Nicki Minaj is known to take the media to task. Photo / Getty Images
Nicki Minaj is known to take the media to task. Photo / Getty Images
Reporters’ questions sometimes cross a line with celebrities.
Celebrities walk out of interviews with no consequence all the time, which is truly strange when you think about it. Promoting a project is a contractually obligated part of their job - imagine if us mere mortals could just storm out of work every time someone asked us a question we didn't like.
The main result of these incidents is that the celebrity trends on social media for a few days, which is actually beneficial if you need to plug your upcoming movie or TV show or album. It happened again this week with a New York Times Magazine story on Nicki Minaj. Writer Vanessa Grigoriadis profiled the superstar rapper, and aside from some key quotes on the Miley Cyrus dust-up at the VMA Awards, everyone will just remember that Minaj walked out.
Minaj, unhappy with what she perceived to be a sexist question (Grigoriadis asked if Minaj "thrives on drama"), shut down the interview. She called Grigoriadis a "troublemaker" and said "Do not speak to me like I'm stupid or beneath you in any way ... I don't care to speak to you anymore."
The quotes got picked up everywhere - many applauded Minaj, and Grigoriadis admitted in the story she regretted her choice of words. But it's only one in a long line of stories about stars who have zero patience for the media.
It occurs for a variety of reasons; some instances, like the one with Minaj, are complicated. Often, though, celebrities can't accept that pesky reporters don't want to gush about their latest project. (Just last month, Robert De Niro walked out after too many "negative" questions about things not related to his movie The Intern.) What are the most common reasons why they take the drastic step of cutting off an interview?
1 Questions focused on the past
If someone was involved in a scandal that has nothing to do with their current project - and happened a long time ago - should they still have to answer questions when they're on an innocuous press tour? This year, Robert Downey jnr made headlines during an
interview when Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy started asking about his past drug addiction and issues with his father. "It's just getting a little Diane Sawyer," Downey explained before taking his mic off.
Model/actress Naomi Campbell. Photo / AP
Another example: Naomi Campbell knocked down a camera when ABC News asked if she received blood diamonds many years ago from Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.
2 Questions about other celebrities
Stars are generally comfortable talking about themselves, but ask them about friends or an ex, and all bets are off. Selena Gomez shut down a satellite interview when a reporter asked if she could explain ex Justin Bieber's wild behaviour.
Other examples: Marc Anthony left the room when a Univision show asked him about Jennifer Lopez's "intimate" tape with her ex-husband, and Cameron Diaz hung up on a radio interview when a host made a crack about her pal Drew Barrymore's former drug use.
3 Questions that insult their craft
Joan Rivers famously left a CNN interview when she felt the interviewer didn't understand her comedy. "Stop it with 'you do this' and 'you're mean' and 'you're that'," Rivers told Fredricka Whitfield before leaving. "You are not the one to interview a person who does humour. Sorry."
Other examples: Justin Bieber did not appreciate when Mojo in the Morning said he sounded really similar to Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton walked out on ABC when the interviewer asked if her 15 minutes of fame were over, and Russell Crowe gave the BBC a piece of his mind when an interviewer said he made Robin Hood sound "Irish".
4 Questions about their love life
Want to see Ryan Seacrest genuinely shocked? Check out the video of Robert Pattinson leaving after Seacrest asked whether he was dating Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart. Other examples: Rihanna peaced out when someone broached the subject of her maybe dating Ashton Kutcher; Megan Fox's publicist jumped in when a curious correspondent tried to get her to confirm her pregnancy.
happened to go No1 right after the infamous Kanye West VMA stage-crashing incident, so she had to do some press. When a Tampa radio host insisted on asking about Kanye, Swift politely tried to change the subject ("I really would appreciate it if we could talk about something else, because I've asked you three times now, and I'm trying to be nice about it.") until she simply handed her phone to her publicist.
Other examples: Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean told Larry King he was "extremely inappropriate" and bolted when he asked about her lawsuit against the Miss California USA Pageant; and Naomi Watts walked away when a radio host asked too many questions about her polarising Princess Diana film.
