In February 2009, Chris Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend, the pop star Rihanna, and suffered a serious setback to his reputation. Brown offered a series of apologies deemed insincere by many, but in recent months, a few well-liked songs and some good publicity had catapulted Brown back into many people's good graces, and "out of purgatory," says Amos Barshad at New York. That is, until Tuesday. Frustrated by repeated questions on "Good Morning America" about the Rihanna incident, Brown reportedly became violently angry after the interview, smashing his dressing-room window with a chair, then exiting the building shirtless. Brown managed to avoid arrest over his rampage, but "Dancing With the Stars" might nix his scheduled appearance next week. Did Brown just ruin any goodwill he had saved up?
Sadly, he'll be fine: "Brown is already imprinted in the national imagination as a violent jerk," says Jessica Grose at Double X, and "embracing this narrative has served him well" until now. In fact, judging by Charlie Sheen's current popularity, it's plausible that Brown's volatility may actually help him sell more albums. Not that this is a healthy state of affairs — "What has to happen for Americans to take the casual violence of these stars seriously?"
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