It wasn’t so long ago that Mary J. Blige went from the Queen of Hip Hop and R&B to the butt of everyone’s joke when in April she appeared ina controversial Burger King commercial that was universally slammed for being tasteless and racist. And even though Blige released a statement apologizing for the “unfinished commercial,” she’s now sharing her side of the story and revealing that she was “crushed” by all of the criticism.
“I just felt like there was no need for me to say anything, because everyone was crucifying me and going crazy,” she told Hot 97 about initially keeping silent. “I pulled back and watched everyone and everything, [because] it’s just something that I thought would’ve been a great branding opportunity. I went online to listen to the remix that I did with Fat Joe, I’m looking for ‘Another Round,’ and all I could see is Burger King, chicken and buffoonery, and it just broke my heart.”
Blige continued, “I understood the laughter and the jokes and the stuff that was happening — you’re supposed to do that when something like that happens — but the thing that hurt me is when people were starting to say vicious, negative things that didn’t have [anything] to do with that. It exposed everyone and everything in my life and showed me who my friends are.”
Blige claimed that only a few people reached out to support her after the commercial aired and she was “wanting to crawl under the bed.” Sadly, Blige claimed that she also noticed people trying to distance themselves from the project.
“I had to go to the airport the next day, when it was hot off the press, and I just held my head up,” Blige explained. “It was a mistake and I did it because I thought it was something that wouldn’t come out like that. No one had mercy, and it’s cool, it was a learning experience. It hurt my feelings, it crushed me for two days, but after those two days, I got up and I kept going. I want to apologize to everyone that was offended or thought I would do something so disrespectful to our culture. I would never do anything like that purposely.”
Well, Blige isn’t the only star who’s blundered and taken some flack for it. Check out some other famous career missteps below. – nicholas robinson
