Has Jason Aldean been forgiven for cheating yet? Did the quick apology help at all?
—Lanna, via Twitter
Well, the country singer apparently kissed the wrong girl on a Wednesday but didn't issue his mea culpa until Sunday. Given that Kristen Stewart apologized for making out with her director about 24 hours after her scandal broke, it may look, at first, like Jason Aldean's behind the curve.
For the record, crisis PR experts say Aldean should be fine. It just may take him a while longer than expected for his image to recover. No, he didn't pull a Tiger Woods, waiting for more than two weeks while overbleached chicks piled on the accusations. And, yes, he worked faster than K.Stew, who cheated with Rupert Sanders on July 17 but didn't apologize until July 25.
But he could have been even smarter, crisis PR people tell me; he should have apologized even before the Internet caught wind of him, in his own words, having "too much to drink" at a bar and acting "inappropriately."
"The longer the speculation period, the worse the damage can be," says crisis PR consultant Cherie Kerr. "A story mushrooms during the speculation time period. The sooner you get it out there, you disable the media machine that fuels the fire."
In fact, that's why we're still even talking about this, Kerr insists. If Aldean himself had broken the story, it might even have been over by now. And you wouldn't be writing in with your question.
"What might hurt him most is that he waited too long to apologize," Kerr tells me. "He should have responded the minute the photos surfaced, so I think he should have apologized sooner."
Now, Aldean looks like he only apologized because he got caught.
I predict that, by next year, celebrities will apologize for cheating at least one day before even leaving the house.