Oprah Winfrey Pulls Out of Documentary on the Music Mogul Russell Simmons

Her departure, she said, stemmed from creative differences with the filmmakers. “In my opinion, there is more work to be done on the film to illuminate the full scope of what the victims endured,” she said, “and it has become clear that the filmmakers and I are not aligned in that creative vision.”

Apple declined to comment.

Ms. Winfrey’s decision to leave the project came a month after Mr. Simmons questioned her involvement in the film in an open letter to her, posted on Instagram, that started with the words “Dearest Oprah.”

The post appeared on Dec. 13 next to a photograph of Ms. Winfrey interviewing Mr. Simmons about his 2014 book “Success Through Stillness” on the OWN program “Super Soul Sunday.” In the post, he said he found it “troubling that you choose me to single out in your recent documentary.” After conceding that he had “already admitted to being a playboy,” Mr. Simmons, who has faced at least a dozen accusations of sexual misconduct, said that he had “never been violent or forced myself on anyone.”

The day before Mr. Simmons’s Instagram post, the rapper 50 Cent used his own Instagram account to post a 2014 image of Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Simmons posing happily together with the comment, “I don’t understand why Oprah is going after black men.”

Ms. Winfrey’s departure is a blow to Mr. Dick and Ms. Ziering. The filmmakers had chronicled stories of sexual harassment and abuse even before the #MeToo movement came to prominence. For the new documentary, which also addresses black women’s relationship with the #MeToo movement, they spent two years tracking down Ms. Dixon and other women with accusations against Mr. Simmons.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/business/media/oprah-winfrey-documentary-russell-simmons-apple.html?emc=rss&partner=rss