Celebrity quarantine posts are coronavirus' greatest cringe

Nobody wants to see the inside of your mansion right now

Madonna.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Screenshot/YouTube, Getty Images, iStock)

Things are ... not going great. One in three Americans is living under lockdown, a number that is rising every day. The stock market is in shambles; the unemployment rate could feasibly hit 30 percent before the pandemic is over. There aren't enough medical supplies for doctors or patients; convention centers are being re-purposed into makeshift hospitals; mercy ships are en route to the ghost town that is America's greatest metropolitan area, New York City.

Celebrities have responded by stepping up to show solidarity and raise awareness about the public health crisis: Margaret Qualley has demoed proper hand-washing in her kitchen, JoJo rewrote the lyrics to her hit "Leave (Get Out)" to urge proper social distancing, and Britney Spears is inexplicably calling for wealth redistribution on Instagram. The only problem is, in attempting to connect with fans over the pandemic, celebrities who previously passed as "relatable" and "down-to-Earth" are exposing themselves as the opposite.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.