MUMBAI : Actor-rapper Nick Cannon rose to comedian Kevin Hart's defence by calling out female comedians who had used anti-gay slurs on their own handles.

This comes after Hart stepped down from his appointment as Oscar host following backlash over past homophobic tweets.

Without mentioning Hart's name in any of his tweets, Cannon called out Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer for using a gay slur in tweets posted between 2010 and 2012, reported hollywoodreporter.com.

"Interesting I wonder if there was any backlash here," Cannon wrote in a tweet on Friday, embedding a 2010 tweet by Chelsea Handler stating, "This is what a f-- bird likes like when he flexes."

Then he tweeted a 2010 post from Silverman that said, "I don't mean this in a hateful way but the new bachelorette's a f-----." Cannon's caption to this read: "And I f**king love Wreck-It Ralph!" as Silverman voices the character Vanellope in the movie.

Cannon also embedded a 2012 tweet from Schumer reading, "Enjoy skyfall f---. I'm bout to get knee deep in Helen Hunt #thesessions"

Hart gave up his Oscar host gig on Thursday after refusing an ultimatum given to him by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to apologise for tweets in which he used homophobic slurs, discussed punishing his son for playing with a dollhouse because "that's gay" and insulted someone's appearance as looking like "a gay bill board for AIDS".

In Instagram videos posted on Thursday, Hart said that he had already addressed these tweets in public before, that he had changed and that he refused to discuss them again.

After leaving his Academy post, a role he had long wanted to take on, the comedian later did express regret for his past statements on Twitter, saying: "I sincerely apologise to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past... I'm sorry that I hurt people. I am evolving and want to continue to do so."

(Source: IANS)