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1 year ago
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After Tom Sandoval made a crude comment about Ariana Madix on the Vanderpump Rules reunion, she promptly turned it into a T-shirt.
You know what they say — when life gives you lemons, make merch! Well, at least that's what a lot of celebrities say these days. Because unlike us regular people, all eyes are on celeb drama. Here are some of the times celebs used their own drama or backlash to make merch, ranging from iconic responses ultimately helping others or really making a statement to hilariously petty situations and everything in between:
1. Earlier this month, Keke Palmer was publicly mom-shamed by her boyfriend Darius Jackson for the outfit she wore to an Usher concert. Days after everything went down, Keke opened up on Instagram about how her son Leo "empowered her" and captioned the post, “One thing is certain and one thing is true, I'M A MOTHA, through and through!”
Rebecca Sapp / Getty Images for The Recording Academy
In the caption, she also revealed she had created merch that said "I'm a Motha" and "Stevie to the Bullshit" — a reference to one of Keke's podcast episodes that featured Darius.
2. Maren Morris was called a "Lunatic Country Music Person" on Tucker Carlson's show after she spoke out against Jason Aldean's wife Brittany making an anti-trans comment.
Maren quickly started selling shirts that said "Lunatic Country Music Person" and raised over $150k for trans nonprofits in just about 15 hours.
3. In 2016, after Kim Kardashian and Kanye West "exposed" Taylor Swift by leaking their private phone call, Kim posted snake emojis on "National Snake Day" in reference to Taylor — and Taylor's Instagram was quickly flooded with snakes in the comments.
Christopher Polk / Getty Images
Of course, as part of her comeback and Reputation album release, the snake became an integral part of Taylor's marketing — and she even released several snake-themed objects as merch, including this popular snake ring.
4. For weeks, everyone was talking about all the drama that went down between Vanderpump Rules stars Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval after Tom was exposed for cheating on Ariana with her former friend Raquel Leviss. The drama certainly escalated during the show's reunion episode when Tom made a crude comment about Ariana wearing a shirt during sex.
Bravo / Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images
In response to Tom's comment, Ariana went straight to work on a shirt that simply read: "Fuck Me in This T-Shirt" in order to help fund her business venture, a West Hollywood sandwich shop.
5. And speaking of the Scandoval drama, Lala Kent also had some merch come out of it. When news of the incriminating video first surfaced, Raquel's attorney directly threatened her cast mates who might have a copy of it. Lala posted a now-deleted TikTok video telling Raquel that any such correspondence should go through her own lawyer, Darrell. AKA, "Send it to Darrell."
And lo and behold, after the soundbite went super viral, Lala released some "Send it to Darrell" merch herself:
6. In 2021, Kacey Musgraves had a brilliant idea when Texas senator Ted Cruz faced public outrage for taking a family vacation to Cancún while millions of Texans endured awful conditions from a winter storm — and while this isn't personal drama, it's iconic nonetheless.
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic
The Texas native started selling merch trolling Cruz in order to raise money for Texas charities! The shirt read "Cruzin' for a Bruisin'":
7. And speaking of politics, while of course, he's not a "celebrity" in the traditional sense, President Joe Biden released a line of "Dark Brandon" merch after the right wing meme was reclaimed by Biden supporters.
Joe Biden / Via shop.joebiden.com
The proceeds from the shirt go directly toward the Biden Victory Fund.
In an iconic move, Beyoncé sold "Boycott Beyoncé" shirts at her Formation World Tour.
9. TikToker Mads Lewis had some relationship drama with fellow TikTokers Nessa Barrett and Jaden Hossler — basically, Jaden cheated on Mads with Nessa, leading to a major feud. Mads ended up going on the Call Her Daddy podcast, and a clip of her interview became viral with soundbites like "So there's more drama" and "I found out this morning..."
Once the soundbite went viral, Mads revealed that she was releasing a merch line with those slogans on it.
10. And yet again, we have some Bravolebrity merch drama. This time? Melissa Gorga and Teresa Giudice from The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Of course, the feud between the sisters-in-law is longstanding, and things have escalated so much that Andy Cohen has said he's scared for his own safety. During the show's reunion last month, Melissa said to Teresa, "I know you hate me, but just try to control yourself" while applying lip gloss.
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11. Finally, during Season 14 of Real Housewives of Atlanta, Marlo Hampton and Kandi Burruss got in an argument where Marlo ultimately said that Kandi was only famous in Atlanta. This led to Kandi's epic comeback, "Bitch, I'm worldwide."
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