IS THIS THE END OF BIEBER?.
Justin Bieber has been battered for most of the past two years with a tsunami of bad press, missteps and moronic behaviour.
It’s a long way from the sweetfaced Stratford, Ont., lad who captured the hearts of the world on YouTube. And while the 20-yearold pop superstar’s popularity appears stronger than ever, his recent stumbles may mark the beginning of the end, the New York Daily News reports.
“The stuff he’s doing hasn’t completely torpedoed his career … yet,” said Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson.
“But this does an awful lot of damage that’s not immediately measurable.”
Thompson said Bieber’s illadvised use of the N-word brings comparisons to former Seinfeld star Michael Richards. Richards — who played Kramer on the series — publicly unravelled at a Los Angeles comedy club in 2006 when he too used the N word.
“I still can’t look at (Richards) the same way,” Thompson said.
Thompson said Bieber’s youthful racist rants will undoubtedly stain his career — and his formerly squeaky-clean image.
“What the videos did was show us that even though Bieber was young, cute and innocent, he was still doing some pretty reprimandable things,” the pop professor said. “It retroactively puts a cloud over the bad boy Bieber of today and now, yesterday.”
When the first video emerged showing the then 15-year-old Bieber riffing on a racist joke, the star issued a statement of apology.
“I’m very sorry,” he said. “I take all my friendships with people of all cultures very seriously and I apologize for offending or hurting anyone with my childish and inexcusable behaviour.”
But two days later, The London Sun unleashed another bombshell: A new video showing the teenage Bieber changing the words to his 2009 smash hit One Less Lonely Girl, to “One Less Lonely N-----.” The star giggles uncontrollably in the video at his own mirth and jokes about joining the Ku Klux Klan.
Advice from experts, friends and foes alike is remarkably the same: Go away, get yourself together.
“He needs to go away because if he doesn’t he can’t have a fresh start,” celebrity image consultant Amanda Sanders said. “He needs to (lie) low for a month or two.”
Sanders said that like Britney Spears’ 2007 meltdown, Bieber needs to escape the limelight and get his act together.
“I’m not saying he has to go to rehab,” Sanders said. “But Bieber will never be seen as that sweet, wholesome boy again. He needs to just be gone for a while.”
As for a public mea culpa on a talk show — similar to Jonah Hill’s abject apology on The Tonight Show — Sanders doesn’t think that will repair the damage.
“If he did something like Jonah Hill it would have to be believable,” Sanders said, scoffing that it was possible. “And it should be live and not on Twitter or online.”
Image experts say because Bieber has brushed off so many missteps, his credibility is strained.