R Kelly, Michael Jackson and Bryan Singer. Who knew? Everyone

Given the entertainment industry prefers simple messages, forcefully packaged, there’s an inconvenient irony to the latest Michael Jackson documentary landing just as Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody continues its grimly disingenuous awards run...

...Last week, the Atlantic published a lengthy investigation, relying on more than 50 sources, alleging the X-Men director’s predatory and abusive behaviour – including rape –towards young men and underage boys. Many of the teenagers were vulnerable and without family support. The magazine builds a powerful case that friends, associates and ultimately his industry aided and abetted Singer.

Yet Avi Lerner, whose Millennium Films is the studio producing Red Sonja, this week dismissed it as “fake news”. He added that, “the over $800m Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed, making it the highest grossing drama in film history, is testament to [Singer’s] remarkable vision and acumen”. Well. Avi’s hardly the first person to wonder: “How can anyone be bad when he makes so much money?” But he might be the first to say it out loud.

And so to Jackson, whose wingnut fans believe is currently riding the great ferris wheel in the sky, while his detractors hope he’s strapped to a flaming wheel in Tartarus instead. For those of us who idealise earthly justice, alas, the Leaving Neverland documentary that premiered at the Sundance festival last weekend is likely to be just another piece in a jigsaw whose picture should have been clear decades ago to all but the wilfully blind. Just as there were with R Kelly, unfortunately, there are whole kingdoms-worth of the wilfully blind.

UPI---- Lady Gaga's 2013 single "Do What U Want (With My Body)" featuring R. Kelly has been removed from music streaming services.

Gaga promised on Twitter Wednesday that the track would be removed in response to the multiple sexual assault allegations that Kelly is facing. Official music videos for "Do What U Want (With My Body)" were also removed from YouTube, however, a video of Gaga and Kelly performing the song at the American Music Awards remains. (Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...

=============================

TIMELINE OF ALLEGATIONS AGAINST KELLY (but Gaga n-e-v-e-r knew about it)
SOURCE /www.thecut.com/2018/04/r-kelly-sexual-assault-allegations-cult-timeline.html

August 31, 1994: 27-year-old Kelly marries 15-year-old Aaliyah----While Aaliyah’s age is listed as 18 on the falsified marriage certificate, she is underage when she secretly marries the R&B singer at a Sheraton Gateway Suites in Chicago. Neither person ever admits to being married, and just months after the ceremony, the marriage is annulled.

December 2000: The Chicago Sun-Times publishes first major investigation into Kelly’s alleged sex crimes In December 1996, Kelly is sued by an aspiring singer named Tiffany Hawkins, who alleges that he “engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct” with her when she was 15 and he was 24. The R&B singer claims that Hawkins was spreading “false allegations,” after which he countersues her, but he later settles the initial lawsuit for an undisclosed amount of money. This investigation is first reported by Jim DeRogatis, who has doggedly investigated Kelly’s alleged behavior for decades.

January 2001: DeRogatis receives first Kelly sex tape from an anonymous source ----Because editors at the Sun-Times worry that the woman in the video could be underage, they turn the tape over to Chicago police. DeRogatis later receives another sex tape of the singer having sex with a girl who is alleged to be 14, after which Kelly is indicted on multiple child-pornography charges. In 2008, Kelly is found not guilty on all counts. Get unlimited access to The Cut and everything else New York.

August 2001: Tracy Sampson sues Kelly for allegedly having sex with her when she was 17----In the lawsuit, obtained by Chicago public radio station WBEZ, the woman claims, “I was coerced into receiving oral sex from a girl I did not want to have sex with. I was often treated as his personal sex object and cast aside. He would tell me to come to his studio and have sex with him, then tell me to go. He often tried to control every aspect of my life including who I would see and where I would go.” Kelly reached an undisclosed deal with Sampson in March 2002.

April 29, 2002: Patrice Jones sues Kelly---Jones, who says she first had sex with Kelly when she was 16, claims he also coerced her into having an abortion. While MTV reports that Kelly’s lawyers planned to fight this case in court, the singer later settles out of court.

May 24, 2002: Montina Woods Sues Kelly---The third lawsuit comes from Woods, an adult dancer who claims that Kelly taped her during sex without her consent. Kelly again settles for an undisclosed amount, and Woods signs a nondisclosure agreement.

July 17, 2017: BuzzFeed publishes explosive investigation about Kelly’s alleged sex cult---In a horrifying BuzzFeed report from DeRogatis, the reporter who broke the story on R. Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse of underage women nearly 20 years earlier, the singer is accused of running a sex cult that preys on young black women. The investigation focuses on two women who are allegedly being held at Kelly’s rental properties — a 19-year-old from Georgia and an 18-year-old from Florida who was 17 when she met Kelly — whom he allegedly submits to emotional abuse. According to the report, this includes “dictating what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records.”

In a later report on Jezebel from reporter Anna Merlan, a woman who was once in Kelly’s inner circle describes seeing the sex cult as “witnessing Stockholm syndrome.” Another woman, Jerhonda Pace, breaks her NDA to speak about having sex with Kelly while she was underage, following DeRogatis’s reports.

October 23, 2017: Kitti Jones speaks out about alleged abuse In a report for Rolling Stone, Kitti Jones details the alleged physical and emotional abuse she suffered while they were in a relationship together. According to the report, Kelly starved her, coerced her into sexual encounters with women, physically abused her, and constantly monitored her.

April 16, 2018: Woman accuses Kelly of intentionally giving her an STD----In a criminal complaint filed April 9, an anonymous woman and her lawyer told Dallas police that the accuser was “victim of several forms of criminal misconduct by Kelly, including, but not limited to, unlawful restraint, furnishing alcohol and illegal drugs to a minor, and aggravated assault.” The woman reportedly had a relationship with Kelly when she was 19, when she was allegedly being trained to be in his cult.

May 4, 2018: Two more women speak out in BuzzFeed News report----Two new women speak of alleged brainwashing and underage sexual abuse at the hands of R. Kelly to DeRogatis and reporter Melissa Carroll.

===================================

LADY GAGA AT HER PHONIEST---WHAT HER AGENT TOLD HER TO SAY B/C THEY'RE SCARED STIFF HER CAREER'S GONNA NOSE DIVE:
"I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering an in pain, and feel strongly that their voices should be heard and taken seriously.
What I am hearing about the allegations against R. Kelly--singing partner in my mega-bucks song, "Do What You Want With My Body." is absolutely horrifying and indefensible. I'm sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner. I love you."

Gaga and Kelly.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.