Christina Aguilera Kicks Off Spate of Super Bowl Fauxpologies

By Jo Piazza Posted Feb 7th 2011 04:00PM

Christina Aguilera was the first, but she certainly won't be the last celebrity to proffer a vaguely sincere sorry for how things went down at the Super Bowl on Sunday. After flubbing a line of our national anthem in front of millions of viewers and a very prickly live audience, X-tina released a statement saying: "I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."

We expect many more such missives in the next several days, namely from The Black Eyed Peas for stealing a little piece of America's soul with their halftime performance and Cameron Diaz for making everyone gag on their chicken wings when she was caught on camera hand-feeding A-Rod. We suspect there will ultimately be some words of regret issued by Groupon for their vaguely insensitive Timothy Hutton-Tibet ad from Sunday night. Timothy Hutton may also say sorry. he doesn't seem to have much else going on.

But the question is, does any of it matter? Are these real apologies or are they the kind of forced, head hanging, I don't want a spanking and I just really want everyone to keep liking me fauxpologies which have become as commonplace in celebrity land as they are in middle school. Any time we see someone famous publicly criticized for their actions we see a careful tango of public guilt admission, meant to exonerate all sins and make sure they still get to sit with the rest of the popular kids in the lunchroom.

The fauxpology was in full effect last week when the cast of 'Glee' apologized to Lindsay Lohan for mocking her on an episode of their show. Of course they only did it because they ran into her at a restaurant (awkward!), and they totally proved they didn't mean it when they made fun of her mom Dina on last night's episode and got mean girl Katie Couric in on the action.

Last month, network TNT had to issue an apology on behalf of comedian Tracy Morgan for his crude remarks about Sarah Palin on 'Inside the NBA.'

"It's unfortunate Mr. Morgan showed a lack of judgment on our air with his inappropriate comments. We apologize for any embarrassment or offense it may have caused," TNT fauxpologized in a statement. Notice Morgan himself issued no such apology, faux or otherwise.

The mark of a fauxpology is that it just doesn't seem sincere. But since bad behavior in Hollywood has become the norm rather than the exception, it will become a regular tool in a celeb's arsenal.

The fauxpology is quicker and easier for getting out of a tight spot than heading to rehab, and it works to transfer guilt and shame for the brief moment it takes for someone else in the spotlight to muck things up in a new and exciting way.

Let the Super Bowl fauxpologies begin, and let's hope the cast of 'Glee' doesn't run into Dina Lohan at lunch.

PopEater got the word on the street about Christina's Super Bowl performance -- check it out:

Follow Jo on Twitter

Tags: Christina Aguilera

Comments

(66)

Monday 07 February

By John L.

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Christina is supposed to be a professional. If I were payed the big bucks she got, to sing the National Anthem, YOU BET I would know the words.

Tuesday 08 February

By Katie

Vote down Vote up Report this

This reminds me of a Hannah Montana episode that aired around '06. I was like 11 so don't judge me.

By Julie

You know what? She's human. She, along with everyone else in the world make mistakes on a daily basis. Has anyone ever stopped to think that it could have been a case of the nerves? They happen, as do mistakes. When you all stop making them, then I guess you then will have the right to judge.

By tobinx5

It is your civil duty as an AMERICAN to know the words to your country's national song. No wonder we rank so low in math and science we are too busy worrying about how to "jazz up" a song instead of respecting it. It is offensive!

By J.B.W.

What ever happened to just plain old American football?

Wednesday 09 February

By BluesDaddy411

Well, old BluesDaddy called it last week on this very site. I predicted that she would "butcher" the song with all of her "look at me, look at me" vocal runs / riffs at the end of every line; however, even I did not think that she'd also blow the lyrics. Look, the girl has some of the best pipes in pop music, but no one in her camp has the balls to tell her to, "damn it, sing it straight"! Be sure and catch the clip of her reshearsal; she only sing half the song and then walks off the stage like, "I got this"; wrong sister.

I also pitched a no-hitter with I stated last week that the BEP's would suck-loud. "They were, who we thought they were"! Has no one in charge of booking for the Super Bowl ever heard this group live? They sound like that everytime they perform; pitchy as hell, out of breath and rapping instead of actually singing. Fergie even let me down; again, great pipes but just trying to over sing every line.

Page 4 of 4