Justin Bieber is having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad spring. Ever since turning 19 on March 1, the Biebs has been beset by misfortune, with tragedies piling up into a veritableverdus horribilis. We can only hope that the beginning of summer will bring an end to Justin's rotten luck... but until that day, we will catalog the various scandals, missteps and embarrassments that befall Bieber before the solstice.Check out the latest here!
Bieber's spring got off to a bad start when, in the early hours of his 19th birthday, he found himself wandering around London without a shirt. Things went from cold to uncool later that day when Justin's crew was denied admittance to Soho's Cirque du Soir nightclub. As Justin tweeted about the occasion: "Worst birthday."
Three days later, Bieber made headlines in the United Kingdom for taking the stagemore than two hours latefor a concert at London's O2 Arena, a mistake that earned him the derisive nickname "Stroppy Bieber." The mocking only increased when the disreputableSunnewspaper reported that Bieber's tardiness was due to that most teenage of excuses: He wastoo busy playing videogamesto notice the time.
While Bieber was having a bad time in London, things weren't going much better on the home front. Bieber buddy/media scapegoatLil Twist had been given the keys to Justin's prized Fisker Karma while the Biebs was away. In the span of his first few days as carsitter, Lil Twist managed to get pulled over by the LAPD because of the car's illegal tint (not his fault, really) and crash the $100,000 car into a telephone pole (definitely his fault).
It was unclear if Justin heard the news about his car, though, as he waswandering around London in a gas maskat the time. Not the best audio in those things.
As bad as Bieber's birthday week was going, at least he still had his health, right? Wrong. At his Thursday night concert at the O2 arena, Biebercollapsed during his performance of "Beauty and a Beat"and had to be given oxygen. (Chemical equation: O2. Coincidence... or something more sinister?) After returning to the stage to finish the show, Justin spent the night recuperating at the hospital, where he snapped this cheery shirtless selfie. "Recuperating listening to Janice Joplin," he wrote. See, everything was fine. Nothing to see here!
Upon leaving his hotel the next morning, though, Bieber found his way out blocked by a mass of Cockney paparazzi. He successfully shoved his way into a waiting SUV, but the scuffle was enough to set off a round of abuse from the photographers. Never one to leave a fight when his honor was being impugned, Justin left the car and attempted to settle the matter with his fists: "I'll fucking beat the fuck out of them" he told them. Unfortunately, Bieber's quest for justice was interrupted by his bodyguards, who restrained the pint-sized pop star and spirited him back into the vehicle�but not before giving usthis immortal .gif.
OK, so it was one bad week. Everyone has them. Justin would get over it soon, right? If only. While Bieber was scuffling with photographers, Justin's team had more bad news: The pop star's Tuesday night concert in Lisbon was canceled, for unknown reasons. (Silver lining: His Monday night concert in the Portugese capital went off without a hitch. Got to take those small victories.)
As bloggers and tweeters started wondering if Justin wasmaybe entering a tailspin, Bieber's ex Selena Gomez added insult to injury,releasing a dance videoset to the song "Everybody Knows (Your Boyfriend Is a Douchebag)." Possibly harmless, but considering Selena called the song her "anthem" at the end of the video, the message seemed loud and clear.
And if all this wasn't enough, on Wednesday March 13,Bieber's pet hamster PAC died. Sure, Bieber had given the hamster away to a random fan in December (earning hima rebuke from PETA) but still, the loss undoubtedly stung.
Overwhelmed by the rush of media attention his horrible season had earned, Bieber took to Instagram to combat rumors he was in the middle of a meltdown. "Everyone in my team has been telling me, 'keep the press happy' but I'm tired of all the countless lies in the press right now," he wrote ina quickly deleted Instagram post. "I honestly don't care if you don't believe in me because I believe in me, and look where that's gotten me so far. ... To those comparing me to Lindsay Lohan look at her 2012 tax statements :)"Hours later, Justinapologizedfor slamming Lindsay Lohan.
Just when it looked like things were settling down for young Justin, the pop star's worst spring escalated: On March 26, Justin Bieber got in hot water with the law after a dispute with one of his Los Angeles neighbors.TMZ reportsthat one of the men who lives in Bieber's Calabasas neighborhood has filed a battery report against the Canadian pop singer, thanks to an argument between the two that allegedly turned violent Tuesday morning. The neighbor was angry at Bieber either because JB let his pals throw gigantic parties at his crib while he was away on tour or because he was racing a brand-new Ferrari through the neighborhood at dangerous speeds. Teens! Even when they're super-rich and super-famous, they all basically do the same dumb things.For what it's worth, TMZ's sources say that Bieber never touched the man. Is the Bieb being unjustly framed? (UPDATE:New reportssay the neighbor is alleging Bieber spit in his face. We've squared the circle between "He attacked me" and "I never touched him"!)
Things calmed down for the Bieber for a little while after that, but that didn't mean the pop star was done with taking his shirt off in unexpected places, which Bieber did yet again in this Polish airport.
Insult was added to injury later in March, when Bieber's bro credentials were revoked by North American Vice President of Bro Culture and Outreach, Adrian Grenier. AsTMZ reported, theEntouragestar took back his recent wish for Bieber to cameo in the upcoming film version of the HBO comedy. "Why did I even say it? I started something I didn't want to finish," the actor explained. "I don't want to talk about it."
The final weekend of the month continued Bieber's string of rotten luck, though to be fair, Bieber probably should not have tried to sneak a monkey into Germany without paperwork no matter what sort of luck he was having. Those Germans are sticklers for the rules, after all, and it's no surprise that border agents at the Munich airport would not let the Biebs' beloved pet capuchin Mally accompany him into Bavaria without an official health certificate. The Germans weren't monkeying around�theyconfiscated Mally, and may hit Bieber with a $15,000 fine.(Click here to re-live Bieber's awful month from the beginning.)
In April, Bieber reintroduced himself to the world witha terrible new hairstyle,. Is he just bein' Miley?
Amidst the rush of bad publicity, Bieber's camp decided to get the pop star back in the world's good graces by having him visit Amsterdam's Anne Frank House. Show his depth, and all that. What could go wrong?As it turns out, lots. Bieber's comment in the Anne Frank House guestbook ("Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber") probably would have gone ignored had they come at a different time, but in the midst of a spring like Bieber washaving, critics would pounce at what they saw as the singer's self-centered attitude.Luckily, though,Anne Frank's step-sisterhad Bieber's back: "She probably would have been a fan," Eva Schloss told theTelegraph. "Why not? He's a young man and she was a young girl, and she liked film stars and music."
As the Anne Frank scandal swirled around him Bieber took to hisfavorite medium, Instagram, to fight back."'Uh oh @justinbieber is losing it taking shirtless pics in the mirror' -funny people," he wrote as he posted yet another shirtless selfie. Clearly the Biebs was not happy with the insinuation that taking shirtless pictures of yourself for your fans is something a pop star should be ashamed of. He may be right!
But still Bieber's European tour went on, which gave the pop star a chance to unveilthis bizarre baklava lookin Stockholm. Was Justin about to rob a bank, or was he just demonstrating solidarity withPussy Riot?
On April 24, Bieber had the rare bad-news hat trick. Not only didreports emergethat the pop star arrived six hours late to a photo shoot in Copenhagen for Elizabeth Arden the previous weekend, he had also shown up 90 minutes late for his own concert because he couldn't stop playing ping-pong!But that all pales in comparison to the real news: Bieber's run-in with the Swedish police. Authorities in Stockholmsearched the popstar's tour buswhile he was onstage, and came out with a stun-gun and numerous unidentified drugs. This is not incredibly surprising or controversial, but it's exactly the kind of news Bieber doesn't need right now. Still, there was one stroke of luck, no one was arrested! This spring, Bieber's got to be thankful for small victories.
Alas, Bieber's troubles did not stop there. While performing onstage in Dubai, Bieber wasattacked by an excited fanwho somehow managed to evade security. Bieber was unharmed�his bodyguard took down the interloper before any real trouble could start�but his piano was not so lucky. (It got knocked over in the scrum.) While this story had a happy ending, it's another reminder that Justin Bieber actually leads a fairly dangerous life! What if the fan had meant him harm?
Thing didn't get better for Bieber when he left Europe for the Middle East. On Sunday night,a rumor started going around Reddit: Bieber was tearing up the streets in Dubai in a Lamborghini, running red lights and hitting 150 mph, and was soon to be arrested for his crimes. Too salacious to be true? Probably, though he did arrive in style for his Dubai concert. Unfortunately, the night's drama was just beginning...
Things weren't going better on the home front. Back in the states, two industry outsiders filed a lawsuit against Bieber and his mentor Usher, alleging the duo stole the 2010 hit "Somebody to Love." Devin "De Reco" Copeland and Mareio Overton say they wrote the song in 2008 and shopped it around to various pop stars, including Usher. "Without any authority or consent, [Usher] conspired with songwriters and producers�to directly copy Plaintiffs' song 'Somebody to Love,' intending to appropriate Plaintiffs' intellectual property as their own,"the lawsuit alleges. This looks like a standard get-rick-quick scheme from where we're sitting, but if the pair wins their lawsuit, Usher and Bieber could be on the hook for millions.(Click here to go back to the beginning!)
