*How would you like to be Holly Robinson Peete who all of a sudden, out of nowhere, found herself in the middle of a firestorm of controversy started by John Mayer?
If you haven’t heard, Robinson Peete was told by a friend that Mayer had called her “gorgeous” in a Playboy interview. Well, she blushed and even told E! in a widely reported interview, that she felt flattered.
But apparently Robinson Peete was on the late freight and was oblivious to the whole John Mayer controversy in the wake of his his statement about African American women and his use of the N-word.
“I was disgusted and offended,” says Robinson Peete, who herself had faced criticism from some who felt she had initially been an apologist for Mayer.
People.com is reporting that Robinson Peete told them that Mayer has reached out to her to apologize for involving her in his firestorm, but not for his actual words.
The actress says it’s “time for him to really just drop the frat boy act” and “take responsibility for these hurtful comments.”
In an exclusive interview with People, Robinson Peete spoke out about the issue:
People: Would you have been so flattered by John Mayer stating you’re “gorgeous” if you’d read what he said in the rest of the interview?
HRP: The answer is no. I would never have been as flattered. As a matter of fact, it went from a compliment to being an insult. That anyone would think that I would be so giddy about this young man’s compliment that I would compromise my integrity as an African American woman is the most disturbing part for me. I foolishly and impulsively commented (to E!) on a sound bite from an interview that was sent to me by a girlfriend and I didn’t know the context at all. … Clearly, after I understood how John Mayer’s comments were bookended by racial insensitivities and this racially charged, rambling diatribe that denigrated black women, it became a whole other animal.
