1. Earlier this month, Ed Sheeran responded after Macklemore was axed from his Loop Tour over his “Free Palestine” comments on stage. Macklemore claimed of Ed, “He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides.’” Ed began in his response, “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy. There are too many wars across the world causing immeasurable pain, none of which should be tolerated.”
Ed later wrote in part, “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn't mean I don't have them, and it doesn't mean I don't care. There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics – my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum…I respect Macklemore's strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes. However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace.”
Ed’s response only further fueled the backlash, with several fans and celebrities calling out his “neutrality” and branding him “spineless.” All of his remaining tour openers, including Finneas O’Connell and Lukas Graham, withdrew from performing at the upcoming concerts in solidarity with Macklemore and Palestine, while Ed lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers in 48 hours, according to the statistics site Social Blade.
3. Amid the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war, Maluma posted an Instagram story featuring the flag emojis of both countries, with the word “PAZ,” which means “peace” in Spanish, in capital letters. Once again, social media users were quick to poke fun at the lackluster “statement”:
4. Despite discussing the potential to platform global issues ahead of cohosting the 2022 Oscars, Amy Schumer — who had seemed dedicated to speaking about Ukraine — made a single throwaway reference to the conflict during her gig. “There's a genocide going on in the Ukraine and women are losing all their rights...and now please welcome Anthony Hopkins,” she said while welcoming the Academy Award-winning actor on stage.
5. At the 2017 Golden Globes, Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech to speak out against President Donald Trump. However, her remarks didn’t quite come across as she’d perhaps hoped. “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts — which are not the arts,” she said.
6. Similarly, Kelly Osbourne once infamously attempted to make a statement about the value of immigrants during an appearance on The View… But it fell majorly flat. “If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?” she said, with Rosie Perez replying, “There’s more jobs than that in the country for Latinos, and Latinos are not the only people who clean toilets.”
Kelly later issued an apology for her “poor choice of words,” though noted, “I will not apologize for being a racist as I am NOT.” In 2024, she admitted during a Rolling Stone interview, “It hurt a lot of people, and that to me, by far, makes it the worst thing I’ve ever done. I realized that I’m not great on live TV and that words are so powerful. And to be labeled as something you’re not is really difficult. But it happened. There’s nothing I can do.”
7. Back in 2019, Alyssa Milano had a pretty wild response to a troll asking if she was trans: “I'm trans. I'm a person of color. I'm an immigrant. I'm a lesbian. I'm a gay man. I'm the disabled. I'm everything.”
Alyssa, who is none of the above, later wrote in response to the huge backlash, “I’m glad this tweet invoked conversation. I’m so sorry it offended some. I see you and hear you.”
8. David Guetta once revealed that he’d “made a special record” in honor of George Floyd while livestreaming a DJ set amid the COVID-19 lockdowns. “The world is going through difficult times. And America, too, actually. So last night, I knew we were going to do this and I made a special record… So this record is in honor of George Floyd,” he said.
“I really hope we can see more unity and more peace when things are already so difficult. So shoutout to his family,” he added before playing an EDM mashup of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech and fist pumping.
9. In 2017, Kendall Jenner attempted to make a statement against racism and police brutality by starring in an ill-advised Pepsi ad, which many felt trivialized real racial-justice protests. As you might recall, Kendall left a modeling shoot in the commercial, joined a police protest, gave a can of Pepsi to an officer, and essentially ended racism. Pepsi pulled the ad within a day and apologized, saying it had “missed the mark,” while Kendall later said in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, “I would never purposely hurt someone, ever, and if I knew this would've been the outcome, I never would've done something like this. The fact that I would offend or hurt other people was definitely not the intent. And that's what got me the most, is that I would've ever made anyone else upset.”
10. Lena Dunham once recalled visiting a Planned Parenthood in Texas, during which she was asked to share her abortion story. In response, Lena — who hadn’t had an abortion — said she “sort of jumped.” “I wanted to make it really clear to her that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women's options, I myself had never had an abortion. And I realized then that even I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue. ... It was an important moment for me then to realize that I had internalized some of what society was throwing at us. And I had to put it in the garbage…Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had,” she said.
Many people felt that Lena was trivializing the subject by “wishing” she’d had an abortion, and eventually, the Girls star issued an apology. “I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won’t diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated. ... I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy,” she said.
11. And finally, Chris Pratt once mocked the numerous celebrities who were repeatedly urging their fans to vote ahead of the 2020 presidential election, before jokingly telling his own followers to vote for his film, Onward, at the People’s Choice Awards. “With all that’s going on in the world, it is more important than ever that you vote. Just ask any celebrity. They will tell you. Every day. Several times a day. To vote. But me? I will tell you EXACTLY who to vote for. #Onward,” he wrote, adding, “The heroes before us did not spill their blood only to have their sacrifices wasted by your apathy. The upcoming 2020 People’s Choice Awards is the most consequential vote in the history of mankind times a million infinity.”
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