By now you might have seen a buzzy story about Christina Aguilera regarding an interview she gave Billboard magazine. Many major media outlets reported online that in the cover story, the 31-year-old songstress explained she was "tired of being a skinny white girl," that record execs once called emergency meetings over her 15-pound weight gain, and that she recently stood up to her label, telling the powers-that-be that "you are working with a fat girl. Know it now and get over it."
Aguilera last month at the ALMA Awards. (WireImage)
The only problem with the reports? She never made any of those comments (and Billboard never claimed she did).
Aguilera's publicist confirmed to Yahoo! from omg! that none of the weight-related quotes that have been making headlines on Monday came from Aguilera. Though Billboard.com published an excerpt of her recent cover interview, it only includes statements the 31-year-old singer actually made, mostly about her upcoming album, Lotus, and her experience as a coach on the music reality competition show "The Voice." Nothing about record executives pressuring her to be thin, nothing about her declaring herself fat.
Somewhere along the line, the phony excerpt — which was reported by dozens of online outlets from Us Weekly to USA Today to E! Online to Fox News (which won the award for best headline of the day with "I'm Pudgy and Proud!") — was released into that crazy place called the World Wide Web and spread like wildfire. Since not all of the interview was published online, many outlets assumed the quotes being published on various websites must have been in the actual magazine. They weren't.
One Aguilera comment that's been circulating, regarding how Lotus, out this November, represents her resiliency, actually was made by the "What a Girl Wants" singer and actually does appear in the Billboard interview. "This album represents a celebration of the new me," she says, "and to me the lotus has always represented this unbreakable flower that withstands any harsh weather conditions in its surroundings, that withstands time and remains beautiful and strong throughout the years."
Hopefully "the new" Christina won't have to deal with others putting words in her mouth again any time soon …
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