'Sorry' may be best kept private

Save your "sorry" for your man, Kristen Stewart. You don't owe us a thing.

In fact, celebrities need to pull the plug on the politically correct apology. In July alone, we heard at least four famous regrets, but none more talked about than Stewart's public cry for forgiveness. The 22-year-old star was caught cheating on her boyfriend and "Twilight" co-star, Robert Pattinson, with Rupert Sanders, the 42-year-old married director of "Snow White and the Huntsman."

When the news hit the Internet last week, it quickly dominated chatter. Stewart's apology was swift.

In a statement to People magazine she said, "I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I've caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected. This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."

It sounds like the weeping regrets of a little girl. It feels genuine and not much like the well-crafted work of a publicist that has become the norm in celeb scandals. But here's the thing: It's unnecessary.

Cheating is wrong. She made bad decisions. But Stewart isn't a politician. She isn't a pastor or a public official. She isn't even married. Her pleading belongs to the people directly involved in this disaster. Period.

Ill-advised joke

Somewhere along the line, we started making the famous feel as though they have to apologize. So much so that they are willing to do it even if it's unwarranted or even worse, insincere. An apology from the latter category happened last week. The tacky tweet of Olympic athlete Paraskevi Papachristou fell in the shadows of this K-Pat drama.

"With so many Africans in Greece, the mosquitoes from the West Nile will at least be eating some homemade food," the triple jumper wrote on Twitter. She was expelled from Greece's Olympic team. And then came the Facebook apology.

"I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account," she wrote on Facebook.

Naturally, she expected to get back on the team. She apologized. That makes it all right, right? Wrong. If she understood how bad it was to say such a thing, she would understand her punishment. Instead, she's mad.

"After so many years of hurt and sacrifices to try and get to my first Olympics, I am very bitter and upset," she told Reuters. "But what has upset me the most is the excessive reaction and speed of the disciplinary decision."

Not a Band-Aid

When will people understand that "I'm sorry" is not a Band-Aid? You shouldn't just move on the way comedian Daniel Tosh did after making light of rape at a comedy show. He tweeted a cynical apology. Sadly, sometimes this works. People on both sides eagerly take the easy way out.

Last month, rapper Meek Mill was the center of a boycott. "Amen," his club anthem with Drake, mixes words like "amen," "church" and "preach" to celebrate loose women and partying. A Philadelphia pastor, the Rev. Jomo K. Johnson, called for a Meek Mill ban. But as soon as he appeared on BET's "106 and Park" and sort of apologized, things changed.

"And if anybody feel disrespected, I ain't do it in that way and I ain't drop the song with bad intentions. I did it just because it was a good feeling ... so I said, 'Amen, church.' "

The lyrics didn't change. In fact, it became more of a hit. But Johnson called the boycott off. He got what he came for. It was that easy.

And that's the problem with politically correct apologies. They're sorry.