Is It OK to Like Chris Brown Again—or Totally Not?

Brown seems to have forgiven himself for what he did to Rihanna. Us? Not so much

By Leslie Gornstein Mar 09, 2011 8:16 PMTags
Chris Brown, TwitterTwitter

Chris Brown has got this new album, he's going to charity events, he's dyeing his hair, he's hanging out with Justin Bieber. Is it OK to like him and buy his album?
—HeLuxFly, via the inbox

Sure, Chris Brown may be doing all of the above, but he still doesn't seem to have a grasp of what he did to Rihanna back in 2009. In a new interview with Page Six, he even calls the beating he gave her a "mishap" and has indicated he is through apologizing for it.

But have the kids forgiven him, anyway?

No. Overall, fans still loathe Brown for the dashboard thrashing he gave to his then-girlfriend two years ago. The general opinion: Brown is slightly less evil than he was then, but still, generally, nefarious.

"From what I understand is the bloom is off the rose," says Rachel Geller, chief strategic officer for the youth marketing company The Geppetto Group. "I think that it will be very hard for him to recover."

Even the recent reports of Brown sexting it up with some lady haven't helped him. That sort of thing can boost a star's rep with the kids, Geller says. Sexting is cool. Sexting is funny. But not in this case.

"It sort of reminds fans of what he did," Geller notes. "And whatever reminds them of that, it's not OK."

Hard data backs up Geller's observations. E-Score Celebrity has been following hatred of Chris Brown since the Rihanna incident.

The pollster company actually has a "dislike" index for stars.

For Brown, that score was a mere 6 before the Rihanna incident. That number shot up to a high of 45 in March of 2009 and has stayed relatively high ever since. As of right now, the dislike index for Brown is about 25.

Maybe his new album should be called I.N.F.A.M.Y.