R&B Diva and reigning sweet potato pie queen Patti LaBelle has finally acknowledged — sort of — the effect that singer James Wright's viral YouTube video has had on her Thanksgiving pie sales. As a show of her gratitude, LaBelle has invited Wright to Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving with her.
As most people who have been following the story now know, Wright recently posted a YouTube video in which he tastes Patti's pie for the very first time, and professes his love for it by breaking out into a series of her most famous songs in between, and sometimes during, bites of the dessert. Wright's antics, along with his impressive renditions of LaBelle's greatest hits, captured the attention of millions of Americans who not only made the video viral, but ran out to snag one of the now-famous pies, causing them to completely sell out at Walmart, which no longer has any in stock.
The initially lighthearted story took a turn recently, however, when LaBelle claimed in an interview that she herself was solely responsible for the pies selling out, and that while she appreciated Wright's video, the pies were already flying off the shelves before it went viral. Walmart employees who spoke out begged to differ, and the singer received a huge backlash on social media where many found her reaction ungrateful and — no pun intended — distasteful.
Now, it appears that "Love Has Finally Come at Last," to quote the singer's hit, as LaBelle has appeared to have somewhat of a change of heart. In a new interview, while the singer still insists that her pie had already been "doing really really well, my new friend did this fierce video and it took the pie over the top and people are losing their minds over the pie." She added, "He's here (in Philadelphia) now and he's spending Thanksgiving with Ms. Patti. I'm going to cook for him."
Whether LaBelle had planned to invite Wright for Thanksgiving dinner prior to the social media backlash and perhaps a subsequent talking-to by her P.R. reps isn't clear, but one thing is: As her famous hit goes, this Thanksgiving, Patti LaBelle has "tidied up her point of view," got a "New Attitude" and a lot to be thankful for.
