The Regret Set: Unforgettable Celebrity Apologies
The Regret Set: The Most Unforgettable Celebrity Apologies
The whole Hollywood game is pretty predictable these days. A celeb is beloved by his or her fans, then they do or say something offensive (or worse, people dig up old tweets and videos of them being offensive), and the public forces them to apologize whether they want to or not.
We’ve seen this story play out so many times before — and Kevin Hart is one of the latest stars to get caught up in the lose/lose game. You may recall that Kev was suppose to host the Oscars this year, until someone dug up old homophobic tweets of his. After being blasted by the public, the actor refused to apologize and decided to step down from his hosting duties.
He took to Instagram back in December to let everyone know, he ain’t going back in forth with yall.
“I passed on the apology. The reason why I passed is because I’ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it. I’ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I’ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I’ve done it. I’ve done it. I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old, when I’ve moved on and I’m in a completely different space in my life. The same energy that went into finding those old tweets could be the same energy put into finding the response to the questions that have been asked years after years after years. We’re feeding the internet trolls and we reward them. I’m not going to do it, man. I’m going to be me and stand my ground.”
Fast forward to January 2019, and host Ellen Degeneres has him on her show. She even revealed that she called the Academy herself to get them to allow Kev to host this year’s Oscars. One week later, the Night School star apologized once again via Twitter, then quickly reneged when he stopped by Good Morning America on Wednesday, saying, “I’m not giving no more explanation of who I am. I’m just done.”
Well, it’s safe to say that people aren’t feeling Kev’s pseudo-apology. But he isn’t the first, and certainly won’t be the last celeb to get caught up and have to apologize. Hit the flip to check out more “sorry” stars.
Roseanne
Roseanne Barr returned to the spotlight back in 2018 when her hit sitcom was rebooted on ABC. But after the network caught wind of a racist tweet that the comedian wrote, comparing Valerie Jarrett to a monkey, they pulled the plug on the popular show. Besides blaming Ambien and a lack of sleep for her racist ways, Roseanne issued another formal apology via Twitter:
She’s still cancelled, though.
Offset
Offset has been doing LOTS of apologizing lately. But the LGBTQ community totally came for him about a song lyric in which he rapped, “Pinky ring crystal clear, 40k spent on a private lear, 60k solitaire, I cannot vibe with queers.” The Migos alum issued a half-hearted apology soon after.
Quincy Jones
If you ask us, Quincy Jones has earned the right to say whatever it is that he wants. But his tea spilling in a Vulture Q&A last year had folks shaking their head at the Godfather of music. He claimed that everyone from Marvin Gaye to Richard Pryor was gay and that Michael Jackson “Stole a lot of things”. But his daughter’s Rashida & Kidada must’ve have freaked after hearing the interview, because just a few days later, Quincy issued an apology.
We still believe he meant every word he said.
Cyn Santana
Only a week into 2019 and folks are getting caught up already. Cyn Santana caught fire on social media recently after someone dug up a two year old interview she did with Angela Yee, claiming that Black Men treat Spanish Women better than they do Black Women. At first she refused to apologize:
But then the heat got too hot, and Cyn unfortunately got caught up, again.
Damn, Cynthia.
Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly is damn near 50 years old and still doesn’t know why Blackface is considered racist. She got super roasted by the Internet, then fired by NBC. But of course that didn’t come without an apology.
Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy has been apologizing for years now. But most recently in 2018, the ‘Crank That’ rapper apologized for publishing a video promoting an anti-Semitic group on the social video platform Cameo, which allows users to pay fringe celebrities to film scripted messages. But after being called out by Buzzfeed reporters, he issued a statement to the New York times saying,
“I was tricked. I apologize to anyone I offended. I thought it was just a shout out for a fan. I didn’t know it had a negative meaning behind it.”
