The most bizarre celebrity apologies of 2024

Published Jan 01, 2025  •  5 minute read

Madonna's Celebration Tour hit Scotiabank Arena for the first of two back-to-back concerts on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. Photo by Ricardo Gomes /(supplied)

By Ashley Fetters Maloy, Emily Yahr, The Washington Post

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To err is human, to forgive is divine, and to apologize publicly for a weird thing you did in front of a global audience is only for the famous. Every year, a certain crop of odd celebrity gaffes leads to even odder celebrity apologies – and, despite a few high-profile “sorry, not sorry” moments, this year brought plenty of prompt, earnest and deeply weird mea culpas. Here are the strangest blunders celebrities had to apologize for in 2024.

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Man-on-Muppet violence

On a February episode of the “Today” show, an encounter between Elmo and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator Larry David took a turn for the weird. After being introduced, David walked over toward the show’s sofa, where the hosts were seated. But then, David walked behind the couch, to where another guest, “Sesame Street’s” Elmo, was already perched. In an apparent joke about Elmo’s famously adorable demeanor and his own curmudgeonly one, David reached out and shook Elmo by the face, stunning the hosts (and, seemingly, the puppet).

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David then walked away, laughing, only for Elmo to shout after him, “Mr. Larry, Elmo liked you before! Get back on the couch and let’s talk about how you feel.”

When David returned, hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie urged him to apologize, from his heart. “From where?” David asked with a laugh, before acquiescing: “Elmo,” he said, “I just want to apologize.” Elmo accepted David’s apology.

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Too much tongue

Making out a little too zealously: an offense so many of us commit and so few of us get an opportunity to apologize for. “Saturday Night Live’s” Bowen Yang found himself in the lucky latter category after kissing Ariana Grande when she hosted the show on Oct. 12. In a sketch where Grande played the mother of Yang’s new boyfriend, mutual dislike between the two characters escalates first into violence, then into passionate kissing.

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When Grande made a guest appearance on the Nov. 6 episode of Yang and Matt Rogers’s podcast, “Las Culturistas,” Yang seized the chance to acknowledge the incident. “I really have to apologize to you in person,” he said. “I opened my mouth up too much when we kissed on SNL.”

With a laugh, Grande responded, “You absolutely did.”

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A confusing Met Gala dress code

The Met Gala’s theme and dress code – which sometimes match and sometimes don’t – confused many this year, the former being “Sleeping Beauties” and the latter “Garden of Time.” If these phrases mean little to nothing to you, you’re in good company. On the morning of May 6, “Today” aired an interview between Jenna Bush Hager and Met Gala co-chair and Condé Nast global chief content officer Anna Wintour. “When we came up with the title ‘Sleeping Beauties,’ it’s wonderful and poetic and romantic, but actually, it could be many, many things,” Wintour said.

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Wintour, who wore her signature black sunglasses for the entire interview, went on to explain that it was Andrew Bolton, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who had proposed remedying the problem of a vague theme with a dress code that turned out to be nearly equally vague. “So, I fear that we’ve unleashed a lot of confusion out there,” she added, “and for which I deeply apologize.” (Wintour has not apologized for reportedly wearing those same sunglasses while informing staffers at Pitchfork that they were being laid off.)

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Mixing up Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Former “Bachelor” star Joey Graziadei was filming a “How Online Are You?” quiz-game video for Betches when he accidentally handed the women’s comedy outlet a morsel of tremendous viral content. Graziadei was confronted with a photo of the now-33-year-old convicted murderer Gypsy Rose Blanchard and asked to identify her. “I do know who this person is!” Graziadei declared. “Is it Ruth? Jinsburg, Ginsburg? Something like that?”

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In fairness, the two women share the same three initials. Still, the clip ricocheted around social media, leading White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to later poke fun at Graziadei’s error while giving him a tour of her workplace in the White House. In a video clip from the tour, Jean-Pierre gestures to a framed photo of the Supreme Court justice: “You say that you’re really good with names,” she prods.

“I’m so sorry,” Graziadei responds, prompting peals of laughter from Jean-Pierre. “I know I won’t live that one down. I know how much of a legend she is, and how much she’s done for equal rights and women’s empowerment.”

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Carrying a gun-shaped purse

At June’s BET Awards, Angela Simmons – daughter of Run-DMC’s Joseph Simmons, also known as Rev Run – accessorized her strapless, jewel-encrusted gown with a sparkly green Casze Atelier purse in the shape of a handgun. Simmons posed for photos pointing the purse like a pistol, and backlash was swift.

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Simmons apologized the next day with a lengthy statement. “I have personally lost my partner, the father of my child, to gun violence, and I have witnessed its devastating impact on my community in Southeast Queens,” she said. Simmons’s ex-fiancé, Sutton Tennyson, was fatally shot in 2018. “It was a mistake that does not define who I am or my commitment to ending gun violence,” she added. “To anyone who was hurt or offended by my actions, I offer my deepest apologies.”

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Shouting ‘Are you ready, Boston?!’ to concertgoers in Toronto

On her worldwide tour, Madonna lived out a classic nightmare scenario for touring musicians: accidentally greeting one night’s fans with the name of another night’s city. But at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena in January (following two nights at TD Garden in Boston), the pop legend caught her mistake quickly and apologized. “Are you guys mad at me because I said, ‘Hello, Boston’? I’m sorry,” she said to the crowd.

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“That would be like if you guys were saying, ‘Hey, Lady Gaga’s playing tonight.’ I wouldn’t like that,” she continued, to laughs from the audience. “… Nothing against Lady Gaga. Love her.”

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Putting numbers in the titles of movies

You have to love an apology that doubles as a humble-brag. Late this year, legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola explained to The Washington Post’s Jada Yuan that he did everything in his power to get out of directing a sequel to 1972’s “The Godfather” – including asking for a then-unheard-of director’s salary of $1 million (he got it) and insisting the movie be titled “The Godfather Part II,” an unconventional title choice for a sequel at the time (the producers allowed it).

Famously, Coppola did end up directing “Part II,” as well as “Part III” 16 years after that. “So I’m the jerk that started numbers on movies,” Coppola said. “I’m embarrassed, and I apologize to everyone.”

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