“I would not go back there on holiday, but the architecture goes from medieval right through to renaissance, and when it’s good, it’s spectacular,” he said.
His jibe angered politicians on the sun-kissed Mediterranean island, which funneled a record €47 million in cash rebates to the producers of “Gladiator 2.”
Valletta Cultural Agency Chairman Jason Micallef called Scott a “bully,” while Maltese opposition MP Adrian Delia said the director hadn’t shown “respect … towards those who welcomed you warmly, shared and lent their history and culture and showered you with millions to credit to your tax bill.”
“You advised the world not to visit us as tourists. Well, allow me to advise you not to visit at all,” Delia wrote on social media. “Not to screen your movies, not to plunder our hard-earned tax coffers and certainly not to spit disrespect in our faces.”
National Heritage Minister Owen Bonnici downplayed Scott’s criticism, calling vacation destinations a “personal and subjective choice.”
Scott sent a statement to Maltese media on Monday walking back his comments, saying they were “an attempt at humour that unfortunately got lost.”
