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Chris Brown deserved a lot of the criticism he received for what he did to Rihanna two years ago, but people are just itching to jump on him for anything.

First there was the twisted “mishap” remark. Now it’s a story and photo of the R&B star driving and smoking that caused an uproar in the last few days.

The short version is that celebrity news and photo agency X17 Online implied Brown was smoking a marijuana joint while driving. That would be bad.

Too bad (for the haters) that it wasn’t true.

Chris Brown in 2021
(Getty)

Brown’s rep, in no uncertain terms, flatly squashed the site’s report and clarified the singer’s actions. Soon enough, the photo in question was taken down.

“The report made by X17 Online on March 14, 2011, headlining ‘Is Chris Brown Half-Baked Behind The Wheel?’ is false,” his rep exclusively told E! News.

“The picture shows Chris Brown with a Davidoff mini natural pack mild cigarillo. The same cigar he held in the photo of his In My Zone mixtape CD cover.”

There you go. A legal substance (as was the salvia being smoked in the Miley Cyrus bong video) and another false bit of Chris Brown gossip debunked.