Cancel Culture

DEBASHINE THANGEVELO and SHINGAI DARANGWA

THERE was a time when celebrities could get away with murder. But this was when a patriarchal society was the puppet master in the industry. Below are a few celebrities who came close to being cancelled

Mel Gibson

WHEN it was recently revealed that the John Wick spin-off TV series The Continental had cast Mel Gibson as the lead, fans took to social media to express their disapproval.

After all, this is the same Gibson whose rap sheet includes several documented incidents of antisemitic abuse, domestic violence, racism and sexism. “If we can’t keep Mel Gibson cancelled,” one Tweep noted, “then cancel culture 100% does not exist.”

It’s been a decade since the actor was caught on tape admitting to hitting his former partner Oksana Grigorieva, who recorded him saying: “You look like a f****n b***h on heat and if you get r***d by a pack of n****s it will be your fault.” Oh, and who can forget how in 2006 an allegedly drunk Gibson launched an antisemitic verbal attack on a Jewish Los Angeles police officer who’d pulled him over, claiming “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”.

If Gibson made any of these controversial comments this year, it’d be difficult to see him ever overcoming the public backlash.

Somizi Mhlongo

HE went from being a media darling to an outcast. Yes, Mhlongo is known for being outspoken and might have ruffled a feather or two with his candour but no one minded.

Looking back, the adoration of fans didn’t waver even when there was rampant speculation about his marriage to Mohale Motaung being on the rocks. He’s no stranger to controversy.

Earlier this year, he doxed journalists from local publications for running “fake news” about him and he was unapologetic about it. But what really stung recently though were news reports of him being physically abusive towards his estranged husband. There was a noticeable change in attitude toward him. Several publications reported that Motaung, in an interview with the producers of Living the Dream with Somizi, claimed that his husband tried to kill him with a kitchen knife, among other allegations.

In a statement issued shortly after, Mhlongo said: “I have loved loudly and proudly and, as such, you all have experienced parts of our relationship by virtue of my reality show, our wedding special on TV and our social media platform. Now, you are also audience to what has, sadly, become a breakup between two people laced by defamation.”

He added: “Our relationship has had its ups and downs but I have never been physically or knowingly emotionally abusive towards my estranged husband. I vehemently deny the allegations of criminal acts towards him and would like to clear my name of that defamation.

“What I am going to state, however, is that we had one altercation in which I had to defend myself and both of us were physically hurt by the other. I am, at this stage, not at liberty to dive deeper into the details but can state that he is not a victim in this situation.” Meanwhile, the fallout from the allegations was immediately felt by Mhlongo.

First, Mzansi and many celebrities sided with Motaung. M-Net asked him to take time off as a judge on the long-running reality show Idols SA. He was also relieved of his on-air duties at Metro FM.

Of course, in PR speak these “considerate” gestures to allow him the time needed to resolve his personal issues were basically their way of saying, if a stance was not taken, a reprisal from the public would be most damaging for the brand.

In the meantime, Mhlongo seems to have adopted a low-key approach while Motaung is seemingly living his best life with opportunities popping up left, right and centre.

Once again, it goes to show that it doesn’t matter how big a name you are. When your reputation is tarnished, you become a social pariah.

DaBaby

A RUNNING joke in hip hop circles is that DaBaby has been making different versions of the same song for years now. As if stuck in a time loop, his beats sound like remakes of old songs and he seems to be recycling the same flow. His proclivity for controversy has been unwavering, too. Although the 29-year-old has been around for a while, it’s only after his majorlabel debut studio album Baby on Baby was released in 2019 that he blew up and became a mainstream success.

Since then, he’s made a point of doing whatever it takes to stay relevant, flooding the internet with remixes of other artists’ songs and releasing new music at a frantic pace. At times, his helter-skelter approach to his career has led to some major public mishaps.

Last year, perhaps the best year of his career despite the coronavirus pandemic, he slapped a female fan on the way to the stage for a performance after she allegedly hit him on the head with her cellphone. After a weak apology, the drama from that episode blew over quickly as his career continued to skyrocket.

A few months ago, during a live performance at the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami, DaBaby sparked a social media firestorm when he told festival-goers to hold their phones in the air unless they had HIV or were gay men who had performed oral sex in the parking lot.

Despite issuing a couple of half-hearted apologies, the rapper was dropped from the Lollapalooza festival, Austin City Limits Festival and a host of other shows and commercial deals over the following weeks. Cancel culture has been unforgiving this year, but DaBaby has come under fire more harshly than most.

Artists like T.I., Boosie Badazz, 50 Cent, Nick Cannon and Tory Lanez came out in his defence but it’s going to be a long road for DaBaby now. It might be time for him to try out some new flows.

Chrissy Teigen

WHEN Teigen’s 2011 cyberbullying incident with model and TV personality Courtney Stodden broke this year, she issued an apology on social media.

Despite her apology, Teigen faced immense backlash.

While Stodden accepted the apology, she pointed out that she was blocked by Teigen, who, since the incident has had to do much introspection.

More so, with reality TV star Farrah Abraham confirming that she was also on Teigen’s radar and was bullied by her.

And let’s not forget about that public spat with designer Michael Costello, where her hubby John Legend stepped in to defend her.

Following the Stodden trolling incident, Teigen stepped back from a voice-over role in Never Have I Ever, a Netflix comedy with Mindy Kaling as the lead, as well as Safely, a home cleaning line that she launched with Kris Jenner in March this year.

In a recent interview on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, she announced her 100 days sobriety and revealed that she is hoping to learn from the incident.