MacKenzie Phillips recently disclosed that thirty years ago her father, John Philips, drugged and raped her. She also shared that she made the best of the situation and interpreted the abuse as an expression of love. The sex started when she was legal (nineteen) and blacked out. John Phillips had injected her with cocaine the first time at eleven.
Public reaction, at least my friends’ reactions, is a resounding “Shut up! I don’t want to wake up and hear this with my cereal!” (Friend #4).
Another story in the public view is that of Roman Polanski and the thirteen year old HE drugged and raped. Again, sex with someone drugged, again, it happened long ago, again, the minor grew up and forgave the man she accused. Comparisons must be made, and they must be made as sarcastically as possible, because I’m still sick and I’ve been seeing CNN coverage of this crap all day.
It looks to me like John Phillips is getting a really lousy deal. Why isn’t he getting the Roman Polanski treatment? I mean, it isn’t like he’s that guy who kidnapped the girl and kept her in the storage shed for eighteen years. He’s an artist!
This is what we should be hearing on CNN:
Wolf Blitzer: Musicians around the world band together to sign a petition to exonerate John Phillips. Phillips has been accused of drugging and raping his daughter.
Lady Gaga (clip): John Phillips is a genius! Think of all the contributions He’s made to the world of music. California Dreamin’! Monday Monday! Besides, let’s remember the girl was eighteen. It was consensual. I mean, she took the drugs he gave her willingly.
R Kelley (clip): His work influenced musicians for generations. Besides, it happened thirty years ago, come on people, lighten up. The girl has even forgiven him. It’s time to let the past stay in the past.
Wolf Blitzer: Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man who “drugged and raped a [19]-year-old child” to go free.
Woody Allen (clip): People just don’t understand – he’s an artist.
Wolf Blitzer: Critics ask, what the hell is Woody Allen thinking making any kind of public comment on having sex with your eighteen year old children?
Whitney Houston (clip): Helllllll, he was on drugs. Drugs, they mess you up! Besides, it happened thirty years ago, and that girl Mackenzie turned out fine.
That is the one difference I can see: the girl in the Polanski case doesn’t want attention. According to CNN she says “Every time this case is brought to the attention of the court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case.”
On the other hand, the Collected Friends speculated that since Valerie Bertinelli was recently on TV having lost all that weight, Mackenzie was feeling a little sibling rivalry.
13 responses to “What if John Phillips Was Roman Polanski she asked sarcastically.”
John Phillips can only get the Roman Polanski treatment posthumously.
Stockholm syndrome, I’m telling you. It’s easier not to feel feel victimized and used if you convince yourself that your beloved father is showing real, true, pure love for you by raping you.
The place to talk about it is in therapy and support groups, not my living room.
Right Caroline, we don’t need to know. I guess I missed the CNN day long blah-blah-blah. If you think there are very many folks in Hollywood that don’t have something like this in their lives, you’re sadly mistaken. It is a wacky place, with wacky values and ideas, full of creative, slightly odd people. As with all the hype that comes out of the place, the less publicity, the better for all of us.
3 – aw, too bad for him. Like Michael Jackson, he wont realize how much he was loved.Hot Mom – True. And I say good fpor all all victims of Stockholm syndrom, bettwer than dealing with father-hatred all your life.Caroline – Maybe not the Today show. But certainly Oprah. Besides, maybe you aren’t in a support group. Maybe you’re thinking, “But it wasn’t incest, it was an affair with my father / uncle / schoolteacher).” Plus see response to Judith below.Judith – but here’s what I’m thinking: wouldn’t be be awful to have had sex at a young age, then to hear the public revalations of incest survivors, and then to deal with the (unwarranted) guilt of incest and THEN to think you were the only one who consented? And maybe liked it? That would be awful. And now because of Mackenzie maybe they would feel less guilt and shame. But wait -maybe this is sarcasm. You’re creative and wacky.
He is an ex-daughter fucker.
3 – ‘ee ‘as joined the Sire Choir Invisible.
Not taken advantage of…it’s rape. Both times. and I do not consider Phillips saying she was having a consensual relationship with her father valid, it was impossible for her to give consent to her father as inherent in parent-child relationships.
I’m horrified by the Hollywood reaction of Polanski. Read Kate Harding’s article at Salon’s Broadsheet. She says it better than I could have.
Sugared Harpy – [This was my intial stupid response at 1:50 am, because I’m a robot:]Yes! Someone twittered the Salon article; that was fabulous. and morally what Phillips did was sick and evil, and for what he did the word rape maybe isn’t even strong enough. But, I thought since I was putting libellous words in Wolf Blitzer’s mouth anyway, I shouldn’t accuse people of criminal activity. While I agree that any parent-teacher-officer-authority figure using influence to get sex is rape, I felt if I wasn’t sure it would stick under California law I shouldn’t use the word.[BUT then this was me at 3 am after I imagined waking up after a blackout with my father’s dick in me]Oh, my God, what is wrong with me? I’m changing it.
This is the best thing yet I have read on this subject. Oh, and did you know Polanski paid the woman off? So that is probably why she is all “It was long ago and really didn’t bother me.”
Hattie- go here:http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/index.htmlPaid her off, or “reached a settlement” – maybe she was making his life hell since she knew she’d never get justice in court. That would be nice.
Ummm…John Phillips died last year and Mackenzie has a book coming out. Convenient.
Country Girl – She needs to get a jump on all this before she dies of her overdose.