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Hush your apologies, you lame celebrity

Jason Tin

by Jason Tin

15 Sep 05:40am

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Filed under: Apology, Celebrity, Publicity, Society, Tiger Woods

28 comments

Last week, Madonna earned the ire of florists everywhere when she revealed her contempt for hydrangeas.

After receiving a bunch of the popular flowers from a fan at a press conference, cameras caught the Material Girl chucking them aside and whispering: “I loathe hydrangeas”.

Pre-empting the inevitable online rage, Madonna uploaded a video “apology”, which saw her gently caressing a forlorn arrangement of the purple flowers.

“You have no idea how many nights I have lost thinking how I hurt you,” the video begins.

She goes on to say how “words cannot express” her sorrow and that her “heart is going to burst with sadness”, before hurling the flowers to the floor, crushing them under her boots and declaring her enduring hatred of all things hydrangea.

It is refreshingly brilliant. Madonna not only acknowledges that she has no obligation to offer a public apology for her opinions – she recognises that they simply aren’t important enough to warrant one.

Why do so many of us stamp our feet and demand celebrities mime dry, publicist-driven apologies? I, for one, would much rather they keep quiet. The one (and only) admirable thing Charlie Sheen ever did during his recent episode was refuse to apologise for his very public meltdown.

Why do we expect public figures to grovel at our digital feet after every annoying thing they do? In doing so, we elevate their opinions above our own.

I would love to make Justin Bieber apologise for ruining the internet or Kyle Sandilands show remorse for the never-ending stream of screechy syllables that crawl from his lips - but they wouldn’t really be sorry and it wouldn’t make any difference.

A papier mache apology has no value to anyone. We also tend to forget that an apology demands forgiveness, lest we are seen to be as ill-mannered and intolerable as the cretin whose actions originally had us calling for blood.

When we force others to make false utterances, we force ourselves to falsely accept them.

The word “sorry”, once powerful and rare, has become a retractable prop sword on which the famous fall when convenience beckons. This is not to say that there aren’t situations where it’s appropriate. Obviously, I’m not referring to the Mel Gibsons and Tracy Morgans of the world. I’m talking about the realm of the trivial, where that sacred word should never enter discussion.

I’m talking about the angry geeks who crucify George Lucas whenever he tampers with his own creation, the football fans who demand scalps for slurs by rival codes or the Twitter users who attack celebrities who do not express the same level of enthusiasm for cycling events or tennis matches that they do.

Why should some spoilt 53-year-old have to offer up an empty sorry for tossing aside a bunch of flowers? Madonna’s brat-like grimace didn’t trigger a devastating Hydrangea riot. At most, it offended a bunch of flower nerds.

Our belief that others should beg for forgiveness simply because they don’t like the same things that we do is the height of narcissism. It also implies that the personal preferences of a bunch of ageing pop stars and Hollywood D-listers are somehow important.

I’ll take their silence over an apology any day.

Most commented

28 comments

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    • Fiddler says:

      07:03am | 15/09/11

      I think the admirable thing Charlie Sheen did during his breakdown was his two goddesses. Many times a day. I admire Bree Olsen a lot.

      Reply

    • Nick says:

      07:34am | 15/09/11

      But posting this video show yet again Madonna’s self-obsession and self-importance. If she really didn’t care, she wouldn’t have reacted at all. Instead, she imagines we are all waiting to see what she will do.

      Reply

    • transparent says:

      08:50am | 15/09/11

      Nick, your woman hating really offers nothing to the collective debate…. on anything.

    • void says:

      01:03pm | 15/09/11

      Transparent, Nick said nothing implying any sort of woman hating.  Instead, he offered his opinion on Madonna, her actions, and how he interpreted those actions.

      Personally, I agree with Nick; if she didn’t care, then she would not have reacted as she did.  By going so far as to make a video with the purpose of added insult to injury, she has shown us that what she really wants is publicity and the she willing to use distasteful shock-and-awe methods to obtain it.

    • gonzo says:

      04:50pm | 15/09/11

      well nick and void, if you oh so much hate her publicity, why do you feed into it by doing what it is supposed to elicit: talk about her or her actions?

      “Instead, she imagines we are all waiting to see what she will do”
      “distasteful shock-and-awe methods to obtain it”

      And there you two go, click-ready to click on the punch’s article about Madonna… giving her what she wants and then criticizing her for wanting it and getting it.

      you oxymorons.

    • stephen says:

      08:02am | 15/09/11

      I saw madonna on telly last night and I didn’t realize how pretty she really is.
      She can apologize to me any time she wants.

      Reply

    • subotic says:

      08:26am | 15/09/11

      Who’s Madonna?

      Next….

      Reply

    • Shane says:

      12:26pm | 15/09/11

      Who’s Madonna?
      Ssssssssh, don’t demonstrate your embarrassing ignorance.

    • Jeremy says:

      02:55pm | 15/09/11

      Man this is the most aggravating type of comment.
      If you didn’t know who she was you wouldn’t be posting, and all you do is show an embarrassing ignorance to one of the last 20 years most famous celebrities and one of its highest selling recording artists.
      Everyone knows who she is, subotic, and trying to show you don’t care by taking the time to post is moronic.

    • Wilma J Craig says:

      08:50am | 15/09/11

      Who the hell cares what Madona or any other self-important, puffed-up fading celebrity likes or dislikes?
      It won’t be long before she, just like all the other fading performers who have reached, or have long-since passed,  their “Use By” dates,  makes the trip to Australia in a last-ditch bid to shore up her finances.
      Exactly what has she done which has been of benefit to the rest of the world? Nothing!

      Reply

    • gonzo says:

      04:59pm | 15/09/11

      “Who the hell cares what Madona or any other self-important, puffed-up fading celebrity likes or dislikes?”

      Just by posting, for better or for worse, you obviously do. By hatred or love, you just added another comment to a column about her.

    • juju says:

      08:54am | 15/09/11

      Ah, Madonna, the archetype icon for people who worship themselves. She’s so self focused that she missed the point that someone had bothered to collect and bring her flowers, so ungraciously makes a scene throwing them out. On top of that she posts a contemptuously sarcastic video online pretending to apologize. Just reaffirms what we’ve know all along, that she is selfish and spoiled trash.

      Reply

    • Mrs T says:

      09:45am | 15/09/11

      I agree with juju, this was a gift from a fan and her reciept of this gift was just plain rude and the video just makes it even worse.

    • Kaye says:

      12:53pm | 15/09/11

      Yeah I don’t really think the writer (or Madonna for that matter) of this artcle gets that this has nothing to do with flowers. Who gives a crap if she doesn’t like hydrangeas. The issue was that she thinks she’s so self-important that rather than simply graciously accept the flowers from the fan and leave it, she had to make a snide remark that everyone heard and humiliated the fan.

    • Kate says:

      03:59pm | 15/09/11

      I agree. Everyone learns, pretty much from childhood, that sometimes you’ll receive gifts you don’t particularly want, but the polite thing to do is accept them graciously. I’ve seen three year olds accept presents with more class.

    • theo says:

      09:15am | 15/09/11

      old lady is old.

      Reply

    • fml says:

      09:44am | 15/09/11

      Well its up to her if she wants to apologise or not, but she could show her fans a little more respect, you know the ones who buy her records, go to her show and pay her bills.

      Reply

    • Janey says:

      09:45am | 15/09/11

      The cult of celebrity disgusts me.
      Jason I think Madonna may have offended more than a “flower nerd” after all, a fan gave them to her.  Madonna’s reaction was poor manners and a good lesson for the hapless fan.
      Hopefully the fan will realise all those dollars and emotions spent worshipping an illusion -  Madonna - was for nought. 
      Madonna in the 80’s, when I was a teenager was relevant to a shift in culture, she was a pioneer of the girlpower thing.  But holeymoley, the vain and plastic 50 year old woman definitely has no appeal.

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      10:13am | 15/09/11

      This fading, elderly performer probably also hate Chrysanthemums too!
      Why?
      Because both flowers are the sort that people give to their ageing Mums & Grandmothers for their birthdays, Christmas & Mother’s Day and that is just too close to the bone isn’t it?
      Let’s face it & it is time she faced it too, Madonna is now elderly. She will never, ever be young again. All the hours spent in the gym, one report stated she spent up to 6 hours every day there ( Which begs the question: Why aren’t you looking after your children?), may keep the fallen breasts, flabby tummy, turkey-neck flaps under her chin, the saggy-baggy bum a little tighter for a little longer but… Age WILL have it’s way.
      So this insincere, ungracious, ill-bred Yank may as well get used to it & start accepting every gift of flowers she gets for it won’t be long before she stops getting even those.
      Madonna, no-one gives a damn about you. Get used to it.

      Reply

    • Traxster says:

      10:52am | 15/09/11

      When someone offers you a gift you should accept it and politely say thankyou
      not snarl and fling it into the fartherest corner. 
      Rude cow….
      all ass,no class!

      Reply

    • Walkley Award says:

      11:31am | 15/09/11

      Where’s Jason Tin?

      Reply

    • gonzo says:

      05:07pm | 15/09/11

      apologizing to Madonna

    • Young Sam Chowder says:

      12:27pm | 15/09/11

      Why the fuss, my grandma doesn’t like hydrangeas either

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      03:14pm | 15/09/11

      Maybe not, Sam, but I am willing to bet that if someone gave your grandma a bunch, as someone did to that granny from the USA, she would graciously accept it, say “Thank You"and then wait until the donor was far away before throwing them out!

    • Andy D says:

      01:48pm | 15/09/11

      Does she think the accent is fooling anyone?

      Madonna knows that we all know she spent her entire childhood in Detroit and most of her adult life in New York.

      Madonna knows that we all know that you don’t move from one English speaking country to another English speaking country at the age of 40-something and suddenly lose your lifelong accent.

      Yet, knowing all this she still insists on talking like that. It certainly says a lot about her.

      Reply

    • GB says:

      03:03pm | 15/09/11

      For 25 years I’ve been scratching my head trying to work out the appeal of this woman. She can’t sing without auto tune (has anybody heard her try to sing live, it’s abominable), she can’t act (Keanu Reeves looks like Marlon Brando compared to her), and she isn’t particularly attractive. If somebody can point out to me why she is held in such esteem I’d appreciate it because I just can’t see it.

      Reply

    • right turn only says:

      05:30pm | 15/09/11

      Is maddonna’s sex book still selling for sixty dollars?

      Reply
 
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