A satire story claiming a shirtless, almost pants-less, Justin Bieber was smacked around by L.A.Clippers star Blake Griffin during an argument at a West Hollywood Starbucks Monday morning before stumbling out crying — is in fact bogus.
The reason? Bieber is currently in Atlanta and will be for some time.
Despite the fact that the story was labeled as “news satire” at Empire Sports , a number of sports blogs and other outlets picked it up and ran it as genuine.
The satire followed seemingly typical tropes of a Bieber misadventure.
It was claimed police were called out to a Starbucks in West Hollywood after an incident that supposedly began with a barista refusing to serve the shirtless pop star.
Joey Goldsmtih, the fictional barista, claimed Justin swaggered in “with no shirt on and his pants hanging down and underwear showing and tried to order a caramel apple machiatto.”
In a recap of the fictional police report, the barista told officers, “I just told him he would have to put a shirt on if he wanted to order.”
The fictional Bieber snapped at this point, fictionally screamed and yelled at the barista, then told his fictional bodyguard to, “kick his ass.”
It was this point that Griffin – also at the Starbucks – stepped up to try to calm the fictional situation down.
When that failed Griffin smacked Bieber, knocking him to the fictional floor.
“He smacked the s**t out of him” said one witness, “then I saw Justin stumble out of the door looking like he was crying.”
The cherry on the cake of the Bieber-Barista-Blake satire? The fictional superstar made off before police arrived at the scene.
Gossip Cop reports a source close to the singer said the rumor is “made up,” and confirmed “Justin has not returned to Los Angeles [for weeks].”
(Photo: Bizzle and Tip)
As we previously reported , Bieber is thought to have decamped to Atlanta for a month or so to record new music.
He was spotted out with new girlfriend du jour Chantel Jeffries – who rode shotgun with the teen singer just before he was arrested in Miami Beach for a suspected DUI – at Atlanta’s Vanquish Lounge last Wednesday partying with rap royalty “Diddy,” Jermaine Dupri, T.I, Rick Ross and Wale, among others.
The 19-year-old — who now goes by the name ‘Bizzle’ on Instagram and his invested-in photo app “Shots Of Me” — recently posted a snap of himself captioned, “In the studio with T.I.”
Bizzle and Tip’s pair-up marks a familiar pattern for the singer. Bieber worked with Chance The Rapper, Big Sean, and Lil Wayne on his Journals album and has recently been in the studio with Kid Cudi and T-Pain.
We’ll be keeping an ear out for the new sounds Bizzle .
(Photo: Bieber with T.I and the rapper’s children.)