Not even Nicole Scherzinger‘s support of accused sexual-assaulter-turned-Jesus-sycophant Russell Brand could affect the box office take of the Andrew Lloyd Webber broadway classic Sunset Blvd, which just had its best week ever.
The show, which stars Scherzinger as lead Norma Desmond, is about a a faded silent screen era movie star who lives in a run-down mansion on Sunset Blvd. A young screenwriter named Joe Gillis offers her a chance to revive her career, but it ends in tragedy instead.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the classic show took in almost two million dollars last week ($1.86M) and hit around 97% capacity at St. James Theater. It’s the third highest grossing title in all of Broadway for the week.
This is huge news for Scherzinger, who’s mostly known for the song “Don’t Cha” when she was the lead singer of a girl group called the PussyCat Dolls. But what’s a little success without some good ol’ fashioned controversy?
Russell Brand, the former bad boy of movies and comedy, is now a hard-core Christian proselytizer, and he recently posted a picture on his Instagram page of himself with a hat that said “Make Jesus First Again.” In this era of everything being politically and hence divisive, this fired up some of people.
Scherzinger, in a deleted comment, said “Where do I get this hat!!!?” While this may not seem like a big deal, Scherzinger is in a lead of a show that’s crushing on Broadway and could very well be on the path to a Tony nomination. One X user put it this way:
“Nicole Scherzinger really thought it was a great idea to come out as a Trump supporter? When she’s literally on the verge of a Tony nomination. Broadway is run by gay and trans people. After a flop attempt of a solo career, she finally found her niche and ruins it.”
Perhaps realizing that aligning with Russell Brand and his Christian ideologies when you’re on Broadway is not the smartest move, she issued an apology. She took to her Instagram Story and said she was sorry for any hurt caused “by my recent engagement with some social media posts.”
When she commented, she explained that she “made the mistake of not realizing that they could be easily interpreted as being politically related.” Sure, Nicole. She goes on: “Many presumptions are being drawn, which do not reflect who I am, what I stand for, or who I voted for.”
Well, can you blame people for making presumptions, Nicole? She goes on: “Many of the marginalized communities feeling hurt and concerned by the results of the presidential election are people I care about most. I stand with them, as I always have, throughout my life and career.”
So what was she doing then? She said she was encouraging people to “choose love and faith” and that everything she said came “from a place of love.”
“I will always support values that bring us closer together. It’s so important we come together with compassion, and love one another more now than ever.”
Regardless, people are still flocking to see her buzzy performance in the show, so it looks like she’s going to be able to shrug this one off. When you’re hot you’re hot!