While pop singer Sabrina Carpenter may have pulled off perhaps her biggest performance at Madison Square Garden in 2024, it is, in fact, her quick-witted comment about the indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams that set tongues rolling among fans and the media alike.
“Should we talk about how I got the mayor indicted?”
Carpenter joked in the concert. what is an ironic allusion to a chain of events linking her 2023 music video “Feather” to an investigation into the administration of Mayor Adams.
— lara (@gotublocked) September 30, 2024
But how did a pop music video find its way to the center of a political scandal? The whole thing began with the music video of Carpenter for “Feather,” shot in a Catholic church in Brooklyn. Because of its controversial content, it lifted eyebrows, but an aftermath really stirred the hornet’s nest. Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello was the priest who allowed the shoot; he was demoted for allowing the video to be filmed on such a hallowed ground. Then, months later, the story started to take a strange turn of events.
Federal investigators probing possible corruption in connection with Adams’s former chief of staff, Frank Carone, also subpoenaed records from the same church. That was part of a larger probe of Mayor Adams’s administration suspected of accepting illegal campaign contributions and other benefits. Only the church was part of this investigation for no other reason than it’s where Carpenter filmed her video.
Of course, the Church would have had nothing to do with the content of the video or Carpenter herself. Other than a ‘humorous comment’ at her concert, Carpenter has nothing to do with the case. There is simply no aspect regarding her in relation to the Mayor Adams involvement in this investigation. It eschews these for the more pertinent issue: accusations of wrongdoing against Adams, such as expensive gifts and political donations in exchange for special consideration.
The charges against Adams, who pleaded not guilty, are being fought by his lawyers, characterized as “vague” and not amounting to the threshold of federal charges that were necessary. The off-cuff joke by Carpenter just showed how easily the rumors spread surrounded the high-profile characters involved in the same story. The combination of a pop star, a Catholic church, and a corruption investigation creates a juicy storyline, even if the actual links are thin. In today’s frenetic media climate, tenuous coincidences can quickly snowball in the most outlandish speculation.
It’s guilt by association, pure and simple, with one critical difference: There is simply no connection between Carpenter and the legal troubles dogging Mayor Adams. The investigation into Mayor Adams is serious, involving allegations of corruption within his administration. Still, the most important thing is to separate fact from fiction. While the church Carpenter used in her music video is now involved in a federal investigation, that has more to do with who allowed the shoot than anything Carpenter did. Her humorous take on the situation shows not every headline tells the whole story.
In an age of rumors building upon themselves, Carpenter’s case assumes a different form, essentially reminding people that sometimes a joke is just a joke—and a music video is just a music video.
