Entertainment

Another Ariana Apology For Being A Doughnut Licker

by Kadeen Griffiths

For those of you who haven't been following #DoughnutGate as intently as I have, you're probably surprised to hear that this is still even a thing. In fact, you're probably even more surprised that Ariana Grande posted an apology video for the doughnut incident, just in case everyone was too distracted by her ill-timed points about obesity in America to realize how sorry she is. The four-minute video is, admittedly, an improvement over Grande's apology statement, in which she expressed her pride to be an American before, as she states in this second apology, "preaching about my issues with the food industry." Like the apology statement, the pop star still focuses more on apologizing for her anti-patriotic sentence than on her wild doughnut misconduct, but it is definitely the better apology all around.

The video was filmed and posted by Grande in the midst of her recovery from having her wisdom teeth removed, and, indeed, her cheeks are a little swollen as she speaks about how embarrassing it is to see yourself behave in such an "ugly" way and know that you have disappointed yourself and your fans. "I've actually never been prouder to be American, to be honest, with the advances that we've made in the past couple of months. So here I am apologizing to y'all, puffy cheeks and all," she said, before returning to the point. "Seeing a video of yourself behaving poorly that you have no idea is being taken is such a rude awakening that you don't know what to do. I was so disgusted with myself. Seeing how ugly it looks when you behave a certain way makes you want to never behave that way again. But you learn from it. I never want to be anything but a positive influence to my babes, and I feel like I let you all down, which sucks."

Grande went on to point out that she is only 22 years old, and, at that age, making mistakes are a given, but that she is trying now, and will continue to try in the future, to use her mistakes as a platform to grow as a person. Quite honestly, more of her apology could have been focused less on her fans and more on the doughnut shop, seeing as she licked their merchandise with no intention of buying them and everything, but she does, at the very least, issue a brief, blanket apology for her behavior. That's such a huge step forward from her first statement that, while this apology video is far from perfect on its own merits, it does a lot more good, and makes Grande seem a lot more sincere in her words. Because she's right in that 22-year-olds will make mistakes and learn from them. Most 22-year-olds know not to lick doughnuts they don't plan to buy and expect to get away with it, but, hey, the rules work differently when you're famous.

Overall, there are few apologies that can ever be considered the most perfect apology that has ever been given, but this video shows that Grande has a better sense of why people are criticizing her for #DoughnutGate, and a better understanding of her own culpability in the incident. The fact that she managed to do this without sliding off into a tangent about the food industry is a blessing in and of itself, since she kind of muddied her point the first time around. And considering her fans have been trending #WeForgiveYouAriana on Twitter Friday morning, I'd say her apology has been accepted. Check out the video below.

Image: YouTube (2)