual MDA telethon Lewis, 81, was pretending to introduce members of someone's family as he mugged for the camera.

"Oh, your family has come to see you. You remember Bart, your oldest son, Jesse, the illiterate fag ...," Lewis said, as he apparently caught himself and ceased the gag in mid-sentence, turning on his heel away from the camera.

Lewis has issued a statement to CNN:

"During the 21-1/2-hour live broadcast of my Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association this weekend, I made a joking comment to a member of my production team. I apologize to anyone who was offended. I obviously made a bad choice of words. Everyone who knows me understands that I hold no prejudices in this regard. In the family atmosphere of the Telethon, I forget that not everyone knows me that well. That something like this would distract from the true purpose of the Telethon pains me deeply. The success of the show and all the good that will come from it shouldn't be lost because of one unfortunate word. I accept responsibility for what I said. There are no excuses. I am sorry."

[tmz]