Nicki Minaj may not have had the year"s best celebrity Halloween costume (that title goes to LeBron James as Prince), but she"s attracting plenty of attention for her fairy godmother get-up.
Sadly, it"s for all the wrong reasons.
In a video clip that"s going viral today, a visibly intoxicated Nicki points her "magic wand" at a woman in a wheelchair and roars, "I command you to walk."
Needless to say, a lot of folks didn"t find the remark as funny as Nicki and her friends seemed to.
Nicki has been running damage control today by tweeting at Perez Hilton (one of the first to post the footage) that the woman sitting in the wheelchair was actually a makeup artist friend of hers.
"That"s NOT a disabled person and u know that. Are u that desperate for attention?" Nicki tweeted. "Bitch, u knew. That"s my friend in a scooter."
Some fans have countered that even if Nicki is telling the truth (a big "if," as based on the video, it doesn"t seem the woman was in on the joke), the clip is still offensive to people with physical disabilities.
Before she even "casts her spell," Nicki can be heard to remark, "Now, if only I could find Handi Man," a reference to the disabled superhero character played by Damon Wayans on the "90s sketch show In Living Color.
So regardless of whether the woman was someone that Nicki knew, Ms. Minaj was clearly having a laugh at the plight of people with disabilities, and she should probably be apologizing instead of justifying.
Also, Nicki, instead of being the 4 millionth celeb to indulge Perez Hilton"s trolling, maybe just take Taylor Swift"s advice from last night and let it go.
