As you may have heard, there’s been a little bit of confusion surrounding Cynthia Erivo’s new memoir, Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They’re Too Much.
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A few weeks after the book hit shelves in November, a Wicked superfan named Cassie on Reddit highlighted that the opening passage to Chapter 42, all about body-shaming and public scrutiny, was strikingly similar to something Ariana Grande said in a joint interview with Cynthia while promoting the first Wicked movie a year ago.
Here’s what it said in Cynthia’s book.
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And here’s the December 2024 interview in which Ariana basically says exactly the same thing after being asked about beauty standards. Skip to 4:40 for the right part!
There’s simply no denying the similarities, and as you’d expect, the lack of attribution to Ariana sparked plenty of confusion online. “Did AI write this book? A ghost writer that didn't double check sources?” the original Reddit sleuth questioned. “Is this a PR statement they both memorized?”
Well, after much speculation, we finally have some answers. Last week, Flatiron Books — an imprint of Pan Macmillan, which published Cynthia’s memoir — issued a statement explaining that “a chapter introduction, which included correct attribution [to Ariana], was inadvertently left out of the book.”
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“We have immediately updated the file to the corrected version, which will be used going forward in all formats including all future printings of the physical book,” the statement read, per the Washington Post and People. “We are deeply apologetic for this oversight and thankful that we are able to correct it.”
