Chris Brown has finally wised up a teeny, tiny bit and retained the services of a professional PR firm. Brown stupidly had his friends and family defending his actions and character last week, after he was arrested for severely assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna. He also made a few unfortunate comments on his Facebook page, which he of course now denies.
Brown has hired Sitrick & Company, who have a long history of helping celebs try to manage PR nightmares. There’s probably not much they can do to improve Brown’s situation, except speaking on his behalf. Which is still better than Chris speaking for himself.
Embattled R&B singer Chris Brown has hired the Los Angeles based crisis management PR firm of Sitrick & Company, as he attempts to counter a wave of bad press following his alleged altercation with his ex-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Sitrick is considered an expert in navigating celebs through negative publicity because of unseemly situations stars may find themselves in. Chris Brown’s statement on Sunday was issued on behalf of Sitrick & Company, the first time the company has ever issued anything involving Brown. RadarOnline.com contacted p.r. brass at Sitrick, but was told they could not comment on when Brown retained them.
Michael Sitrick, whom reportedly charges $695 an hour, is well known for handling high profiles celebs when they find themselves on the wrong side of the headlines. From Halle Berry’s alleged hit-and-run mishap, Rush Limbaugh’s oxy-contin scandal to Kim Basinger’s bankruptcy, Sitrick’s client roster reads like a dossier of by-gone scandals.
Sitrick wrote in his book, “Spin: How to Turn The Power of the Press to Your Advantage,” ‘Correcting a problem is necessary, but alas, rarely sufficient; that is where the spin comes in.” Sitrick may attempt to spin the tragic events of that night, but the best p.r. professional probably won’t be able to save Chris Brown from the person that seems to be hurting him most, Chris Brown.
[From Radar]
Many celebs are speaking out, saying they don’t buy a word of Brown’s supposed apologies. Rosanne Barr shared a piece of her mind about the scandal, pointing out that Brown even uses the language typical of abusers.
Say what?
In a blistering new blog, comedienne Roseanne Barr lashes out at Chris Brown.Roseanne writes:
“make me want to beat the crap out of him…he uses the language of the perpetrator just like every sleazy bastard who ever smacked his wife, kid mother or girlfriend around uses. you dirty bastard, I hope you go to prison for ten years. IT’S YOUR FAULT, A** HOLE! as for all the mealy mouthed hollywood and music scene chicks that can’t bring themselves to condemn a misogynistic bully, let me say this: your time as whores for propaganda is ending, bitches.”
[From Radar]
Us also asked ¾ of Hollywood to weigh in on the situation. Nearly everyone has an opinion, though several celebs chose to play it safe in their comments. Here are a few.
Gayle King said she wasn’t moved by Chris Brown apology, in which he said Sunday he is “saddened … over what transpired” with girlfriend Rihanna. “I can’t think of anything that makes me support anything that Chris Brown is saying at this time,” King tells Extra. “And my heart just aches for Rihanna.”
JAY-Z
“This is a real situation. You have to have compassion for others. Just imagine it being your sister or mom and then think about how we should talk about that. I just think we should all support her. She’s going through a tough time. You have to realize she’s a young girl, as well. She’s very young.”UGLY BETTY’S MARK INDELICATO
“I don’t really know that much about it. I think that doing that to a woman is wrong in any way. It doesn’t matter who did it to you. But, you know, I don’t know that much about it, so I can’t really comment too much on it.”MOLLY SIMS
“It’s so sad. I don’t think anybody knows the whole truth, but I guess the truth really doesn’t matter when [abuse] is the result. That should never happen, no matter what. And I love his music. That being said, I think [about] Rihanna: No girl, no woman, no mother, no sister, no friend, no one deserves that. Absolutely.”MARK CURRY
“Women, throughout history, have been beaten and prostituted. Even today in movies and music, they’re portrayed as low-grade, so you know, he’s a youngster, and he can correct his ways. It’s just a tragedy – women and abuse.”
[From Us Weekly]
Rihanna is said to be appalled” “with Chris Brown’s half-hearted, self-serving apology. I was surprised that many celebrities decided to remain so neutral. I can understand making a “no comment.” But in Us Weekly’s article, Heidi Montag, Kellie Pickler, Carrie Underwood, Mary J. Blige, Ruben Studdard, Lindsay Lohan, and Nia Long all made some sort of ambivalent statements.
The comments ranged from things like, “They’re young, they can change,” to “I don’t know what happened, it’s between them,” to “they both have great careers and seem like nice people.” I tend to agree more with Rosanne (never did I think I’d use that sentence). I don’t need to know what happened, because there’s no excuse for how it ended.
Here’s Brown at the 2008 American Music Awards in November. Images thanks to PR Photos.
I’m glad that Gayle and Roseanne spoke up because the half assed comments from people especially women concerning this issue is disappointing. Both Gabrielle Union and Mary J. Blige have been victims of violence and I was shocked to read their mealy-mouthed comments regarding Brown. Their ambivalence in essence is a tacit endorsement to his behavior and the oft repeated “we don’t really know what happenend” is not good enough.
hey Chris:
often it’s the men who are insecure about their manhood who beat up women.
is that where your hate comes from? are U insecure about something related to your manhood?
I don’t know. If someone asked me I’d probably say “no comment”. Not because I’m defending Chris but more of respecting Rihanna. Last thing I would want is some dumbas* celebrity commenting on my life. But thats my opinion.
As for Chris I’m shocked but not surprised at the people defending him.
Agreed. I’d say no comment either.
And I think that there’s just no excuse for this. None. I don’t care what she did. A man of his size can easily subdue a woman of her size without having to physically harm her, even if she’s coming at him (I’m not making any kind of assumption that she did).
He’s an idiot, but unfortunately, people are stupid and he’ll recover just fine, with nothing more than a few metaphorical bruises on his record.
Chris Brown deserves to be beaten up himself…if not worse. His behavior has been unjustifiable, even since the incident. His career should be ruined, but knowing how a-holes like Charlie Sheen are still in the game, Brown will probably score a lucrative movie deal for this shit, starring Will Smith as himself.
And by the way, Sauronsarm, how can you possibly be “shocked, but not surprised”? That’s like being “stabbed in the spleen, but not injured.”
“stabbed in the spleen, but not injured.”
ROFL.
cutelittlehappything: Uh I say that because I’ve seen people (on this site even) defending Chris spewing all kinds of ridiculous rumors to justiy him hitting her. There is nothing to defend about Chris Brown. I’m surprised seeing so many people defend him but not completely shocked.
YOUR CAREER IS O-V-E-R !!!!!!
Not to defend him, but why would you think that Facebook is his and he’s now lying that it’s not? Media Fakeout isn’t exactly the world’s best source. He has no defense, but there’s no need to heap made up crap on top of the things he’s already done.
“Chris Brown Hires PR Agency (a week too late)…” ‘Closing barn door after horse…’ blah blah yadda yadda.
The way this is playing out, it’s like his handlers are dragging him through it kicking and screaming all the way:
“Now Chris you say you’re sorry”
“I don’t wanna. She started it!”
What. A. CHILD.
Chris “Girl Beater” Brown
I don’t get the ‘we don’t know what happened’ thing either because when it comes down to it it’s clear that there was some kind of altercation between them and Rihanna ended up in hospital, while Chris posted bail and went into hiding in Vegas. Clearly something happened.
None of the comments from his relatives outright say he didn’t lay a hand on her – there’s no denial of that at all which is what there would be it was the case.
What there has been is a lot of: ‘he’s made a mistake’ talk – in the hopes of preserving his career.
I mean, really, everyone makes that mistake of putting someone else in hospital? It’s not like he put out his leg and she happened to trip over it and knock herself unconscious. For a start, the couple would be together and the first person to defend Chris would likely be Rihanna herself. The dialogue that would be there if he had is totally absent.
Every move he makes and his family make has been purely damage control, so at the very least there’s a situation that could reflect badly on him that they’re trying to minimise.
I keep finding it disturbing that if this was some groupie he’d picked up we’d either not be hearing about it at all or people would be insisting any allegations occurred because the accuing party was trying to make money. Given that it’s Rihanna the arguement now becomes: she did something to make this happen.
The point is, then, how does her doing ‘something’ actually justify the alleged response? Was he in personal peril so that he felt the need to go there? If so, why weren’t the first words out of his mouth a statement to that effect? Or out of his relatives’ mouths?
It seems what this lack of censure is really saying is in this musical community so many artists have either struck someone or been hit themselves that they feel there’s no need for Chris to lose anything – it’s all one big misunderstanding and the pair of them will make it up and anyone feeling appalled by that assessment is just creating complications.
And yet there’s no talk that if this were the case then maybe everyone needs a time out to consider that they all have so many collective anger issues that overkill response has become the acceptable norm.
These are the justifications around assaults on women that allow a covert culture of permission, particularly when it’s (some) women themselves that can’t seem to outright call it a transgression – a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
Also, if women themselves become abusive it also allows that behaviour to go unchallenged. And, if it’s about illegal substance imbibance then the potential consequences of that are also going unchallenged.
I mean, do that many people feel so righteous in their ‘right’ to hairtrigger anger that they don’t care if a high rate of domestic abuse and death occurs in tandem to that? Do you need to feel the rage that badly? Is your life that lacking? That doesn’t seem so messed up that you don’t want it to escalate further and further?
It’s easy to wonder why this happened at all, which is likely what most people are wondering. Seems to me that it’s a wake up call for everyone. If this kind of thing is par for the course where you live, maybe it shouldn’t be, and maybe a little attitude shift could make a world of difference.
I agree with the comment about Media Fakeout. Quite a bit of what is being report about Facebook and Myspace comes from them and they are known for making things up. they even have a doctored photo of him up to bolster their fake stories. I think the situation is bad enough on its own without adding fake stories to it.
I thought it was said, right here on Celebitchy, the Facebook page wasn’t his? It was said there were quite a few imposter Chris Brown pages.
Not defending him, he’s a total pig, but the facts should be right. That being said, it’s pretty obvious he was violent against her, but we don’t know exactly what happened, (the reports he bit her, etc) and maybe shouldn’t confuse hearsay as fact.
there is just absolutely no excuse for abuse from either sex. Most women and men defending Chris are ignorant of how ppl are to treat each other. I pity them.
I’m so scared by all these celeb cop-outs. I mean I knew they were vapid and most probably aren’t that intelligent or aware of social problems (unless it will get them in a magazine), but this is just basic stuff right? Don’t they know these things? It’s putrid. Just foul and stinking, b/c they are either stupid or so emotionally/spiritually/mentally/socially bankrupt that they don’t care about right and wrong anymore.
Chris Brown should sing soprano.
On the one hand, I agree that everyone should take a stand against this. On the other hand, I don’t understand why the media feels it has to “poll” other celeb’s reactions to this particular event (as opposed to any other criminal behavior by celebrities).
All in all, I think the one who really needs to take a stand here is Rihanna. She has to come out and say “What he did was wrong, I WILL press charges, and I will never put up with a man hurting me for any reason.”
As badly as I feel for this young woman, and I’m sure it’s very hard for her, she is the one (not Rosanne or Gayle King or anyone else) who has to stand up against what was done to her.
(Which is not to suggest other people shouldn’t have an opinion).
Molly Sims said it best.
I can’t see how his career can recover. People won’t forget that. Ask Ike Turner.
For the most part, Us asked some pretty useless celebrities. But maybe, just maybe they are not outright taking a side because some of them (i.e., Lindsay) are so used to reading lies about them that maybe they want/need to hear Rihanna come right out and say it.
I loved what Roseanne said. Evil Beet just posted that Terence Howard was arrested for beating up his wife. He used the word “disrespect.” If you want to know if a guy beats a woman, see if he uses that word. They always use that word.
cutelittlehappything:
February 17th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Chris Brown deserves to be beaten up himself…if not worse. His behavior has been unjustifiable, even since the incident. His career should be ruined, but knowing how a-holes like Charlie Sheen are still in the game, Brown will probably score a lucrative movie deal for this shit, starring Will Smith as himself.
Unfortunately, abusees become abusers. Chris and his mom were beaten by his step-mother, and whaddya know? I’m not defending Chris, I’m saying this cycle needs to be stopped. More intervention with young children, etc.
^^^step-father^^^
i got this text today: 1st it was James Brown, then Bobby Brown, now Chris Brown. Beware of the BBB’s (Brown Beatin B_itches). If his last name is Brown, run B,tch run!
I think that many of the celebs in the music business are being neutral, knowing that Chris is quite a prolific songwriter, and they probably don’t want to mess up their chances of working with them when this all blows over.
As for what happened, I hope he gets jail time, and I hope she speaks out loudly that violence against women is wrong.
Although he didn’t necessarily use the deny tactic he has used the follow-on tried and true – Delay, Delay, Delay – Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa – Pronounced Crocodile Tears – Then Wait For It. . . . “I’d like my job back, please, I’m a changed and repentent person now!”. And scene.
It didn’t work for OJ the second time around, but he tried.