Chris Brown

Tuesday, Apr 5, 2011 11:06 ET Chris Brown finds an unlikely defender

Rosie O'Donnell champions the temper-prone performer -- but she misses the big picture about his behavior

Is Chris Brown -- convicted felon , smasher of windows, ripper of shirts -- a "victim"? That's the verdict from no-stranger-to-controversy-herself comic and radio host Rosie O'Donnell, who took to Twitter Monday to follow up on last week's broadcast in which she opined, "I just don’t know why this kid seems to be held to a different standard than anyone else." "i have compassion for both he and rhianna - its is not a simple discussion - layers n layers… he is a victim too, " she wrote. Compassion in an undeniably noble commodity, and it takes great strength and character to forgive those who've truly atoned for their actions. O'Donnell went on to say, "I do not condone it - I understand it," referring to Brown's own troubled history, one in which the deck of appropriate role modeling seems to have been stacked significantly against him.

Brown, whose parents divorced when he was young, has long claimed -- and his mother affirms -- that his stepfather was physically abusive. "He used to hit my mom ... He made me terrified all the time, terrified like I had to pee on myself," Brown told Giant magazine in 2007. "I remember one night he made her nose bleed…. I hate him to this day." (Brown's former stepfather Donnelle Hawkins has denied the accusations, saying Brown is trying to make him a "scapegoat.") He has lived his own very public experience of domestic abuse; two years ago he was charged with felony battery and took a plea deal after a violent dispute with then-girlfriend Rihanna.

Whatever the root causes of his actions, Brown, at the still very young age of 21, has certainly struggled to restrain his volatile personality -- and had to do it with all the pressures of international fame and constant media scrutiny. O'Donnell is not the only person to ask whether Brown, who himself tweeted (and then deleted) recently that "I'm so over people bringing this past shit up!!!!" is being excessively demonized as an abuser in a way that the Charlie Sheens and Mel Gibsons of the world are not.

Yet the issue for Brown -- whose success, by the way, has barely been dented throughout any of this -- is that he repeatedly demonstrates an inability to, as they say, "break the cycle" of unacceptable behavior. It's not "past shit" when he keeps acting out. Just one week after happily showing off his certificate of completion in a domestic violence program, Brown was taunting singer Raz-B as a "dick in da booty ass lil boy" on Twitter -- a spiteful jibe at a man who claimed he was sexually abused as a teenager. And then, two weeks ago, he famously went bananas after a tough interview with Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America," trashing his dressing room and shattering a window. Not that the "GMA" freakout slowed down his new album, "F.A.M.E.," one bit; it subsequently debuted at the top of the Billboard chart.

Is there room in the public's heart for what O'Donnell brands "compassion" toward a young man who obviously has a great deal of growing up to do, regardless of what his fancy domestic abuse program certificate of completion may say? Of course there is. But when O'Donnell said on her radio program that "I actually felt bad for Chris Brown during that interview and I felt mildly angry at Robin Roberts" and that she wishes she could ask her, "Can you take a look at this again and see if maybe you find in any way your responsibility in this?" she seems to be conveniently omitting any mention of Brown's responsibility as well. And frankly, at this point, I'm finding it harder and harder to feel too bad for a guy whose ridiculous tantrums keep getting rewarded in the form of television appearances and No. 1 albums.

Though O'Donnell says she's not condoning Brown's actions (she tweeted Monday that "no one I know thinks it's ok - I don't think it's ok - to understand how and y it happens is helpful to all"), a further acknowledgment of the wrongness of his shenanigans and of the obvious amount of work the guy's got to do would go a long way toward clarifying her point. Mercy is rare and necessary, but without justice and true changed behavior, it's meaningless.

Tuesday, Mar 22, 2011 13:23 ET The media's treatment of Charlie Sheen vs. Chris Brown

He gets heated after an interview about his arrest, and raises the question: Why were we so easy on Charlie Sheen? Video

 Chris Brown should be on top of the world. His new album F.A.M.E. dropped today, with already three No. 1 songs. It's also currently the most downloaded album on iTunes. So when Brown went on "Good Morning America" to talk to Robin Roberts, he was probably in a pretty good mood, and put on a game face to discuss his current status with Rihanna, his ex-girlfriend and pop star whom Brown assaulted before the Grammys in 2009.

But Robin didn't let the topic drop, and kept maneuvering their discussion back to the felony charges that Chris pleaded guilty to, along with the restraining order that the R&B star is trying to get downgraded. Chris struggled through the segment and then allegedly started getting violent: breaking the glass of his dressing room window, screaming, and ripping off his shirt .

While Brown's anger issues are certainly a topic for conversation, I just have to wonder: Where was this tough line of questioning when Charlie Sheen was on ABC? After all, the actor also pleaded guilty to assault charges on ex-wife Brooke Mueller and according to the police reports taken that night , it wasn’t the first time Sheen had become physically violent with her, previously throwing her to the ground and causing a head injury severe enough to require medical assistance. (Neither Mueller nor Sheen reported the incident at the time.)  And that wasn't the only incident. As Anna Holmes reported in the New York Times , Sheen's battery sheet -- only against women -- is a mile long:

In 1990, he accidentally shot his fiancée at the time, the actress Kelly Preston, in the arm. (The engagement ended soon after.) In 1994 he was sued by a college student who alleged that he struck her in the head after she declined to have sex with him. (The case was settled out of court.) Two years later, a sex film actress, Brittany Ashland, said she had been thrown to the floor of Mr. Sheen’s Los Angeles house during a fight. (He pleaded no contest and paid a fine.)...

Last October, another actress in sex films, Capri Anderson, locked herself in a Plaza Hotel bathroom after Mr. Sheen went on a rampage. (Ms. Anderson filed a criminal complaint but no arrest was made.) And on Tuesday, Ms. Mueller requested a temporary restraining order against her former husband, alleging that he had threatened to cut her head off, “put it in a box and send it to your mom.” (The order was granted, and the couple’s twin sons were quickly removed from his home.) “Lies,” Mr. Sheen told People magazine.

And yet when Sheen was doing his crazy-ass publicity tour, these items were barely touched upon, with interviewers like Piers Morgan and Andrea Channing not questioning Charlie's claims that he's never hit a woman. (Despite court orders and guilty charges that say otherwise.)

This comparison did not escape Chris Brown, who tweeted directly after the "GMA" incident:

Look, all domestic violence is terrible, and celebrities are not above being held accountable for their actions. But what a dark double-standard that Chris must continually answer for his actions, unable to be known as anything other than "the guy who beat up Rihanna," while Sheen gets a free pass, possibly because none of the women he hurt were famous enough to bother caring about.

The singer goes on a vicious, homophobic Twitter rant after completing his rehabilitation for beating Rihanna

Singer Chris Brown attends 'The Gentleman's Ball' hosted by GQ Magazine at the Edison Ballroom in New York in October 2010.

Everyone deserves a second chance. On Wednesday, Chris Brown used up his.

Just last week, the convicted abuser who assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna nearly two years ago in a beating heard round the world, was showing off his certificate for completing a 52 week domestic violence course. But the man who announced last year he wanted to be "a role model" -- who said, "I want to definitely be a man and learn who I am and learn how to control emotions" -- behaved like neither a role model nor a real man when singer Raz-B offhandedly tweeted , "Im just sittin here Thinking how can niggas like @ebenet & @ChrisBrown disrespect women as Intelligent as @HalleBerry11 @Rihanna." That seems to have been sufficient provocation to undo all that anger management Brown's been striving toward. He swiftly – and crudely -- shot back, "nigga you want attention! Grow up nigga!!! Dick in da booty ass lil boy."

Ah, the old "You're such a homo" retort. Always a classic. Brown soon followed it up with another charmer: "Tell me this @razb2k!! Why when the money was coming in u won't complaining about getting butplugged! #homothug!!!" [Update: Though Brown insisted on Twitter Wednesday that "I ain't deleting my tweet either!" he has in fact done just that, likely around the same time he posted a few new, not Raz-B-baiting messages around noon Thursday. He did however leave up his earlier tweet that noted, "when I need tips on how to demolish my career I'll call ya!!!!!" Don't worry, Brown, you're doing a stellar job demolishing your career all by yourself.]

Brown's snide "dick in da booty" remarks would be disgusting directed at anyone, gay or straight, regardless of the motivation. But what makes them particularly reprehensible is that Brown was referring to Raz B's very public allegations that his former manager Chris Stokes and label mate Marques Houston had molested him when he was a preteen.

Raz-B first told his story three years ago, then mysteriously recanted it in a terse "the allegations are not true" message soon after.  He has however recently gone back to his original version of events -- with harrowingly explicit corroboration from label mate Quindon Tarver.  So for Brown to insist to his Twitter followers that "i love all my gay fans and this immature act is not targeted at you!!!!" and that "I'm not homophobic! He's just disrespectful!!!" after glibly telling Raz B "merry christmas. i just gave you 20 thousand more followers.. u shouldve did this first instead of telling the world you got raped" is beyond ignorant – it's downright vicious.

Raz B certainly has many miles to go toward enlightenment himself. Throughout his sex abuse allegations he has been quick to note, "I'm not gay, I'm a real man." And in his tweet war, he's certainly dished out plenty of vile stuff himself, asking Brown, "Do you hit your boyfriend [songwriter] @andre_merritt like you do your women?" and accusing him of being "homosexual on the low!" before throwing in the perfunctory, "i want to apologize for fostering homophobia tweets.. this has nothing to do against my followers..."

Thanks so much, both of you. Glad you cleared up that when you accused each other of being paid for sex and getting it "on the low" you weren't being homophobic. Who could take offense at that? You're certainly not making light of sex abuse either, or moronically confusing being molested with being homosexual. And Raz B, your brother is surely not living up to every dumb, dangerous gangsta cliche by threatening to "put my motherfucking pistol" in Brown's mouth.  Nice work, guys – you've managed to broadcast your idiocy to the world, 140 characters at a time, and proven that hip-hop wars no longer need be conducted exclusively outside of Hot 97.

But it's Brown who emerges as the winner, class A creep division, in this whole ugly fiasco, for being the man who took the understated observation that he "disrespected" the woman he battered as a excuse to mock someone for saying he'd been sexually abused. He gets extra points for whining, "its wack as fuck that everybody can bash me... but soon as i defend myself its world war 3. I TAKE SHIT FROM everybody..." Apparently Chris Brown's notion of defending himself is accusing someone of not sufficiently "complaining" while his alleged molestation was going on. Right, because the only argument older than that "You're so gay" tripe is the enduring one-two of "You must have been asking for it" and "You don't act enough like a victim to be one." They're both so handy -- especially among perpetrators. And while Chris brown may have a freshly minted certificate saying he's no longer a domestic batterer, he clearly still knows plenty about the way an abuser's mind works.

Source: http://www.salon.com