![]() ![]() ![]() Too bad, because we used to really like him. Gawker’s response is representative: “While surely he and his publicity team thought tonight’s appearance would help rehabilitate his image, Brown’s overall emotionlessness will likely only strengthen the image of him as a villain. And that I wasn’t able to handle the situation both differently and better.” He also claims not to remember the incident and takes pains to portray it as an isolated event. His official hour-long mea culpa comes soon after, on Larry King Live, where he appears alongside his mother and his lawyer and says, “I have told Rihanna countless times, and I’m telling you today, that I’m truly, truly sorry. In August, Brown is sentenced to five years probation, 1,400 hours in “labor-oriented service,” and a restraining order against getting within 50 yards of Rihanna. No matter how many times he apologizes, he is forever tainted.” At the time, E!’s Marc Malkin says Brown’s career will probably never recover: “I just don’t think it’s possible. But it’s mostly for naught: The move is perceived as insincere, not much more than a choreographed PR move. He also claims that his lawyers had, until then, advised against the apology. No one is more disappointed than in me than I am”). Typical comment from MTV.com: “this guy isn’t in jail yet?” In July, Brown delivers an explicit apology video that conforms to the standard crisis-management template: take responsibility (“I am very sad and very ashamed of what I’ve done. All the blog sites are liars” - is shot through with plugs for his latest album. His response - “Everybody that’s haters, they just been haters. Within the month, it’s reported that Brown has voluntarily enrolled in anger-management classes nearly every news report includes a mention that it’s at the behest of his crisis-PR expert, Michael Sitrick.īy the end of May 2009, Brown breaks his public silence with an awkward web-cam video shot in his personal bowling alley. Jay-Z, Rihanna’s mentor, is rumored in particular to be out for blood. Wrigley’s gum immediately drops him as a celebrity spokesman. Radio stations pull his music from their playlists. Hours after the incident, he turns himself into the LAPD. Seriously.īrown attacked Rihanna on February 8, 2009, in a rented silver Lamborghini, after leaving Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party. Counterintuitively, the less Brown tried to nail an apology, and the more he focused on reclaiming his former persona - basically, a ruthless pop-star cad, aggressively seducing and cycling through women - the better off he was in the public eye. How the hell did that happen? Ahead of tomorrow’s release of his new album, F.A.M.E., Vulture traced the comeback, and realized that Brown managed the startling reversal without ever doing the one thing everyone always assumed he’d have to: successfully apologize (that is, apologize while being perceived as sincere) for his assault on Rihanna. It’s hard to believe - maybe harder to accept - but somewhere amid his latest string of top ten singles, it became indisputably true. ![]()
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