Martha Stewart says her controversial "homeless" Halloween costume happened because Today co-host Craig Melvin spilled chocolate on her sweater the day before, per USA Today.
The alibi gets better with every appearance. On Oct. 31, Stewart posted a photo in ripped jeans, a cream cardigan and a knit cap, holding a sign that read "I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!" The post is now deleted. On Nov. 1, she told People the costume was meant to "bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness." Same day, she apologized on Instagram: "It's hard to admit when you've really screwed up." Now, at a mortgage sales rally in Orlando, a new explanation has surfaced. "He spilled chocolate all over my sweater, which I was going to wear on Halloween night." And then, per a TMZ video, "the easiest costume was to get dressed up as bum."
The chocolate spill was real, and it was a good one. Melvin was dressed as Snoop Dogg, helping Stewart decorate a cheesecake on Oct. 30, and the ganache found the sweater. Stewart's joke the next day: "Real Snoop would never do that." A Snoop impersonator with chocolate on his hands, an 85-year-old lifestyle icon with ten minutes to get ready. The ganache wasn't a stain. It was a creative director.
So the sequence is: costume choice, backlash, awareness statement, apology, workplace incident. Five stages, one week, each version more elaborate than the last. The PR machine didn't break. It upshifted. And somewhere in there is a sweater in a donation bin, doing exactly what it was made to do.
YOUR TURN: What's the next alibi, a food allergy?
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