John Waters is recovering after a car accident outside Baltimore

John Waters, the gay filmmaker known for Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Polyester, and other boundary-pushing movies, has assured fans he’s OK after a recent car accident.

Waters, 78, issued a statement Tuesday saying he’d been released from a hospital after treatment for injuries that were not serious.

“Since it hurts when I laugh I will have no witty answer about being in a car accident that no one has said was my fault,” he said, according to The Baltimore Banner. “Hope you understand. I’m released from the hospital and all is OK.”

Waters didn’t offer details about the accident, which occurred in Baltimore County, outside the city of Baltimore, which is the director’s home base.

Rumors were circulating on social media Monday night that Waters was in critical condition with a head injury, the Banner reports. “If we lose John Waters what’s the point anymore???” one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Waters, a.k.a. the Pope of Trash, had appeared over the weekend at the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore, introducing his pick for the fest, Butt Boy, a 2019 movie by director Tyler Cornack about a man who may have people disappearing up his rear end. It’s “a heterosexual movie about a man and his asshole, basically,” Waters told the Banner.

He is working on a new movie of his own, Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance, based on his 2022 novel of the same name. Aubrey Plaza has been set to star. Waters’s last feature film release was A Dirty Shame in 2004, but he has been making occasional appearances as an actor.