In the wake of Katy Perry's unsuccessful music career and the backlash she received for her collaboration with alleged sex offender Dr. Luke, fans are asserting that the star orchestrated a recent encounter in order to enhance her public image.
A viral video has been circulating on TikTok, depicting the popstar walking down a congested street while holding a box of pizza. A young boy approaches her from behind and forcefully embraces her, OK! Magazine reported.
Perry immediately appears astonished. Upon turning around and observing a young boy, she adopts a friendly demeanor to extend a warm welcome to the admirer.
She then presented the child with her pizza and hugged him before her security guards escorted him aside.
The video was published shortly after the former "American Idol" judge took the stage at the Rio Festival in Brazil in an effort to salvage her reputation amid the failure of her album.
One critic made a comment on the video "She didn’t seem shocked, curious if it was a viral moment setup."
"Is it bad that I thought this was staged," another stated.
A third individual responded by stating, "Literally came to ask this because if I’m half naked and I feel some kid run up on me like that I’m hitting him with the pizza box tf???"
Another asked, "She’s THIS desperate??"
Other supporters granted her the benefit of the doubt, with one individual stating, "I guess this is nice of her but we should definitely be teaching young boys to not f---ing do this and I’m not sure rewarding it is helpful in that regard."
"I was all ready to think this was staged until I watched the video. She definitely looks a bit startled and freaked out until she sees it's a kid that's grabbed her," another fan stated in defense of her.
In the interim, certain users expressed their dissatisfaction with Katy's security team for permitting the young fan to approach and seize her.
“I’m sorry her security should’ve been stopped him… running up on someone like that is insane,” one tweet read. “security kinda did a bad job tho cause wdym a stranger able to get close into her? It could have gone differently,” another individual stated.
“People need to stop rushing celebrities like this is so weird and what makes you think this gonna be okay. It was actually kind of Katy to give him pizza & diffuse the situation because that would be so scary,” an additional tweet said.
Meanwhile, the new Katy Perry album "143" is expected to have a decent start on charts in the majority of countries, and it will start showing up on tallies tomorrow, Friday, September 27. One last promotional track, "I'm His He's Mine," was dropped by the singer a week before the full-length project came in anticipation of its release.
Fans are reminded of the dance-pop cut, which means the first song shared during this era is making a comeback just as that track is reaching a few rankings in the UK. "Woman's World" is back on two UK charts this time around. On one of them, the lead single even lands in the top ten again, Forbes reported.
The Official Physical Singles chart has Perry back at the top spot. Returning to the nation's chart of best-selling single songs on any physical medium, "Woman's World" now sits at number nine.
Business Times has reached out to Katy Perry for comments.
