By KORIN MILLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, October 2nd 2008, 3:53 PM

Rothenberg for News

Outspoken comedienne Sandra Bernhard has shot down earlier reports that she said Sarah Palin would be “gang-raped by my big black brothers” if she enters Manhattan.

“I never said ‘gang-raped’ and I never used ‘rape,’ ” Bernhard told the Daily News on Thursday.

The funnywoman was widely criticized after reportedly making the remark in her opening monologue during a show last month at Washington, D.C.’s Theater J.

RELATED: SANDRA BERNHARD ISSUES ‘GANG RAPE’ WARNING

Bernhard’s clarification comes on the heels of the announcement that she has been dropped as the keynote speaker for mid-October benefit at Rosie’s place, a women’s shelter in Boston.

Bernhard, 53, was asked to confirm the “gang rape” remark when first contacted by the Daily News in mid-September – and never denied it.

“That comment is part of a much larger, nuanced, and yes, provocative (that’s what I do) piece from my show about racism, freedom, women’s rights, and the extreme views of Governor Sarah Palin,” she said in an e-mail at the time.

RELATED: SARAH PALIN CONTROVESRY-WATCH

Bernhard told us on Thursday that she waited to set the record straight because, “as a performer, I’m not in the business of explaining myself to ill-informed critics.

“However, once this caused collateral damage to an innocent charity which does great work, I needed to correct things for the record.”

Bernhard wouldn’t recall the exact words she had spoken, citing her monologue’s improvisational nature, but said she “addressed the issue [that] if Sarah Palin had, God forbid, been violated, would she be willing to care for the baby?”

Despite the cancellation, Bernhard says she has no hard feelings towards Rosie’s place, and plans to make a donation “immediately” to the shelter.

“I understand the predicament they’re in,” she said.

Sandra Bernhard denies issuing Sarah Palin 'gang rape' warni