Bill Murray Is Trying To Rehab His Image As He Promotes His Latest Film ‘The Friend’

Funnyman Bill Murray’s new flick is called The Friend, but insiders say he could use more friends in Hollywood, where he’s been turning folks off by acting rude and grouchy.

The 74-year-old Caddyshack star has been dogged by bad publicity for a few years since his alleged raunchy behavior with a young female worker on the film Being Mortal led to the partially shot movie getting canceled entirely.

“He’s now tried to use this press tour for his movie The Friend to reverse some of that damage, doing a bunch of no-questions-off-limits interviews that ultimately landed with a thud,” says an insider.

“Bill’s latest run of interviews was an outright failure and only reminded people how out of touch he truly is.”

“He should be grateful he didn’t do too much damage to yet another film in the process.”

The Friend, which costars Naomi Watts, only made a pathetic $3.1 million domestically in its opening weekend.

“The real disaster was Bill’s recent press tour, which reminded mainstream Hollywood of how hopelessly over-the-hill and stuck in the past he is,” says the insider. “Bill’s interview tour didn’t help, especially since he was asked about his actions on Being Mortal at almost every stop and offered very unsatisfactory explanations for his antics.”

As GLOBE reported, Murray was accused of inappropriate behavior during the 2022 production, where he reportedly straddled a younger female production assistant and, in another instance, kissed her on the mouth when they were both wearing masks, per COVID protocols.

The studio launched an investigation and shut down production. The Meatballs star reportedly paid the woman a $100,000 settlement to keep her silent.

Incredibly, “Bill is still bitter over it. He recently told an interviewer, ‘It still bothers me,’ and slammed the ‘lunatic arbitration’ he went through as robbing him of justice.”

Bill also triggered fury during a TV appearance with Naomi when a viewer called in to ask the actress to name her best onscreen kiss, and before she could answer, Bill leaned over and smooched her on the mouth.

“He just humiliated her on live TV,” slammed a watcher.

Another said: “I feel so bad for her that she had to pretend to be okay afterward.”

Adds the insider, “It’s a sad reminder of what Bill has become in his old age: a stubborn, selfish relic of a less evolved era in Hollywood.”