UPDATE: Chris Brown’s Skipping the Kid’s Choice Awards
As I previously reported, Chris Brown has been lobbying kids to vote for him in the upcoming Kids’ Choice Awards on Nickelodeon. The TV channel has ignored some five thousand parent signatures on a petition asking for his removal from the process.
But someone’s listening – Chris Brown says he’ll skip the Kids’ Choice Awards. Finally, one RIGHT choice for a guy who has made some pretty major mistakes recently – as you can see by the original post (BELOW).
I’ve always thought that celebrities are put on too high a pedestal where kids are concerned. They’re human, just like the rest of us.
But the Kids’ Choice Awards have put parents in a particularly tight spot this year – Chris Brown is up for an award, and he’s lobbying hard for kids to cast their votes.
In a post put up on Brown’s Myspace page on Thursday, Brown asks kids to vote for him as Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song, providing direct links to the Kids’ Choice voting site where they can do so.
Yes, this is the same Chris Brown accused of beating girlfriend Rihanna to a pulp before the Grammy’s. What’s more – he’s up against her in the Kids’ Choice Favorite Song category, which pits his “Kiss, Kiss” featuring T-Pain against Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music” as well as Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” (which is a whole OTHER post right there) and “Single Ladies” by Beyonce.
In general, the Kids’ Choice Awards, a Nickelodeon invention spun off of their 1986 Big Ballot vote, are pretty harmless. It lets kids feel involved. But let’s face it, the kids are not always weighing in on kid-friendly fare (hello “I Kissed a Girl” – about sexual experimentation). And after years of trying to make celebrities who don’t have the shiniest of pasts into child role models, the awards force the issue. You will be in front of kids, so you better shape up.
Chris Brown only highlights that it doesn’t work that way, and it never has. He’s hardly the first to fall down on the “role model job.” Whitney Houston hosted twice in the 1990s, the first Kids’ Choice host to take the job two separate times. Talented singer, no doubt. But would you want your kids looking up to a reported crack addict?
Musicians, actors, athletes are regular people. Regular people with talent. That doesn’t make them good people. There are thousands of stars worthy of your kids’ adulation, but it isn’t because they’ve been catapulted to stardom. It’s their hearts, their good deeds outside of the limelight as much as in.
Unfortunately, we’ve put these celebrities front and center for our kids. Chris Brown is there, and there’s no escaping either the pull of his music or the disgusting example of domestic violence. What are parents going to do now?
Image: Mix Matters
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Who cares what Chris Brown did wrong, people make mistakes you know? Well yeah he messed up BIG TIME, but I do know for a fact he’s awfully sorry. Well just remember that line.
Love you Chris,
Leslie Lynne Weddell Zephier Martin
Grace I think you hit it right on the head. We will not be watching or voting on these “role models”. We do still consider Micheal Phelps to be role model material in our house, however.
mike hit a bong and hes in it.theres slutty pics of miley and shes doing something illegal in most states by dating that guy and shes still in it. theres a naked pic of vanessa and shes in it. what about them???
This is a kids nomination and it’s wrong to have a kid nominate an abuser. Instead this show should be teaching the kids that Chris Brown is an example of what not to idolize and kick him off of the kid choice awards until he gets help.
I didn’t really give a darn about this until I stumbled over a detailed account of the beating the other day. If what I read is true, forget about whether or not this guy is a role model, or whether he or the woman he beat up are famous – he’s just a plain horrible person. It was a calculated, vicious assault that came within degrees of trying to kill her.
I suppose he’s innocent until proven guilty, but he doesn’t belong in any entertainment setting, let alone a kids’ show.
My kids have seen him singing with Elmo on Sesame Street, but they’re too young to know or care about anything else about him. I agree that Nick should yank his nomination.
Buster Brown aint talking to my kids!
I think it’s appalling that Nickelodeon hasn’t yanked his nomination. My son is still too young to watch Nick, but I have had several talks with my older nieces and nephews about this situation. Nickelodeon should be sending the message to kids that domestic violence is never acceptable, instead it seems like they would rather tell kids the opposite.
I hear that the pictures of Rhianna post-beating was pretty severe. The kid should be charged and tried because the next time (and usually there is a pattern to abuse, including the part when he swears to the girl that he’ll never do it again and she drops the charges) he may actually kill her. Which is a far far cry from abuse like Whitney Houston has afflicted only on her self or stupidity like Michael Phelps is guilty of doing. In general, being charged in a felonious crime until proven innocent should disqualify you from any kids award. Because its a FELONY. Most show business contracts have decency clauses which is one big reason why Michael Phelps is getting hit so hard. You would think it would qualify for a kids show?
So, Michael Phelps gets crucified in the press, loses sponsorship deals and everything else, just because he took a bong hit at a party… but beat the crap out of your girlfriend? Sure, you can still be on Nickelodeon…
No they shouldn’t. That is all.
Parents can do what I do: Don’t let your kids watch it. In fact, I don’t let my kids watch much Nickolodeon at all. They can watch Noggin and see some of the good preschool shows that Nick plays without seeing the “Nick-ish” stuff that goes along with it.
When I was a kid, Nickolodeon had a commercial that said “What parents don’t know, can’t hurt them.” It has never been a real parent friendly station.
As far as the catergory discussed, none of the songs are appropriate for kids.