Fulcrum Blog

Celebrity gossip is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. Since Sunday, I’ve been monitoring reports on the Rihanna and Chris Brown saga. (In case you’re not as in tune with Perez Hilton as I am, last Sunday R&B singer Chris Brown was arrested for alleged physical abuse of his girlfriend, pop singer Rihanna.) I obviously have no idea what really happened between them or if Chris did anything wrong. The injuries that Rihanna suffered certainly suggest that an act of violence occurred, but I’ll leave it to the authorities to figure all of that out.

This is an incredibly troubling and sad situation, but as a public relations professional, what really catches my attention here is not the reports or the drama, but the silence. As far as I’ve seen, neither Chris or Rihanna have made a statement or spoken to the media about these allegations. Rihanna hasn’t defended him, and he hasn’t defended himself. My guess is that legally they have been advised against making any statements. While that’s understandable, the void that’s been left seems to spell GUILT to a lot of people.

I question if that’s a fair assessment; but, from a PR perspective, perception is reality. So if people think that Chris’ lack of communication means he hit his girlfriend, then to those people, Chris Brown beat Rihanna. With such high profile personalities, and a highly visible case, the consequences of that perception are vast. Chris’ songs are being pulled from the air waves. And fans are completely swearing him off. When radio play and fans start dwindling for a musician, that usually means their career is headed for the trash can.

In the past, I’ve seen legal counsel and public relations counsel disagree on how to respond to a crisis. I can’t say whether or not that is the case here, but in my mind, honesty and forthrightness almost always have better results than twiddling your thumbs and letting others imagine the worst. The media is running wild with the possibilities, other celebrities are chiming in, Chris’ family is blabbing, and the assumptions are snowballing. With a big dollar career on the line, it seems like speaking up could only help at this point, even if that means an admission of guilt and getting a head start on re-building a self-induced image implosion. If nothing else, it might give people less to speculate (read: talk) about. 

Hypothetically speaking, do you think Chris (or Rihanna) should listen to lawyers or to publicists? I vote for breaking the silence, because it isn’t proving golden.