Culture Feature

14 Celebrity Endorsements That No One Asked For

Not every endorsement is about a paycheck.

George Clooney on His Twins Speaking Italian, Quarantine Cooking & He Cuts His Hair with a Flowbee!

The world of celebrity endorsement makes for some strange spectacles.

From Penelope Cruz dressed as Mario, to Snoop Dogg rapping about Hot Pockets, it sometimes seems like celebrity's will back any brand that offers them a paycheck. But that's not the case with the celebrities on this list.

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MUSIC

Eminem Once Said "Of Course I Side with Chris Brown" Before Collaborating With Rihanna

A 10-year-old song snippet has leaked in which the rapper said, "I'd beat a b*tch down, too," shortly before he and Rihanna recorded "Love the Way You Lie."

Eminem, Rihanna

A snippet of a song recording in which Eminem supports Chris Brown's violence towards Rihanna has leaked online.

According to XXL, the clip was recorded during the making of the rapper's 2009 album Relapse. "I'm not playing, Rihanna where'd you get the V.D. at?" Eminem says. "Let me add my two cents / Of course I side with Chris Brown / I'd beat a bitch down, too." Brown became infamous following his February 2009 assault of Rihanna, whom he was dating at the time.

"This is a leak of something that's over 10 years old," Eminem's spokesperson Dennis Dennehy told XXL. "After Eminem recorded it, he scrapped it and rewrote it. Obviously he and Rihanna have a great relationship."

But how do we know Em and Rih actually have a great relationship? Sure, the pair have collaborated on two No. 1 hits: "The Monster" and "Love the Way You Lie." But the lyrics of the latter—which were originally praised at the time of its 2010 release—become even more harrowing under the shadow of Eminem's newly-surfaced bolstering of Brown. Take his final line in the track: "If she ever tries to f**kin' leave again, I'ma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire." Considering the media frenzy surrounding Rihanna's abuse shortly before the song dropped and the countless accounts of assault in the entertainment industry since, can we really trust that the supposed "greatness" of their relationship extended beyond their studio time?

And even in the decade-plus since committing the assault, Brown has still remained massively successful; he's continued to clock hit after hit, and fellow rapper Lil Dicky even wrote an entire song with him, "Freaky Friday," about what it'd be like to switch places with each other. "And then I began thinking, like, 'Who would I wanna switch bodies with?'" Dicky said of the 2018 song, which even pokes fun at Brown's "controversial past." "So the first person I thought of was Chris Brown." "Freaky Friday" is a perfect example of the subtle exoneration the music industry has granted Brown, as well as the tendency many men have to schmooze with their buddies, letting misogynistic behavior slide rather than demanding accountability.

Lil Dicky in the music video for "Freaky Friday," which features Chris Brown.Lil Dicky

Brown wouldn't still be successfully making music today if it weren't for the men that pardoned him in the wake of his headline-breaking assault. Eminem's leak might be ten years old, but the issue it exhibits is still all-too relevant in 2019. Stop giving Brown a platform, but more importantly, call out your peers' misogynistic habits before it's too late.

Culture News

Jessica Simpson Calls Out Natalie Portman

Jessica Simpson posts an Instagram firing back at Natalie Portman for her comments on a 1999 bikini photo.

Natalie Portman

Photo by Fabio Mazzarella (Shutterstock)
Jessica Simpson called out Natalie Portman Wednesday. The singer's post was in reaction to an interview Natalie Portman did for USA Today in which she said, "I remember being a teenager, and there was Jessica Simpson on the cover of a magazine saying 'I'm a virgin,' while wearing a bikini, and I was confused, like, I don't know what this is trying to tell me as a woman, as a girl."
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Bios

Ashlee Simpson

All you need to know.

Full Name: Ashlee Nicolle Simpson

Date of Birth: October 3, 1984

Born: Waco, TX

Occupation: Singer, songwriter, actress, reality personality

Status: Married to Evan Ross (2014)

Children: 2

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