Robin Thicke Addresses Naughty MTV Performance and Butt-Grabbing Photo

Robin Thicke knows how to keep his name in the news, even if his reputation is at stake. Thicke who has enjoyed unprecedented success with his summer smash single “Blurred Lines,” couldn’t risk losing any momentum.

Thicke would join 20-year old singer Miley Cyrus on stage for a performance that people could not stop talking about. Nearly three weeks after the VMA production, Thicke admits the entire act served its purpose – to give people something to talk about.

He told Star magazine:

“We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We’re entertainers, and the VMAs is the perfect place for a little shock and awe. Yeah, we kind of knew when we were in rehearsal and we were like, ‘OK, if you touch me with your foam finger all over my crotch, obviously a few people are going to have something to say about this.’ But that was the whole point. I mean the whole point was to excite and provoke and entertain.”

The naughty performance aside, Thicke also had to answer for a photo that would later emerge of him grabbing the butt of a fan he took a photo with. The young woman reportedly shared the photo on Instagram before realizing the mirror in the back captured the reflection of the R&B crooner getting a handful of her butt. Thicke, who is married to movie star Paula Patton, all of a sudden found himself in the middle of a brewing scandal. It took nearly two weeks for him to address the photo, adding to the statement in Star:

“My only comment about the so-called scandalous photo would be that my wife and I are perfectly in love and very happily married. [We have] the greatest love of the century, and the most functional, dysfunctional marriage in Hollywood.”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top