After the wedding festivities of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, The New York Times’ The Cut released an article with the title “Is Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ Love for Real?” The author and comedian Mariah Smith called the bride a “global scam artist” and that she essentially tricked her husband-to-be into marriage—for her own financial benefit.
The article got a huge backlash from social media including Priyanka’s brother-in-law Joe Jonas and his fiancée Sophie Turner. The two tweeted on the issue separately.
https://twitter.com/SophieT/status/1070312563710160897
This is disgusting. @TheCut should be ashamed to have someone write such evil words. What Nick & Pri have is Beautiful Love. Thank u, Next. https://t.co/G3hvXmhm9O
— J O E J O N A S (@joejonas) December 5, 2018
“That’s right: Nicholas Jonas married into a fraudulent relationship against his will this past Sunday, Dec. 1, and I’ll tell you why I think so,” Mariah wrote. “All Nick wanted was a possible fling with Hollywood’s latest It Woman, but instead he wound up staring straight at a life sentence with a global scam artist.”
Later on, the lines were removed from the article and was eventually taken down from the website. You’ll now be redirected to an editor’s note that reads, “Upon further editorial review, we found the story did not meet our standards. We’ve removed it and apologize.”
“While it appeared to be at least slightly satirical, [Mariah] Smith posited that Chopra, who is 10 years older than her husband, had been vetting various candidates for marriage,” said the Insider. Based on the article that was taken down, Mariah also said that Priyanka’s lavish lifestyle was the reason they took in sponsorships for the wedding—brands like Amazon, Tiffany & Co, Ralph Lauren, and more were part of the festivities.
Readers thought that the article was offensive.
https://twitter.com/shutupjaya/status/1070193268246413312
This ‘article’ belongs in the bin. Let her live. She’s successful and she owns it, don’t be such a bitter Betty.
— Aisha (@rabbyxB) December 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/BeeBabs/status/1070160686142156801
https://twitter.com/M_Karimjee/status/1070204536516694016
Totes confused by this piece calling Priyanka Chopra a "global scam artist". Is the problem her lavish living (which tbf is routine celeb behavior/spending) or the fact that it's a brown Indian woman successfully monetizing her life? https://t.co/7FT7FcOzer
— Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) December 5, 2018
TV Guide’s features editor Krutika Mallika pointed out that it was based on the lack of understanding of a Hindu wedding.
truly wild to read a story on @TheCut that vilifies a brown foreign woman for coming in here and snatching up all of america's good whites
— discourse wallah (@krutika) December 5, 2018
Vanity Fair’s TV critic Sonia Saraiya also questioned if the piece was satirical.
https://twitter.com/soniasaraiya/status/1070207336218804229
There’s a lot to be learned from this—from cultural appropriation to how we should be producing content.
Not saying the writers are blameless here! But as a writer, I have had plenty of misguided, poorly formed ideas that thankfully never got published because I had good editors. It's an editor's responsibility to say "that doesn't track" or "hey, that's offensive." Do better.
— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) December 5, 2018
[Insider and The Washington Post]
Photo courtesy of Priyanka Chopra’s Instagram account
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