Celebrities. We love them because… Well, they’re famous. But even famous people screw up, and we’ve seen colossal examples of celebrity screw-ups in 2006. Michael Richards’ racist tirade, Mel Gibson’s drunk driving arrest and anti-semitic comments, Miss USA Tara Connor’s "unacceptable" behavior, and so on.
Fortunately for them, if celebrities appear to make an honest apology and attempt to amend their ways, they’re usually forgiven. In some cases, the newfound notoriety following a celebrity scandal can actually help their career and increase their marquee value.
The guide to committing, weathering and overcoming scandals for celebrities is as follows:
1. An actor, musician or pro athlete does something stupid. They make a racist comment, get caught with a prostitute, get caught with drugs, drive drunk, flee from an accident, or a combination of the above. DISCLAIMER: Serious offenses will never be forgiven by the public and are instant career killers, even if the offending party doesn’t end up in jail. See: OJ Simpson. Michael Richards may also end up in this boat, and what he did wasn’t even illegal – Just terribly, terribly offensive.
2. The celeb must formulate a strategy for a day or two as their mugshot and/or incriminating photos show up everywhere on the Web. The mugshot will inevitably be the absolute most unflattering photo ever taken of them, and the public will be shocked at how bad they look. This is actually a good thing, as you’ll learn later. See: Nick Nolte.
3a. For less serious or non-criminal offenses, a celebrity can appear on a late night talk show to explain the situation. Hugh Grant handled his prostitution bust magnificently on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and came out smelling like a rose.
Due to their comedic nature, however, late night shows aren’t the perfect venue for every celebrity seeking to make amends. The Michael Richards apology on the Late Show with David Letterman, for example, was painful to watch as Richards awkwardly attempted to explain himself and apologize. When the live studio audience uttered nervous laughter they were chastised by guest Jerry Seinfeld, which didn’t help.
3b. For more serious offenses, the celebrity must hold a press conference and issue a heartfelt apology. This is where they can tell the world what happened in their own words, take responsibility, apologize, assure it will never happen again and outline steps they are taking to ensure it will never happen again.
For many celebrities, this step involves announcing they are entering a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program, which is useful for two reasons: First, it allows them to lay low and stay out of the spotlight for a while. Second, even though they’ve already taken responsibility for their actions, this allows them to shift at least some of the blame to a substance abuse problem, which means their actions weren’t entirely their fault.
4. The celebrity in question must then make amends. Mel Gibson met with Jewish leaders after his offensive comments, and Michael Richards appeared on Jesse Jackson’s radio show. It also doesn’t hurt to donate money to a related cause. Money talks, and a charitable donation shows you’re serious about correcting whatever problems caused the scandal in the first place.
5. This is the point where the celeb lies low, at least for a few weeks. In the world of tabloids and celebrity news, new scandals arise constantly, so whatever people are talking about today will be ancient history by the time the celebrity re-emerges.
6. Now the celebrity needs to get a makeover, wear something classy and make their triumphant return… On a late-night talk show! There they can keep things positive, talk about all of the changes they’ve made since the scandal broke, and look to the future. People will compare the new, improved celeb to the abomination they saw in the mugshot and think, "Wow, something must have really been wrong with him! Glad he’s back!"
As much as the public likes to see the high and mighty fall from grace, it’s an even better story when a celebrity is rocked by scandal, handles it gracefully, and returns more successfully than ever before. As vicious as the blogs and tabloids can be, let’s face it – Nothing’s better than a good comeback story.
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