In case you were wondering last week how the man who accused the voice of Elmo, Kevin Clash, from having sex with the man when he was underage to suddenly recanting the story and saying he was legal, there was the matter of $125,000 being passed between the two. The next thing you know, there is a public retraction and everyone can love Elmo again. According to
TMZ though, the man who accused Elmo says he was pressured to sign and that he didn't want to sign and that he really was 16 when Elmo had sex with him. The man, who is now 23 says he will give back the $125,000 to be able to say what really happened. Please don't let Grover be involved in this.
Oh my god, just make up your fucking mind already.
ReplyDeleteYep. Sure. Whatever. Couldn't care less anymore.
ReplyDeleteI'll never look at a Tickle Me Elmo the same way again. This kid just can't keep his story straight.
ReplyDeleteThe idiot JUST realized that he could make a HELLUVA lot more with the talk show circuit, a book, tour and a life time movie.
ReplyDeleteGuess he decided 125k wasn't enough.
ReplyDeleteI abhor the he said/s/he said nature of rape & molestation accusations. It's become a go-to for so many disenfranchised youth who want money and attention. It sets back the stories of real survivors. The accuser has no validity after he accepted the money. Perhaps someone told him he should've held out for more and he's being greedy. And I don't believe a payoff automatically signals guilt in these cases.
ReplyDeleteI tend to believe the accusers who risk their own reputations to expose someone else. Even if the person is anonymous, everyone close to these men still know who is making the accusations. Still, I have problems believing that Kevin Clash could be so skeevy.
ReplyDeleteHe hired a hooker, didn't know he was 16, kid is a low life, been arrested for stealing, etc..realizes the elmo guy who fucked him is rich - his lawyers dropped him because they realized he was trying to extort money. took 200k then realized he could make more by selling/telling his story.
ReplyDeleteUh, brah? You are a grown man who is flip flopping a bit too much to be taken as seriously as you need to in a situation like this. Once you take money and sign an agreement, backing out of it is shady at best. The argument can easily be made that you decided you didn't get enough money so threatened to back out until you got more. Similar situation to how going after someone civilly before criminally can make it impossible to have a criminal trial. There is an order to these things. I feel for this guy but at this point he's doing more harm than good to himself and his signed statement would instantly be put into evidence if he wanted to actually do anything regarding legality.
ReplyDeleteTmz is horrible. The Smoking Gun found that the accusers attorneys dropped him before any settlement discussion. TMZ has not addressed this, but had no problem publicizing the fact that the accuser had obtained the same attorneys as the victims of Jerry Sandusky. By not printing the fact that these same attorneys dropped this client, it seems that they are on a witch hunt to destroy Kevin Clash for a story. I actually sent in a complaint abt this. We all know they pay for gossip and it seems this guy just wants more $$.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, when attorneys drop you, it is because they have figured out you are lie telling and don't want to be disbarred for representing someone without a clear conscience.
ReplyDeleteHasn't he already broken their confidentiality agreement by speaking out and saying he wants to give the money back and it really did happen? As @Montana stated above, I think he realized he bungled the deal and could be getting a lot more.
ReplyDelete@Silver - I'm tempted to complain too, after reading what you posted.
@silver that's awful! They are very one sided as of late on a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this kid is telling the truth or not, but it's really hard to take him seriously when he's switching his story.
ReplyDeletePayoff shouldn't matter. Put the pedo in jail so he doesn't hurt anyone else. Get him off the street. There are plenty others who aren't talking I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteHas TMZ mentioned that the accuser has a criminal past?
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the story can be found on The Smoking Gun website, I think. Here's a snippet:
According to a criminal complaint, music manager Darian Pollard contacted the Beverly Hills Police Department to report that (the accuser)--an intern that he had just fired--had robbed him at knifepoint of a $250,000 “white gold necklace with diamonds” and a “white gold ring with diamond baguettes.”
The guy sounds like an opportunist.
I knew Elmo was a pimp!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think Kevin promised him a rainbow bridge until he got too old and Kevin lost interest.
ReplyDelete125k after the lawyers cut isn't as much as you think it would be.
He will never win in a jury trial if he is going after more money.
There has to be some kind of proof or Kevin wouldn't of coughed up 125,000 so fast to shut him up.
I'd like to give victims the benefit of the doubt. But it makes me mental when an opportunist cries wolf and then real victims are never given a voice or treated fairly.
I'm on the fence with this one.
I think kevin payed out so that thhis story could disappear as quickly as it started. There is a lot of money and consequences at stake for him if he loses his job.
ReplyDeleteAt some point he agreed to take the money. You can't just change your mind and say, no I never wanted that money, I really was sixteen! Didn't he sign a confidentiality/nondisclosure agreement the way the Church of cash has? So that it's illegal to talk about the agreement? Isn't that the whole point of settling out of court, to keep everything quiet and to make things go away fast.
ReplyDelete@Layna Day, nope. They have posted absolutely nothing negative about the accuser. But yes, they published this, and how he cried the whole time during the settlement.
ReplyDelete@timebob, I'm not going to pretend to know what really happened, however just playing devils advocate, if Kevin was innocent, he'd prob end up paying more to defend himself in lawyers fees. Plus that way it gets it out of the paper and people would forget about it and you could stop seeing Elmo and young boys in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteWho knows. Maybe he did something and felt the need to pay him off. Either way, the so-called reporting tmz has done is horrendous. At least publish all the facts. Just the fact that they haven't makes me completely question the motives of this guy and them. It's just ridiculous to withhold that info but still be okay with publishing negative stories abt him. Sorry for the rant lol, I just can't stand that site anymore. They at least used to be pretty credible.
@Silverfox very true, TMZ is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Harvey Levin swears up and down that they are independent but they are shills for big media. So I take all their stories with a huge grain of salt.
ReplyDeletesorry, meant @SilverOnyx (i got anderson cooper on the brain) :)
ReplyDelete@timebob-Anderson Cooper on the brain! Is that you Michael K?
ReplyDeleteCouldn't Kevin now sue him til the cows come home because he broke their hush-money contract??
ReplyDeleteHope this gets sorted out so whoever is truly innocent in this case gets redemption.
money always talks and the perverts always walk. either in the crim system or civil system. It's just how it is. sad to say.
ReplyDelete//and I concur about Grover.
hahah @Cheryl, I wish I was that snarky, not Michael K.
ReplyDeleteTMZ employs more legal council than journalists. I don't think anyone working there has ever gone to school for journalism...ever.
ReplyDelete@jax - With that in mind, any insight to their apparent bias regarding this story? I'd think they'd jump all over the findings from TSG re: the accuser's criminal history.
ReplyDelete@timebob hahahaha!!! Tbh my user name sucks and doesn't flow well at all, it was a combo of an old sn w my puppy's name, but changing it takes effort. Lol
ReplyDeleteI don't like how TMZ has been all over that story about the little girl from Modern Family, either.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby finds my fascination with celeb gossip strange, (since I'm supposed to read journal articles non-stop, apparently) but he thinks it's funny when I tell him I've learned that different actors/actresses are dirtbags. He will surely find the news about Elmo to be most distressing, since he's our toddler's favorite monster ("Melmo"). Now Barney, the adult dinosaur, he's kind of suspect, but Elmo...? I hate for anyone to be victimized, but this story sure seems fishy to me with all the waffling. Say it ain't so, Melmo!!
ReplyDelete