Jennifer Lawrence is engaged to boyfriend Cooke Maroney

Red carpet nixed after Liam Neeson reveals racist thoughts

The red carpet for the premiere of Liam Neeson’s latest film was canceled Tuesday, a day after a British newspaper published an interview in which the actor discussed wanting to kill a random black person nearly 40 years ago when a close friend told him she had been raped by a black man.

Organizers of the New York premiere of “Cold Pursuit” said they were canceling interviews and photo opportunities for the film hours after Neeson appeared on “Good Morning America” to explain his past racist thoughts. He told interviewer Robin Roberts he is not a racist and moved past his desire for violence after seeking help from a priest and from friends.

Neeson said in an interview published Monday by The Independent that after learning his friend’s attacker was black, he “went up and down areas with a cosh (stick or truncheon)” hoping a black person “would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.”

“It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that,” Neeson said.

Jennifer Lawrence is engaged to her boyfriend, Cooke Maroney. Her publicist confirmed Wednesday the 28year-old Academy Award winner’s engagement, but did not provide additional details.

People magazine reported in June that Lawrence was dating Maroney, who is the director of an art gallery in New York City.

Lawrence has finished filming her fourth installment of the “X-men” series, “X-men: Dark Phoenix,” which is expected in theaters in June.