It was reported earlier this month that Oprah Winfrey would be executive producing a new documentary.
And according to a logline, it’ll be about “a brilliant former music executive who grapples with whether to go public with her story of assault and abuse by a notable figure in the music industry.”
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The doc will be on AppleTV and premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2020, based on a report from the Los Angeles Times. And it’ll tell the story of Drew Dixon, who used to work at Def Jam, the label co-founded by Russell Simmons.
Two years ago, Dixon said Simmons raped her in his New York City apartment in 1995, which Simmons denied in an email he sent to The Associated Press. At least 17 women have accused the rap mogul of committing sex crimes, but in his email he said “all of my relations have been consensual.”
Simmons sent an Instagram message to Winfrey about the documentary on Friday, where he doubled down on his innocence and questioned her involvement.
“Dearest OPRAH, you have been a shining light to my family and my community, contributing so much to my life that I couldn’t list a fraction of it in this blog,” wrote Simmons Friday on Instagram.
“I have given you the gift of meditation and the groundbreaking book ‘THE POWER OF NOW.’ We bonded to say the least. This is why it’s so troubling that you choose me to single out in your recent documentary.”
Simmons then admitted to being a “womanizer” in his younger days but said he never “forced” himself on anyone. The 62-year-old also said he recently received a call from a girlfriend that he had in the ’80s and implied someone involved with the documentary contacted her.
“Shocking how many people have misused this important powerful revolution for relevance and money,” wrote Simmons. “Still I am here to help support a necessary shift in power and consciousness. Let us get to work on uplifting humanity and put this moment and old narrative behind.”
Meanwhile, 50 Cent also weighed in on the documentary and accused Winfrey of only focusing on black men who’ve been accused of committing sex crimes.
He also brought up Winfrey interviewing Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who accused Michael Jackson of sexual abuse in the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.”
50 mentioned Gayle King‘s famous interview with R. Kelly as well, whom she spoke with about the many women who accused him of rape, sexual assault and abuse. The rapper then listed some of the white men who’ve been accused of sex crimes, like Harvey Weinstein.
“I don’t understand why Oprah is going after black men,” the G-Unit leader wrote late Thursday night. “No Harvey Weinstein, No [Jeffrey] Epstein, just Micheal Jackson and Russell Simmons this sh– is sad.”
“Gale hit R Kelly with the death blow documentary,” he added. “These documentary’s are publicly convicting their targets. It makes them guilty till proven innocent.”
The “In Da Club” creator also posted photos of Bill Cosby, Epstein, Weinstein, Kelly, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey and wrote the word “jail” under the black men and “walk” under the white men.
The Hollywood producer Weinstein faces trial on multiple sexual assault charges next year. Billionaire financier Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges related to accusations of sexual of assault of underage girls, died of an apparent suicide in August of this year while being held in a federal jail on new counts of sex trafficking.
At this time, Winfrey hasn’t responded to either 50 or Simmons.
