"remember me?"
Unemployment must not agree with Chris Brown. That's understandable when you're about 21, worth millions, had the world at you feet, and then the ground suddenly opens up underneath you. Well it's not so much that the ground opened up as that he smacked the shit out of his then gal pal Rihanna Robyn Fenty. Brown did a number on her that got world wide attention. When the pictures of Rihanna's battered face started making the rounds, folks couldn't stand the sight of Brown's face anymore. So he had to take a little sabbatical from the lime light.
Redemption American Style - fake it till you make it!
Well CB seems like he's getting ready to make a comeback. Chris was at the BET Awards recently where he gave an emotional tribute to the late pop icon Michael Jackson. When I say emotional I mean that he actually broke down during his tribute performance. He didn't break down in a jarring Kanye West way either. Nobody's microphone got snatched out of their hands & Brown was actually in tears!
"If you forgive me, I promise not to beat up any more women!"
The emotion didn't stop there either. During a presentation Brown took some time to say that he's really really sorry for doing all that unlicensed facial deconstruction on Ms. Fenty. Further more he knows that it was just plain wrong. If he hadn't already known that then I'm sure that the Brown Fan Boycott against any project he involved himself in helped him to figure it out! He get's it now because his profuse apologies also came with a guarantee - "I'll never ever do anything like that again!" You don't have to read about it though; cause you can see for yourself via this youtube clip:
Hennigan's shenanigans
Kanye West also attended. Now Kayne didn't really do anything comparable to Brown's savage assault. Kanye was merely drunk and disorderly during a past VMA Awards show. Believing that Beyonce Knowles had been passed over in favour of new comer Taylor Swift, Kanye and his bottle of Hennigan's hopped up on the stage to say that Taylor's a great gal and a talented singer but giving her the award was just plain wrong. It was almost chivalrous in a drunk, misguided way. Imagine poor Kayne's embarrassment and shock when he realized that Beyonce had not been passed over. The big prize, video of the year, had been saved up for her.
Chivlary is not dead, just a little drunk & rowdy
That lead to Kanye's year of shame. Jay Leno publicly took him to task on The Tonight Show. Jay might've been more cautious. The karma wheel turned on Leno fast after he developed his own image problems during the Conan O Brien affair (Leno couldn't have come off worse if he'd admitted to having sex with David Letterman!). Leno had company in the Kanye bashing. Even the President was goaded mischievously, by members of the media, into commenting on the affair. When asked for an off the cuff response during a media briefing, Pres Obama called West a "jackass". Getting called out by a man who was at the time the most popular president since FDR has got to put you in that "how bad is this thing gonna get?" mode. In fairness though the President seemed a little unsure of who Kanye was.
Next award show, take a pill
So Kayne took a brief hiatus (hiatus is a word you use for "break" when you've already used up sabbatical). He also conducted himself with a little more dignity than we're accustomed to seeing from celebs. he made a public apology to Ms. Swift. He also made a private call to once again say sorry for spoiling her moment. Then he went away for awhile: no media releases, no sneaky attempts to get back in the limelight, no phony sensitivity. His recent BET appearance was likewise cool & professional. So it looks like at least one of them has learned something from their year in exile! Maturity comes to those who wait, and is possible even for a professional celebrity!
Gibson still Mad Mel
BTW speaking of some one else with image problems, and who doesn't seem one bit sorry, Mel Gibson has been caught in yet another racist tirade. Radaronline is claiming that they've have a tape )perhaps the very same tapes that Oksana claimed to have recorded and that the courts barred her from releasing - wait for the "they were stolen" story), probably from Gibon's ex Oksana Grigorieva, in which Mel uses some very vulgar language. Some of it was racist, the rest just nasty threats directed against Ms. Grigorieva. Here are the Young Turks with their take on that.
Reps of Radaronline have confirmed that they have the tape, that they have heard the tape, and that Mel says all the stuff that he is alleged to have said on the tape. This adds credibility to Oksie's claims to have been battered by the disgraced drunken actor. It also means that after a few years of careful image management and some tentative steps towards a career comeback, Gibson is officially done!
