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Ellen DeGeneres Defends Justin Bieber But Everyone Really Just Needs To Calm Down

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 15:57 PST, Jun 13, 2016

For some reason, Ellen DeGeneres has weighed in on the subject of Justin Bieber. Because the subject of Justin Bieber apparently needs Ellen DeGeneres weighing in right now.

The worlds of celebrity and media have decided that Justin Bieber is hurtling towards a breakdown and needs a time-out of the public eye. The latest reason? A ferocious, one-sided fight in Cleveland, Ohio, last week between the superstar and an unidentified, 6′ 5″ man the media is calling a fan, but who is very obviously not a fan.

Media outlets are reporting entirely different versions of what sparked the fight, which indicates not one of them actually knows what happened. Even before the brawl, the rumor mill has been determined to describe everything and anything Bieber does as “bizarre” or “strange, to further the breakdown narrative.

Hence, the press overkill when the 22-year-old singer went for a barefoot stroll around a Boston park and streets, fed a squirrel, and sat in a tree doing stretches in May. While that likely sounds like a great day out to most, when Justin Bieber did these things — he was deemed one stop away from Crazytown. Throw in the “Sorry” superstar’s recent “No Photos” policy after encounters with invasive fans, and the fist fight, the media’s salivating for a Bieber-breakdown is audible.

DeGeneres offered her take on Justin during a recent interview with ET Canada while promoting her new movie Finding Dory.

“I love him so much,” the comedienne gushed. “He’s so talented, and he’s so famous. That’s a really tough situation to be in.”

DeGeneres also said she thought Bieber’s youth has ill-equipped him to deal with the pressures of superstardom.

“Imagine having that much power, that much money, [and] that much fame when you’re that young,” she mused. “He didn’t have a lot of guidance around him.”

The talk show host added that she thinks the Biebs should duck out of the spotlight for a while to relax.

“I hope that he goes away a little while just to kind of calm down,” she shared. “Because I hate to see that people judge him for what’s happening. He’s too young. It’s not his fault.”

To this writer, the media’s escalating Bieber-breakdown narrative is self-serving. The press has been anticipating this possibility since March 2013, widely seen as the start of “The Difficult Years.” Then, in 2015, Bieber staged an incredible comeback with the release of his acclaimed Purpose album, and that chatter went away for a bit.

The volume crept back up in March when Bieber announced he was pulling out of his scheduled tour meet-and-greets because they left him “feeling so drained and filled with so much of other people’s spiritual energy that I end up so drained and unhappy.

His Instagram statement continued, “I want to make people smile and happy but not at my expense. I always leave feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted to the point of depression.”

Fast forward to last Wednesday (June 8). Bieber was in Cleveland for Game 3 of the NBA finals with friends. Some time after the game, the singer arrived back at his hotel around 11 p.m. It’s unclear how the fight started. Other video footage appears to show the Biebs walking in the same group as the man who would subsequently attack him.

Based on video footage, the first blow came from the unidentified man who slapped Bieber’s head. Justin swung back with a right punch to the man’s face before stumbling and falling to the ground under the weight of the huge adversary coming at him.

TMZ subsequently reported the fight started when Cleveland local, Lamont Richmond, asked the singer if his two female friends could have an autograph and take a picture with him.

Richmond alleged the Biebs replied “No autographs tonight, motherf****r.” And that’s apparently when the scuffle kicked off.

On Thursday, Richmond posted a bizarre Facebook video, in which he claimed Bieber “ran up on him.” However, his account completely contradicts what is shown on the footage. The clip shows the unnamed man struck Bieber first. Which means the Biebs fought back in self-defense. Richmond later deleted his Facebook video.

A day later, Richmond posted a statement on Facebook saying he had lied about his involvement and wasn’t the man seen in the video fighting Bieber. He also said he had lost his job as a result of his deception and received death threats from Beliebers.

Capping the ludicrousness. The picture below clearly shows Bieber taking a picture with one of the unidentified man’s female friends. Therefore, the premise that the singer refused to take photos is categorically false.

Lastly, and it’s shocking that this even needs to be said, but it’s completely obvious when looking at the slowed-down footage of the fight that Richmond and the unidentified man are two different people.

Bieber subsequently poked fun at the much-talked about fight when he posted an Instagram video, in which he declares, “fighting’s not good.” As for whether or not he is on a fast track to a breakdown? Only time will tell.

[Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images]

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