When you're a celebrity, an apology is never an apology. A friendship is never just a friendship. Everything is a calculated PR opportunity, because you can't just live your life the way you normally would when millions of people are watching. Just like how celebrities have very calculated ways of breaking up, an equal amount of thought goes into making up, as well — something we've seen a lot of this past month.
Perhaps it's the warmer weather, but celebrities have been in a particularly forgiving mood. However, they can't just let bygones be bygones and move on. When you're in the spotlight, making sure you have a successful apology takes a lot more than just sending a text.
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Take the most recent reconciliation: Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. The two have kept up this feud for years, each allegedly writing songs about the other's shady behaviour. However, Perry decided it was time to bury the hatchet, but she made sure to do it in the most extra way. She sent Swift an apology in the form of a photo opp — an aesthetically-pleasing olive branch and note — Perry made sure her gesture would end up on social media, and therefore be broadcast to the world.
A similar situation went down between Jada Pinkett Smith and Sheree Fletcher, who was Will Smith's first wife and shares a son with the actor. Smith had Fletcher on her new Facebook talk show, Red Table Talk, and the two talked through their issues and found peace for the whole world wide web to see.
And then, of course, there's that now-famous photo of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B hugging it out during the Met Gala. All of these "apologies" weren't exactly staged, but they were for sure purposefully public.
There are some other commonalities as well. A public apology leads to good publicity, so it behooves the two parties to reconcile while they have something to promote. For Swift, it's her Reputation tour. For Smith, it's her new Facebook Live show. For Minaj, it's her upcoming album Queen. I'm not saying all three examples held onto their apologies until it most benefitted them, but I'm not not saying that.
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This method isn't foolproof. There are some celebrities who are just never going to get along. Swift and Kanye West made amends when he sent her flowers and she presented him with the Vanguard Award in 2015, but just a little over a year later their relationship once again went south.
The media also plays a big part. Sometimes, it's websites and magazines who perpetuate the feuds in the first place by obsessing over them, reading into every social media post and facial expression to create drama when there may have been none. Let us know who we should send our public apology to.
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