Fellow commoners, we’re being played by Queen Bey — pop music’s phony and emotionally manipulative version of Hillary Clinton.
Or is that redundant?
Beyoncé’s latest album, “Lemonade,” an opus of pain, rage and a lady’s ability to make a buck or several, premiered, complete with videos, on HBO this past Saturday.
The release was accompanied by the kind of hoopla one would expect to attend the announcement of a cure for cancer, not a soul-crushing exploration of a common affliction — manly infidelity.
The 34-year-old pop giantess has taken Jay Z’s alleged sexual indiscretion and spun it into musical gold. I’m not buying it.
It’s not the first time a woman has profited from her man’s faithlessness, alleged or otherwise.
Hillary Clinton could be Bey’s role model, another dame who paints herself as a hard-core feminist while making lemonade out of the lemons dealt to her.
Or — making chicken salad out of chicken sh-t.
The former first lady parlayed public sympathy surrounding the sexual shenanigans of her husband, ex-President Bill, into a US Senate seat from New York.
In her 2003 memoir, “Living History,’’ published while she was in office, Hillary told of the day in 1995 that Bill told her the truth about the sexual services he received from buxom former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Until that moment, Hill insists, she believed her hub’s fib that he and the toothsome creature were just pals. Right.
“I could hardly breathe,’’ Hillary writes. “Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him.’’ Finally, she realizes that she still loves the louse, but “as a wife, I wanted to wring his neck.’’
She served as secretary of state under President Obama from 2009 to 2013, and now is directing all that practiced fury into picking out curtains for the White House.
Bill’s attention-starved one-time partner in adultery, Lewinsky, 42, created a kind of demi-celebrity circle jerk, tweeting to her 115,000 followers: “hey, will someone let me know if it’s safe for me to listen to #LEMONADE?’’
Beyoncé’s version of life with Jay, 46, is even more melodramatic than Hill’s with Bill.
Her visual album drags the viewer through 11 stages of Beyoncé’s grief — intuition, denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, accountability, reformation, forgiveness, resurrection, hope and redemption. Most of us only get five stages, but we’re not nicknamed “Queen.’’
Set on the streets of New Orleans, the video starts with Bey asking a man, “Are you cheating on me?,’’ melds into whining that said man is like her own father, who was unfaithful to her mother, then going berserkers, smashing car windows with a baseball bat. I suggest that she limit her caffeine intake.
“Lemonade’’ now can only be streamed on Jay Z’s Tidal service (of which Beyoncé is part-owner), which demonstrates their collusion in this epic, primal scream. It can also be bought on iTunes and Amazon.
At the end of the 57-minute album, Beyoncé realizes that the man, shown in videos as Jay Z at the couple’s wedding and with the pair’s 4-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, is the love of her life. Sigh.
Makes you feel warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? Like watching Bill and Hillary canoodle. Yuck.
But who is Beyoncé’s rival — whom she refers to in the song “Sorry’’ as “Becky with the good hair,’’ a “Becky’’ being a white woman skilled in a sex act popularized by Lewinsky. Fashion designer Rachel Roy, whose alleged romps with Jay are rumored to be the reason Beyoncé’s younger sister, Solange Knowles, physically attacked him in an elevator after the 2014 Met Gala in New York City, encouraged speculation by posting a grinning selfie on Instagram with the caption: “Good hair don’t care…”
After making her Instagram account private, Roy released a statement to People magazine saying there’s “no validity’’ to the idea she’s Becky.
Singer Rita Ora drew cheap publicity by posting a Snapchat image of herself in a bra with lemon appliqués placed over her nipples. The Brit then tweeted, “these rumours are false.’’
Is this a ploy for publicity? Bey insiders say the phantom hussy Becky is a composite of Jay’s rumored former lovers, The Post’s Page Six reported this week. Jay is said to have become a very good husband since Blue Ivy’s 2012 birth.
Beyoncé should try running for president. She’s got the right skills.
‘Atone’ deaf at 9/11 site
I urge everyone to march to the 9/11 Memorial and sing, loudly and proudly, the national anthem. How else to punish a pair of unpatriotic security guards who shamed a group of North Carolina schoolkids?
On a visit to New York City last week, the children grew so moved at the sight of the place where nearly 3,000 people were slaughtered by Islamic butchers, they started singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.’’
Then, in an outrage caught on a parent’s video, the kids were silenced, told they needed a permit to perform.
Was this a politically correct defense of Muslim mass murderers? Or sheer stupidity? A memorial spokeswoman said that the guards screwed up and that staff will make sure this doesn’t happen again. Not good enough.
These kids deserve an apology and an invitation to return and finish the song.
Too much adieu over Prince
The great David Bowie’s death didn’t rate this level of attention. Nor did the tragic passing of Amy Winehouse, all four of the original Ramones or Glenn Frey.
Brooklyn Borough Hall was lit purple in his honor. President Obama mourned him as a “creative icon.’’ An entire episode of “Saturday Night Live” was dedicated to his performances. From New York City to Minnesota, grieving fans have held vigils.
His sudden demise last week, at age 57, drew the kind of intense news coverage normally reserved for departed presidents and royalty. But he was just a man named Prince. He was talented. He is missed. But this is too much.
Predicting his deMise
News item: City Hall, including three of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s closest political allies, plus consultants, firms and the New York City teachers union, have all been subpoenaed by federal and Manhattan prosecutors investigating the mayor’s fundraising activities.
More: The mayor himself has not been slapped personally with a subpoena.
My prediction: Hizzoner is toast.
Brides are terror-fied
“ISIS offers marriage counseling to stop jihadi brides from fleeing.’’
So reads a headline from a story out of Britain’s Sun newspaper.
I guess talking it out with one’s terrorist hubby beats being beheaded, stoned to death or burned at the stake.