Chris Evans addresses the elephant in the room. Photo / ET Canada / YouTube
Avengers star Chris Evans bravely fronted up to his first live TV interview since his headline-making X-rated social media gaffe over the weekend.
For those who've been living under a rock the past few days, while sharing a video from his own phone with his six million-odd fans on Instagram, Evans also accidentally gave them a glimpse of his camera roll β including a dimly lit photo of a penis (presumably his own).
Evans hastily deleted the post, but the image spread like wildfire among the thirstier sections of the star's fanbase.
Yesterday, he returned to social media with a simple tweet acknowledging the scandal:
And in an interview on a US talk show overnight, Evans squirmed as he copped a grilling from host Tamron Hall over the weekend's events.
"Chris Evans β you were trending over the weekend. You said, 'Now that I have your attention, vote.' What happened, Chris?" she asked.
"Did something happen this weekend?" he shot back, clearly uncomfortable.
Hall's second guest on the show then started talking about another topic β prompting the host to joke she'd cut his microphone off if he didn't let her return to grilling Evans.
"Chris, you've used this event to get our eyes on something that is more important?" she continued.
"Sure. That's called turning a frown upside down, Tamron. Look it was β¦ an interesting weekend, full of lessons learned, a lot of teachable moments. You know. Things happen, it's embarrassing, you gotta roll with the punches. I will say I have some pretty fantastic fans who really came to my support," he said.
Hall thanked the star for not dodging the question and addressing the, ahem, elephant in the room. "Now these people can get off my social media asking me if I'm gonna ask you. Stop it, it's done! He went on record, no more questions about it!"
As Evans initially stayed silent in the 48 hours following the social media slip-up, others β including former co-stars and his own brother β filled the void.
"@ChrisEvans. Bro, while Trump is in office there is NOTHING you could possibly do to embarrass yourself. See β¦ silver lining," his Avengers co-star Mark Ruffalo tweeted.
And Evans' brother Scott quipped: "Was off social media for the day yesterday. So. What'd I miss?"