Oprah Winfrey’s forthcoming #MeToo documentary set to be released next year on Apple TV+ is already facing backlash, with music mogul Russell Simmons and rapper-actor 50 Cent stepping forward to accuse Winfrey of strategic omissions and outright falsehoods.
Winfrey is producing the as yet untitled documentary, which is about sexual harassment in the music industry and is believed to focus on Simmons.
The new project comes from filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering who made CNN’s 2015 campus-rape documentary The Hunting Ground, which also faced criticisms of inaccuracies and misreporting of facts.
Simmons is facing multiple accusations of sexual assault going as far back as three decades. The rap mogul, who denies the allegations, was one of the most prominent entertainment figures to be swept up in the early days of the #MeToo movement.
Simmons lashed out at Winfrey in a lengthy and rambling Instagram post Friday, claiming that he has “never been violent or forced myself on anyone.”
The Winfrey documentary reportedly focuses on Drew Dixon, a former music executive who accused Simmons of rape in 2017. A tagline on the movie’s IMDb page reads: “A former hip hop executive decides whether to make public her rape by one of the most powerful men in the music industry.”
“It’s so troubling that you choose to single me out in your recent documentry [sic],” Simmons wrote, addressing Winfrey.
“I have already admitted to being a playboy (more appropriately titled today ‘womanizer’) sleeping with and putting myself in more compromising situations than almost any man I know.”
Simmons said he passed “nine 3-hour lie-detector tests,” and the “stories are UNUSABLE.”
“I am guilty of exploiting, supporting and making the soundtrack for a grossly unequal society, but I have never been violent or forced myself on anyone,” he wrote.
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50 Cent also attacked Winfrey on Instagram Thursday, accusing her of focusing on black men while omitting prominent figures like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.
“I don’t understand why Oprah is going after black men,” the rapper wrote. “No Harvey Weinstein, No Epstein, just Micheal jackson and Russell Simmons this shit is sad.”
He added: “These documentary’s are publicly convicting their targets, it makes them guilty till proven innocent.”
The Winfrey documentary is set to premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
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