Welp. This is becoming pretty tiresome. American Idol Nicki Minaj is off on YET ANOTHER TWITTER RANT. Today’s target are Laura Saltman and Billy Bush from the celebrity gossip site, Access Hollywood.
It all began after a piece written by Laura Saltman blasting Nicki was posted on the Access website. The AH journalist, wrote a blistering article about how Nicki, during the post-Idol press line, refused to answer questions regarding her nasty tweets slamming fellow judge, Mariah Carey, calling her bitter and insecure.
After detailing the Mariah/Nicki feud, and describing where she felt the producers went wrong (Laura feels the panel didn’t need Nicki), Laura lays into the rapper/judge for all around bad behavior:
In my 20 years in entertainment news, I have interviewed close to 5,000 celebrities — people who have bigger bragging rights than Nicki. Men and women who have Oscars , Grammys and Emmys. Yet, by far, she is the most ungracious of anyone I have met.
Each week, she comes backstage for interviews and we are told “two questions only” while her people hover over you and even, at times, have their hand on your arm as you end your interview to make you stop. Waiver from the two-question rule and Nicki herself will walk away. She makes zero eye contact and has no connection to whomever is interviewing her. If she likes your question, she may give you a proper answer. If she doesn’t, she may give you a dirty look and walk off. After she posted mean comments about Mariah on Twitter yesterday calling her “bitter” and “insecure,” I wanted to give her the opportunity to redeem herself or perhaps apologize. I phrased my question that her comments had caused quite a stir online and asked if she had anything to say about it. She looked at me and told me my question made no sense and when I tried to explain it further she just said “goodnight” and walked off in a huff.
Eep. She finishes the lengthy article with this:
Nicki’s comments yesterday on Twitter show who she really is – a mean girl, a cyber-bully who is just perpetuating the problems of social media. When will society finally take a stand and say ‘Enough!’ with all of the hateful, spiteful things people say about each other? We are more connected than ever online but more willing to hide behind our anonymous avatars and be nasty to people we barely know. As a celebrity, I would hope that Nicki would understand her fans look to her as a role model and she should choose her words more wisely. From what I have seen of her behavior since “Idol” began, I’m not sure she is capable of this. She’s a female rapper who should be proud of her accomplishments as a woman not cutting other women down.
The truth is that 20 years from now, Mariah Carey will still be known as one of the best female vocalists of all time. Nicki Minaj – well, I will let you decide that.
As you can imagine by now. Because WE KNOW NICKI. As soon as she got wind of the article, Nicki took to twitter to chew Laura and fellow AH reporter, Billy Bush, a new a-hole. (Billy was involved in a discussion about the incident during today’s Access Hollywood Live, apparently)
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CHARMING. Notice that Amber Holcomb has Nicki’s back. That’s after Laura treated her kindly in the press line and even wished her good luck on twitter.
Of course, Billy Bush is loving it! More hits and TV ratings for him! I’m sure AH will milk this feud for everything they can.
After Nicki’s nasty rant, she’s game to go on Billy’s show. Free publicity for everyone! I understand that feuding and dissing is a part of rap culture, and in that context is maybe no big deal. But taking that specific behavior out into the larger world? It just makes Nicki look crazy.
Laura is taking the high road. And why shouldn’t she? At worst Laura was purposely baiting Nicki with the publication of that blistering article. Celebrity sites like AH are in the business of kissing celebrity ass and operating as part of the publicity machine. Laura must have felt she had more to gain by telling Nicki off. Hell, I may try to bait Nicki myself, not that I’m aware of how easy it is to get a reaction. I could use the traffic!
WHO THE HELL IS NICKI’S PUBLICIST? And WHERE ARE THEY. Maybe the philosophy is that all publicity is good publicity. Maybe for her rap career? But certainly not as a judge on American Idol.
At this point, I feel pretty confident that FOX will drop Nicki after the season is over. This freaking side show shit is BAD for the show. At a time when the focus should be on the very talented women vying for the Idol crown, it’s Nicki and her stupid antics that are dominating the news cycle. That sort of thing may work for the Kardashians and The Real Housewives franchise, but not Idol, where the focus is SUPPOSED to be on the talent.
I have defended Nicki, long into the run of this season. If she could have just behaved professionally on and off the panel, I’d still be defending her, because she brought some life and insight to the judges table. But this superfluous garbage? It overshadows EVERYTHING, and it really pisses me off. I want my Idol back!
Watch Nicki Storm Off at the 2:45 Mark
