Ticket sales may dry up, albums could flop and one day the girls will probably stop screaming. But the thing you can (almost) always count on is the love of your mama.
Pattie Mallette proved that this week in a series of interviews in which she defended her son, Justin Bieber, after the 19-year-old pop star weathered the latest in a series of public mishaps that would make any parent shake their head.
In an appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens: Live,” Mallette told host Andy Cohen that she’s, “Not naïve to think that my child is perfect and making all the best decision of his life.” Asked what was the most cringe-worthy moment of her son’s life, the one that made her want to crawl under a table, Mallette joked, “there are just so many!”
The one that came to mind, though, was pretty mild. She said before Justin was a star, he was on an elevator and opened the door between floors and got stuck for three hours before being rescued. “He was scared, so he was singing in the elevator,” she said of the lift, which no one in their building could use as they waited for help to arrive.
Mallette, promoting her best-selling autobiography, “Nowhere But Up,” said, “I definitely think he’s getting a bad rap … He knows what I disagree with, and he knows all the things that I’m really proud of him for, too. I mean, people don’t talk about all the great things he does every day.”
She did not address specific bad look incidents, but instead tried to focus on the positive, noting that Justin meets with Make-A-Wish Foundation kids before every show and, according to manager Scooter Braun is on track to become the celebrity who has granted the most wishes in the foundation’s history.
Her comments came amidst the latest controversy surrounding Justin, centered on video of him urinating in a mop bucket and dissing former president Bill Clinton (who he later apologized to) and a report that he was tossed from a Chicago bar this week for being underage.
While sitting with the women of “The View” on Wednesday, Pattie noted that Bieber asked her to give him a bit of space after he turned 18, revealing that she no longer travels with him on tour. “I’m on and off the road,” she said. “I think that all parents worry about their kids … We talk, I can’t really tell you all the things that we talk about.”
Discussing the revelations in her book, which details her abuse as a child and struggles with alcohol, drugs, depression and shoplifting as a teenager, Mallette said she encourages her son to, “Stay true to who he is, to stay grounded and humble. I always encourage him [and say], ‘You’ve always had to the learn the hard way. I don’t know why you have to learn the hard way, but you’ll get there and I’ll believe in you.’ “
And, amidst her flurry of appearances this week she mostly deflected questions about whether Justin and on-and-off-again love Selena Gomez are together again in light of a widely posted July 4th poster of them together. “I know that it depends what day it is,” she said.
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