Here we go again: The kinder, gentler Chris Brown hit a serious snag on his road to redemption today by reportedly flipping out on the set of Good Morning America. His fit of rage was allegedly set off by a series of questions regarding his physical altercation with Rihanna in 2009 (he was later sentenced to anger management classes and community labor in exchange for a guilty plea to assault). According to TMZ, Brown had an off-camera meltdown following his performance and interview with Robin Roberts, smashing a window in his dressing room with a chair and sending shattered glass falling onto the streets of Manhattan. Brown was also shouting so loudly backstage that he scared hair and makeup people and security had to be called.
Roberts first questioned Brown about a recent legal victory — the restraining order that required him to stay away from Rihanna was softened — but Brown attempted to bring the conversation back to his new album, F.A.M.E., which was released today. Roberts then used a query about the acronym behind F.A.M.E. — Forgive All My Enemies — as a launch pad for another Rihanna question.
“Definitely this album is what I want people to talk about and not this stuff that happened two years ago,” Brown reiterated, awkwardly but calmly. Roberts later said that everything she asked Brown on camera was pre-approved by the singer before the interview.
Brown waited until after the interview to really explode, and when he did pop, it was in physical violence. While exiting the GMA building, Brown confronted the producer of his segment, and the two had to be separated before the situation escalated. Also somehow, on Brown’s way out of the building, he ripped off his shirt and walked onto the street with his many tattoos on full display.
Brown’s morning-show outburst is reminiscent of another recent morning-show-provoked outburst: Kanye West’s anger sparked by a Today show interview with Matt Lauer late last year. Lauer asked West about the MTV VMAs at which he stole Taylor Swift’s spotlight — something Kanye was clearly likewise sick of discussing. And while West expressed his discomfort with the situation on air and on Twitter, Brown only alluded to his frustration with the interview before violently exploding. Of course, he, too, turned to Twitter to speak his mind, writing:
“I’m so over people bringing this past s— up!!! Yet we praise Charlie sheen and other celebs…” Brown tweeted shortly after the incident. The tweet was deleted almost immediately after that.
ABC News later issued a response to the incident and Chris Brown’s anger about GMA’s line of questioning.
“As always, we ask questions that are relevant and newsworthy, and that’s what we did in this interview with Mr. Brown,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
In some sick way, Brown does make a strange point about the duality of celebrity: If it were Charlie Sheen that flipped out on Good Morning America and smashed windows, the public would react with a giggle and quip, “That’s Sheen being Sheen. Duh, winning,” whereas a Brown freak-out is viewed as a relapse after a year of anger management and a reinforcement that this guy doesn’t have the mental fortitude to make it as a big-time star. Which, at the end of the day, it is. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
For Brown, once considered the heir apparent to Usher and possibly even Michael Jackson, it appears this latest incident and his continued unstable behavior ensures he’ll never reach that potential.
Here we go again: The kinder, gentler Chris Brown hit a serious snag on his road to redemption today by reportedly flipping out on the set of Good Morning America. His fit of rage was allegedly set off by a series of questions regarding his physical altercation with Rihanna in 2009 (he was later sentenced to anger management classes and community labor in exchange for a guilty plea to assault). According to TMZ, Brown had an off-camera meltdown following his performance and interview with Robin Roberts, smashing a window in his dressing room with a chair and sending shattered glass falling onto the streets of Manhattan. Brown was also shouting so loudly backstage that he scared hair and makeup people and security had to be called.
Roberts first questioned Brown about a recent legal victory — the restraining order that required him to stay away from Rihanna was softened — but Brown attempted to bring the conversation back to his new album, F.A.M.E., which was released today. Roberts then used a query about the acronym behind F.A.M.E. — Forgive All My Enemies — as a launch pad for another Rihanna question.
“Definitely this album is what I want people to talk about and not this stuff that happened two years ago,” Brown reiterated, awkwardly but calmly. Roberts later said that everything she asked Brown on camera was pre-approved by the singer before the interview.
Brown waited until after the interview to really explode, and when he did pop, it was in physical violence. While exiting the GMA building, Brown confronted the producer of his segment, and the two had to be separated before the situation escalated. Also somehow, on Brown’s way out of the building, he ripped off his shirt and walked onto the street with his many tattoos on full display.
“I’m so over people bringing this past s— up!!! Yet we praise Charlie sheen and other celebs…” Brown tweeted shortly after the incident. The tweet was deleted almost immediately after that.
ABC News later issued a response to the incident and Chris Brown’s anger about GMA’s line of questioning.
“As always, we ask questions that are relevant and newsworthy, and that’s what we did in this interview with Mr. Brown,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
In some sick way, Brown does make a strange point about the duality of celebrity: If it were Charlie Sheen that flipped out on Good Morning America and smashed windows, the public would react with a giggle and quip, “That’s Sheen being Sheen. Duh, winning,” whereas a Brown freak-out is viewed as a relapse after a year of anger management and a reinforcement that this guy doesn’t have the mental fortitude to make it as a big-time star. Which, at the end of the day, it is. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
For Brown, once considered the heir apparent to Usher and possibly even Michael Jackson, it appears this latest incident and his continued unstable behavior ensures he’ll never reach that potential.
Brown’s morning-show outburst is reminiscent of another recent morning-show-provoked outburst: Kanye West’s anger sparked by a Today show interview with Matt Lauer late last year. Lauer asked West about the MTV VMAs at which he stole Taylor Swift’s spotlight — something Kanye was clearly likewise sick of discussing. And while West expressed his discomfort with the situation on air and on Twitter, Brown only alluded to his frustration with the interview before violently exploding. Of course, he, too, turned to Twitter to speak his mind, writing:
Are yall serious with reporting this foolishness. Yall a gossip magazine now aye, dis E! news or something.
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