Singers and married couple Natalia Kills and Willy Moon have both been fired from The X Factor New Zealand, following their harsh criticism of a contestant following his performance on the show over the weekend.
Following contestant Joe Irvine's rendition of Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River," Kills pulled no punches. In a critique widely seen as humiliating and bullying Irvine, she said it was a "disgusting" performance, and "absolutely artistically atrocious." She seemed particularly incensed by what she described as Irvine's copying her husband Moon's style (he wore a suit, and slicked back his hair, no really; this was likely also at the show's stylists' request) and asked "do you not have any value or respect for originality?"
"You're a laughing stock—it's cheesy," she continued, adding also that Irvine "makes her sick."
Jumping in on things, Moon also compared him to Pyscho killer Norman Bates. "I feel like you're going to stitch someone's skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience," he said, and I mean, whoa, it's just Justin. It was legit uncomfortable:
Following an understandable backlash and many a petition to have them both fired, the show's production company, MediaWorks, did just that. In a statement, the company's chief executive described the pair's comments as "unacceptable" and confirmed their firing, "effective immediately."
"Last night on X Factor both Kills and Moon made comments that were completely unacceptable," chief executive Mark Weldon explained. "While the judges on X Factor are expected to provide critiques of the performances, we will not tolerate such destructive tirades from any of the judges."
Kills' only public comment since the furor has been with a single tweet.
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