Brown apologizes for suggestion Warren used actors in asbestos ad

BOSTON (AP) - Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is apologizing for suggesting Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren used paid actors in political ads defending her legal work in an asbestos lawsuit.

Brown made the comment during a campaign stop yesterday in Taunton. The Taunton Daily Gazette reported that Brown was asked how Warren got family members of asbestos victims to appear in her ads. Brown said that "a lot of them are paid." He also said "we hear that maybe they pay actors."

Warren called the comments "shameful."

Brown's campaign immediately issued a statement from Brown saying he was wrong "to have jumped to those conclusions."

In one ad, Kingston resident Virginia Jackson talks about how her husband died in 1990 of mesothelioma -- a cancer linked to asbestos -- after he was exposed while working at a Quincy shipyard.