Separation much?

Oprah Winfrey is certainly in the news right now. It seem she’s been busy advising Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, if reports are correct.

But Oprah is also involved in another surprising scenario. She was listed as executive producer of a documentary about rap music impresario and philanthropist Russell Simmons. The founder of Def Jam Records almost immediately became embroiled in the #MeToo movement after accusations of small time sexual malfeasance and rape. He was the subject of lawsuits as well. Simmons shut down his charity and businesses and moved to Tibet, where’s been posting photos and videos of meditation retreats and so on.

The documentary, by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25th. But now Oprah has suddenly pulled out of the project, and decided not to include it in her presentations on AppleTV+. The film will still premiere at the festival, but it now lacks Winfrey’s imprint.

Dick and Ziering are highly regarded doc makers. Their “The Hunting Ground” was nominated for lots of awards and was shown on CNN. The pair have issued a statement after Oprah announced she was off the project because it wasn’t ready, in her opinion. The filmmakers told Deadline.com: “Revealing hard truths is never easy, and the women in our documentary are all showing extraordinary strength and courage by raising their voices to address sexual abuse in the music industry. While we are disappointed that Oprah Winfrey is no longer an Executive Producer on the project, we are gratified that Winfrey has unequivocally said she believes and supports the survivors in the film.”

But this isn’t the first time Oprah has caused a major problem for Dick and Ziering on this same film. The doc was originally going to be centered on Harvey Weinstein and how the #MeToo era launched. In October 2017 just two weeks after Weinstein was exposed in the New York Times and the New Yorker, the pair announced they were making the film.

This past December, however, Dick and Ziering announced that their film had changed focus, to the record business and “major figure.” Oprah was suddenly on board. Weinstein was no longer being discussed, as Simmons took his place.

So now there’s no Weinstein film, and Oprah has dealt the filmmakers a significant blow by making a public exit. She’s also declared their film somehow unfit for release, at least under her auspices.

All of this comes a year after Oprah unwisely involved herself in the Michael Jackson documentary, “Leaving Neverland.” After the film– which accused Jackson of child molestation with no evidence other than two young men’s unfounded complaints– Oprah did a live interview with the subjects on HBO. Again, without supporting evidence, she simply decided they were

https://www.showbiz411.com/2020/01/11/oprah-exits-a-me-too-documentary-about-defjams-russell-simmons-after-filmmakers-change-course-away-from-harvey-weinstein-as-subject