Anytime something tragic occurs on a global scale, be it a war or a deadly pandemic, famous people will, without fail, use the opportunity to show their asses in shockingly creative ways. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this week was the perfect fodder for such celebrity idiocy.
Perhaps the bleakest example was Andy Cohen’s Wordle-themed call for peace. In one of those pop culture moments that makes you think, “Are we living in a simulation?,” the talk show host decided to type out an inspirational message while playing the viral brain teaser game.
Cohen wrote “PEACE” as his first guess and posted a screenshot to his Instagram Story on Thursday morning, surely feeling very proud of himself for coming up with such a clever, zeitgeisty way to share his stance on a complex foreign diplomacy issue. (Note that he did not hit submit, presumably because he was just doing it for the 'Gram and would never actually guess a word with two of the same letter on his first try. Not even world peace is worth messing up those guess distribution stats.)
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Joy Behar, meanwhile, worried aloud about how the bombings in Ukraine might affect her summer vacation plans. “You know, you plan a trip. You want to go there. I’ve wanted to go to Italy for four years and I haven’t been able to make it because of the pandemic,” The View co-host said during Thursday’s show. “And now this. It’s like, ‘What’s gonna happen there?’” Behar’s tone-deaf comments came after her co-host Sunny Hostin pointed out the inevitable, heartbreaking loss of life and displacement of millions as a result of the invasion.
Twitter was also rife with reactions ranging from misguided to straight-up unhinged. John Cena tweeted, “If I could somehow summon the powers of a real life #Peacemaker I think this would be a great time to do so,” impressively managing to both vaguely align himself with the side of peace and promote his HBO Max series at the same time.
Then there was box office data source Exhibitor Relations Co., which unironically suggested sanctioning Russia by blocking the release of The Batman and all subsequent comic book films in the country. “Look, we know superheroes aren’t real, but perhaps they can be a small part of the solution,” the account wrote.
But when it comes to the most cringeworthy response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it’s a clear tie between 90210 actress AnnaLynne McCord and The Weeknd.
McCord was swiftly and universally dragged by the entire internet on Thursday when she shared a video of herself reciting an original poem addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The poem begins with the line, “Dear Vladimir Putin, I’m so sorry that I was not your mother”—and it just gets crazier from there. Twitter users likened the mess to Gal Gadot’s much-derided “Imagine” video from the start of the pandemic, but after watching McCord’s much, much worse contribution to the genre of embarrassing celebrity crisis responses, we may owe Ms. Gadot an apology.
And finally, we have The Weeknd, who executed such a poorly timed Twitter blunder that it has to be seen to be believed. On Wednesday, the “Blinding Lights” singer began to tease a surprise announcement, tweeting, “It’s FINALLY HERE! It’s time…TOMORROW!!” That tweet alone would be ominous and eyebrow-raising enough in the context of *gestures wildly* everything going on in the world. But then he proceeded to accidentally make it a million times worse by tweeting in all caps, “LET’S GOOOOOOOO” just as Russia commenced its attacks on Ukraine. People immediately began dunking on The Weeknd’s stunningly bad timing, sharing screenshots of his tweets alongside news notifications about Ukraine.
After a couple of hours, The Weeknd—or, more likely, a panicked publicist — realized his mistake and tweeted with his tail between his legs, “unfortunately I’m just now seeing what’s happening with the conflict and will pause on tomorrow’s announcement. I pray for everyone’s safety.” It’s safe to say we may be waiting a while for that announcement.
