Hollywood actor Steve Martin has issued a public apology after posting a racially offensive joke on microblogging site Twitter.

The Father of the Bride star was recently making a series of gags about grammar on Twitter when one fan asked him, "Is this how you spell lasonia?"

Martin reportedly replied: "It depends. Are you in an African-American neighbourhood or at an Italian restaurant?" reports femalefirst.co.uk.

This made a number of fans criticise him for the bad joke, and he later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, writing: "I did apologise. But again, a second later I realised what an offensive thing I'd done. Deep bow. My tweet was highly inappropriate".