“’It didn’t kill them’  @BarbraStreisand did you really say that?!”   
– Dan Reed, director of Leaving Neverland, responding to Streisand’s comments on the documenta

I look high and low for a quote to kick off each column.  This week, it came courtesy of Miss Barbra Streisand.  However, it also requires a bit more discussion.  In an interview with The Times of London, she talked about the documentary Leaving Neverland.  Babs says she believes James Safechuck and Wade Robson.  When asked her feelings about Michael Jackson, she said, “It’s a combination of feelings.  I feel bad for the children.  I feel bad for him.  I blame, I guess, the parents, who would allow their children to sleep with him.  Why would Michael need these little children dressed like him and in the shows and the dancing and the hats?”  I think what they were wearing is less germane to the scenario than what they weren’t, but I see where she’s going.  Alas, then she got herself into trouble: “His sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has.  You can say ‘molested’, but those children, as you heard say, they were thrilled to be there.  They both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them.”  There’s that sympathetic Babs we know and love.

Needless to say, this led to quite a bit of outrage.  Streisand attempted to clarify with a statement: “To be crystal clear, there is no situation or circumstance where it is OK for the innocence of children to be taken advantage of by anyone.  The stories these two young men shared were painful to hear, and I feel nothing but sympathy for them.  The single most important role of being a parent is to protect their children.  It’s clear that the parents of these two young men were also victimized and seduced by fame and fantasy.” 

Then Miss Ross got involved.  She Tweeted, “This is what’s on my heart this morning.  I believe and trust that Michael Jackson was and is a magnificent incredible force to me and to many others.  STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE.”  There’s that sympathetic Diane we know and love.  But, riddle me this – would she have let Michael babysit her two sons?  Well, if the sons were nine years old, white and blond?