The Weeknd is clearly upset with a Rolling Stone article stating his new TV series is in ‘turmoil,’ but his decision to criticise the magazine on social media has landed him in hot water.
Last week, the magazine published an article about Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s next project, HBO’s The Idol, which he also co-created and stars Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye.
Tedros (The Weeknd), a self-help guru and modern-day cult leader, has a tumultuous relationship with rising pop superstar Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp).
However, the article stated that the project was in ‘turmoil’ due to multiple script changes, the departure of director Amy Seimetz after the majority of the series had already been completed, and Levinson taking over and scrapping the ‘nearly-finished’ $54-75 (£45-62) million project to rewrite and reshoot the entire thing.
According to sources, Levinson ‘dialled up the unpleasant sexual material and nudity’ when he took control.
Nevertheless The Weeknd was also under the limelight for decisions he reportedly made on set, which were claimed to have him wanting to eliminate the ‘feminist lens’ of the programme.
‘It was like the Weeknd wanted one show that was all about him – Sam was on board with that,’ one source said.
One guy even went so far to characterise what was occurring as a ‘s***show’.
Obviously dissatisfied with the outcome, The Weeknd retaliated on Twitter, revealing a clip from the concert in which he criticises Rolling Stone.
In the video, a character played by Dan Levy pitches Tedros and Jocelyn a photo shoot for the cover of the magazine.
‘Rolling Stone? Aren’t they a little irrelevant?’ Tedros asks.
Meanwhile Jocelyn steps in and thinks it ‘may be past its prime’.
‘Rolling Stone has 6 million followers on Instagram, half of them probably bots,’ Tedros adds.
‘And Jocelyn has 78 million followers, all real I’d assume. So she does a photo shoot, she tags them, they get her followers. More money for Rolling Stone, nothing for Jocelyn.’
The artist was clearly irritated by the initial piece, captioning the video ‘Did we disturb you?’ and tagging the magazine.
Despite the clapback, many of those who responded questioned his approach.
‘This is such a bad look (and I’m not talking about the excellent reporting from Rolling Stone),’ one person posted on the thread.
Another added: ‘[I] have many questions for the team of people who told you this was the way you should respond.’
Rolling Stone, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned, with editor in chief Noah Shachtman responding ‘not at all’ to the tweet and posting photographs of former covers of the artist on the magazine.
While HBO has published three teaser trailers for The Idol, which is slated to be released this year, no release date has been revealed.
Source My Celebrity Life.