Russell Simmons pressured Oprah to pull out of documentary about his accusers

[thereinventions]

"He did reach out multiple times and attempted to pressure me," Oprah Winfrey said of Russell Simmons. But she said her decision to back out of the documentary about his accusers was based on creative disagreements. https://t.co/iQwptXA8BA
- New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) January 17, 2020

A follow-up to this post. Sit back because it's a MESS.

Comments

[livejournal]

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[analievelyn]

for Black ppl following pages like the shaderoom, what are they saying about this mess.

Are ppl shading oprah?

Iiirc, his victims varied in race. If they were all Black, I doubt the film would be made and make it all the way to sundance tbh

Also, I feel like ppl (not russell) who bring up their daughts are so disengenous. and then some ppl who have parents that are predators (of other ppl) project onto the situation, too, which is really sad.

I am saddened she pulled out, but I think linking this info though "sources" is the least she could do.

Also, obligatory fuck br*tt ratner

[fimh]

im not black but what im seeing on those pages is a lot of MJ stans doing intense attacks against oprah. they have started going hard on her being friends with weinstein and questioning why shes not making docs on him. the mj stans are so loud it seems to drown everything else out

[justyourfaceha]

I'll never understand people sticking up for celebrities they don't know. I have my fave celebs too, but if news came out that they'd done some terrible things, I wouldn't deny it and defend them. These are just normal people with glorified jobs. Society is so odd.

[savannah_rose24]

I still want to see the film and hope it gets released.

Russell is a piece of shit who has gotten away with this abuse for far too long and it’s pathetic he is using his daughters to try and silence his victims. There are at least 11 different women accusing him.

This is also a man who at 34 was dating a 17 year old. That’s disgusting.

[tetrazzinichikn]

How do you pull out of something already made when your name was already attached to it?

[tequila]

Interesting that Ava also offered a “harsh critique” of the doc. I wonder what the issue is.

[thereinventions]

I wonder the same, because Oprah loved it first back in December then she started having second thoughts.

[frankthesheep]

Ava grew up in the hip hop scene back in the day and was in all girl hiphop trio herself and has made a hip hop doc in the past. The producers I think are white and not not have that expert knowledge. I imagine Ava wanted more nuance and less basic depiction of the hip hop scene at the time since she lived it.