A constant state of apology

Whether you’re a casual pop culture observer or a committed social media enthusiast, you may have noticed something lately. Everywhere you look, a celebrity – from athletes and actors to musicians and even politicians – seems to be saying sorry. As GQ editor Jim Nelson noted earlier this year, “Apologies have become so much more than statements of regret or remorse. They’ve become a form of entertainment.”

A review of recent entertainment headlines made me think about the nature of culpability and led me to recall some excuses that have been offered in the spirit of humility and shame. “I apologize for inconveniences that I created to many celebrities dealing with my style of entertainment,” said Vitalii Sediuk, the Ukrainian prankster who attacked Brad Pitt at the Los Angeles premiere of Maleficent.

His explanation would have elicited a degree of sympathy except the 25-year-old former television reporter has become notorious for this Borat-like “style of entertainment”; he nestled his face in both Leonardo DiCaprio’s and Bradley Coopers crotches on two separate occasions, and last month crawled under America Ferrera’s gown as she posed for photographers in Cannes. That he expressed regret that he “kind of stole the spotlight from such an important moment” contradicts his raison d’être.

Youthful ignorance

Then there’s Justin Bieber. A second video of the 20-year-old singer allegedly making racist jokes has surfaced. The latest clip, originally recorded when the singer was 15 but recently made public by a British tabloid, shows the Canadian pop star weaving a racial slur into a 2009 hit and entertaining the idea of joining the Ku Klux Klan.

The footage has emerged just as Bieber addressed another video of him using the same insult several times. “I thought it was okay to repeat hurtful words and jokes, but didn’t realize at the time that it wasn’t funny and that in fact my actions were continuing the ignorance.”

Spurred by a heady cocktail of vanity, impunity and technology, famous teens and twentysomethings seem to make a greater show of begging our collective pardon. One Direction’s Liam Payne tweeted an apology on behalf of bandmates Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik after a video of the two apparently smoking marijuana leaked online: “We are only in our 20s we all do stupid things at this age.” While the explanation was prompt and polite, it has – wisely or not – avoided the thornier issue of Tomlinson’s apparent use of the N word, which in certain quarters of the Internet constitutes an even greater transgression than recreational drug use.    

Mature eloquence

If young people seem incapable of recognizing when they are in the wrong, much less willing to fall on its sword when required to do so, perhaps they will find solace in the fact that soon enough they will learn to deal with such gaffes not with juvenile groveling but with mature eloquence.

Danish director Lars von Trier came under fire in 2011 when he made remarks sympathizing with Adolf Hitler during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival. Von Trier, banned from the event, apologized shortly after but then recanted. “To say I’m sorry for what I said is to say sorry for the kind of person that I am…and that would destroy me as a person. It’s not true. I’m not sorry,” he told GQ.  “I am not sorry for what I said. I’m sorry that it didn’t come out more clearly. I’m not sorry that I made a joke, but I’m sorry that I didn’t make it clear that it was a joke.”

The bounds and boundlessness of social media has made it appear that we are in a state of perpetual apology. As GQ’s Nelson conjectures, “Pretty soon sites will be divided into News, Sports, Weather, and Apologies.” As it has already become normal to read how utterly sorry celebrities can be in the wake of a screw up, it will be more amusing to watch those who admit to being guilty like von Trier – with a sense of defiance.

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