It was a bad weekend for two great ladies of music — Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand — offering up controversial opinions on the latest child molestation allegations made against Michael Jackson in the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.”
Streisand later clarified and expressed “deep remorse” for statements she made in an interview with the Times of London, Vanity Fair reported. Among her most cringeworthy comments, Streisand said the alleged molestation “didn’t kill” Wade Robson and James Safechuck, Jackson’s accusers in “Leaving Neverland.” In suggesting that the molestation didn’t cause the now adult men lasting psychological damage, Streisand also seemed to excuse the “sexual needs” that allegedly drove Jackson to bring young boys into his orbit and abuse them.
In her followup statements, including on Instagram, Streisand said she was sorry she didn’t choose her words “more carefully,” because she wanted people to know she would never condone childhood sexual abuse. She also insisted she believes Robson and Safechuck and sympathizes with their ongoing pain.
“To be crystal clear, there is no situation or circumstance where it is OK for the innocence of children to be taken advantage of by anyone,” she said in her statement, which she issued after being blasted on social media. “The stories these two young men shared were painful to hear, and I feel nothing but sympathy for them.”
But no such mea culpa has come from Ross, who took to Twitter on Saturday to defend Jackson as “a magnificent incredible force to me and to many others.”
Ross didn’t address the allegations directly. In her oblique way, she also seemed to want the world to return to a time, more than a quarter century ago, before her longtime friend and collaborator was first accused by a total of five males of bringing them into his bed when they were children and sexually assaulting them.
Ross said that “in the name of love,” people must stop thinking bad things about Jackson and accusing him of wrongdoing.
This is what’s on my heart this morning. I believe and trust that Michael Jackson was and is A magnificent incredible force to me and to many others.
STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE— Ms. Ross (@DianaRoss) March 23, 2019
Certainly, die-hard fans of Jackson, who have accused “Leaving Neverland” of offering a defamatory, one-sided view of the singer, praised Ross for defending him. They said they trust that Ross, as Jackson’s friend, would truly know whether the allegations against him are true.
Thank you Miss Ross for always having his back! ❤️❤️❤️#Legends #MichaelJackson #DianaRoss pic.twitter.com/a5otUmGlgX
— Shannon Jackson (@mjs2frontcurls) March 23, 2019
But others took to Twitter to offer both thoughtful and blistering criticism of Ross for turning a blind eye to alleged abuses perpetrated by Jackson, even if he was her good friend and a musical genius.
“Diana, a person could still do brilliant things and be an awful or sick person,” wrote Hollywood publicist Danny Delaney. “Just because he was your friend, a friend who settled with one accuser, doesn’t mean you are right. Stop living in REFLECTIONS and turn the other way. These men have everything to lose.”
Scottish politician James Dornan added: “You’re aff yer heed. He’s a paedophile who should have been imprisoned a long time before he died. Would you have been tweeting this if he’d been a plumber…oh sorry you’d have had no idea who he was then would you?”
“I’ve always loved & respected you,” wrote author Emily Filmore. “You realize a person can simultaneously B 2 things at once? He can have been the person you knew&loved & a dangerous, abusing, pedophile too? They hide in plain sight. Fact:people of your generation protect abusers=why we are where we are.”
No Diana, just no. Just because you knew and liked someone doesn’t mean they’re innocent. You saw him with those boys and never thought it was strange for an adult to not have friends his age? One of the boys was 7 when the grooming and abuse started! What’s wrong with you?
— Vote Dem for the Planet (@Brasilmagic) March 23, 2019
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/25/for-diana-ross-love-means-never-thinking-bad-things-about-michael-jackson/
2019-03-25 15:51:00Z
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