Russell Simmons, 50 Cent Slam Oprah Winfrey Over #MeToo Docu
Oprah Winfrey's #MeToo documentary will air on AppleTV+ some time next year. Even before its release, however, the documentary is already sparking a lot of controversies.
AppleTV+ acquired the film which Oprah will be executive producing. The film, slated to debut at the Sundance Film Festival, is said to trace the tale of Drew Dixon, a brilliant former music executive who was torn whether to go public with her story of assault and abuse by a distinguished figure in the music industry.
The film will examine race, gender, class and intersectionality.
Drew Dixon is a former executive of Def Jam Recordings who accused Russel Simmons of raping her inside of his apartment in 1995.
On Simmons' Instagram post, he shared his sentiments about Oprah and the docu. While he shared his appreciation of Oprah, he questioned her for singling him out in the documentary.
Simmons has appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" more than five times in the past years, and the two did develop a "very close" relationship.
The 62-year-old record executive then said that he took and passed nine lie detector tests for his daughters and maintained he never had to use influence to have sex with any women.
Simmons, in 2017, took a lie detector test to show that he did not sexually assault model Keri Claussen Khalighi or even Fashion PR Maven Kelly Cutrone. Since then, many other women came forward to accuse him of either sexual assault or hasrassment.
According to an image obtained by TMZ, it showed that the rapper took the polygraph test in Los Angeles -- something which his camp insisted was administered by a national leader in the field of polygraphing.
Simmons took the tests, and it all said he was completely innocent.
"It's impossible to prove what happened 40 years ago, but in my case, proof exists of what didn't happen, mostly signed letters from their parents, siblings, roommates, band members, interns, and in the case of 2 of your three accusers, their own words in their books," Simmons furthered.
Russell added, "Still, I am here to help support a necessary shift in power and consciousness. Let's get to work on uplifting humanity and put this moment and old narrative behind."
Simmons was not the only one to slam the media mogul's project, though. Rapper and businessman 50 Cent also chimed in on the issue which he believe is unfair and racist.
50 Cent said he does not understand why Oprah is going after black men like Simmons and Michael Jackson, while keeping a blind eye on the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.
The rapper went on to name drop another relevant personality, who is also Oprah's best friend, Gayle King.
King infamously distressed singer R. Kelly in March by facing him on TV about the numerous sexual assault allegations leveled against him.
"Gayle hit R Kelly with the death blow documentary. Every time I hear Michael Jackson, I don't know whether to dance or think about the little boys' butts. These documentaries are publicly convicting their targets, and it makes them guilty until their proven innocent."