Ariana Grande Tries to Put Her Donut-Licking Scandal Behind Her With a New Apology Video
In a video released Tuesday, Ariana Grande licked a display donut in Lake Elsinore, California, and said "I hate America." Immediately after, America lost its collective shit. Fans were distraught, Fox News called her un-American, police and health officials announced they were were investigating the incident and by the next evening, Grande had issued an apology via BuzzFeed. The story has only gotten stranger and stranger with each passing day. Thursday night, Grande attempted to put it all behind her, releasing a second apology, this time in video form.
She recorded the video with puffy cheeks, following getting her wisdom teeth pulled. This surgery forced her to pull out of an Major League Baseball concert this coming Saturday, though the timing of the cancellation suggested to some it may actually be a sign of her waning patriotism.
Her first apology apparently didn't cut it. "I am EXTREMELY proud to be an American and I've always made it clear that I love my count[r]y," she wrote in her original apology on Wednesday, before trying to explain what she meant when she said she hates America. "As an advocate for healthy eating, food is very important to me and I sometimes get upset by how freely we as Americans eat and consume things without giving any thought to the consequences that it has on our health and society as a whole."
She cited the fact that the United States has some of the highest child obesity rates in the world, proclaiming that "We need to demand more from our food industry."
Grande may have to save her apologies for the judge. An investigation into these reports of "deliberate food tampering" is still ongoing, according to representatives from Lake Elsinore Police Department. "It is not clear at this time if the affected donuts were disposed of or sold to another patron," the department wrote in a press release Wednesday. As of Friday morning, representatives refuse to discuss what the charges might be pending this highly sensitive investigation.
As of Wednesday, the owner of the donut shop, Wolfee Donuts, wants to see Grande face charges. "What she did was wrong," the owner told the Press Enterprise, according to New York Daily News. The health department, though, wants answers as to why the donuts were on the counter uncovered in the first place.
You've stirred up a real shitstorm, Ariana. One that Fox News was all too happy to pick up on. Thursday, correspondent Laura Ingraham laid into Grande, calling her, "Another spoiled, entitled pop princess who's benefited so lucratively from being in this country, from being an American." In her comments, Ingraham seemed to assume Grande is of Latin descent, as Billboard noted. Ingraham called Grande "estupida" to end her segment. Trump fever is really going around.
Short of Grande getting escorted off stage in handcuffs, it seems impossible that Donutgate could get any more absurd. Grande seems to have learned her lesson. "I made a mistake and I'm being judged for it, which I understand because I watched it and I was just as disappointed with myself," she said in Thursday's video apology. "I'm going to learn from my mistakes ... That's how we grow. We just have get better and actually act on it."
Can we forgive her now, and end this absurdity?
Watch her full puffy-cheeked apology below:
