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The shame-fame game
R&B star R. Kelly joins a long list of celebs who have
been tied to scandals -- or crime. But what determines
how -- or whether -- fans separate the art from the
crime?
By Dave Ferman
Star-Telegram Pop Music Critic

Several weeks ago, R. Kelly faced his public, and his
public loved him.

This was no small matter: As a singer, songwriter and
producer, Kelly is one of urban music's most
successful artists, but he's also charged with 33
counts involving child pornography in both Chicago and
Florida.

The 12 most recent charges (and his second arrest in
less than a year) came in January, just days before he
faced a New Jersey arena full of fans.

Several artists were on the bill, but according to
Vibe magazine music editor Erik Parker, it was Kelly
-- who had virtually quit performing live since the
child-porn charges first surfaced in 2002 -- who stole
the show.

"People came to see him," Parker says. "People loved
it -- it was very well-received. At one point he put
his hand up, like Caesar, and the crowd went crazy."

But is that right? Should we judge Kelly (whose next
CD, Chocolate Factory, arrives in stores Tuesday) by
what he may have done in private, versus what he's
done onstage and in the studio? And if he's convicted,
do we hate him despite his talents -- or do we look at
his indiscretions but focus on his talents as a
musician?

Fans of all types of artists -- from musicians to
filmmakers to novelists -- make such choices every day
when we balance our feelings about talented people and
the crimes they have (or may have) committed. And as
pop-culture history has shown, the decision we make
depends largely on the artist's image and spin control
and on time restoring their good name.

Lately we've had to strike that balance more and more:
Two rock icons (the Who's Pete Townshend and producer
Phil Spector) were arrested recently, Townshend during
an Internet child-porn sting, and Spector after a
shooting death in his home.

Also, Michael Jackson's ongoing spate of weird
behavior and facial surgery has polarized his audience
for a decade. In 1994 he reached an out-of-court
settlement (reportedly as much as $15 million) with a
boy who had accused Jackson of having sex with him. By
now, Jackson is at least as infamous as he is famous,
even though there are many who still see him as a pop
idol.

And then there's director Roman Polanski. The success
and multiple Oscar nominations for his latest film,
The Pianist, have again focused attention on his
25-year exile in France. Polanski left the country in
1978 to avoid jail time for having sex with a
13-year-old girl.

What's a fan to think? Or to remember?

"It's an interesting question -- how much slack do we
give somebody?" says rock author and veteran Dallas
radio announcer George Gimarc. "Personally, I think
people will forgive sexual indiscretions before
criminal indiscretions. It's a sliding scale, and at
the harshest end is homicide."

Gimarc believes that people forgive more easily today
than in years past. As an example, he points to the
'50s and the furor over Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his
13-year-old cousin.

Lewis was all but deported from England, where the
story broke, and spent years playing dives, his career
in cinders, before several country hits brought him
back in the '60s.

"We got there in the '70s," says Gimarc of today's
more tolerant attitudes. "The slippery slope started
in the '70s when all sorts of outrageous rock 'n' roll
behavior was accepted. We have a star culture right
now, and people in the entertainment business want to
be very forgiving these days. It's all about whether
or not they sell product."

In the '50s and '60s, Gimarc says, a misbehaving band
would be booted off its record label. But by the '70s,
such bands as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the
Who were known for destroying hotel rooms and copious
drug use.

In Kelly's case, at least, Gimarc is right about
strong sales forgiving a host of problems. In June
2002, Kelly was arrested and charged with 21 counts of
child pornography. He allegedly made a videotape that
shows him having sex with an underage girl. According
to The New York Times, Kelly, 36, faces seven counts
each of directing the taping, making the video and
enticing the teen.

Earlier this year he was arrested again and charged
with 12 counts of possession of child porn.

But several urban-music experts say that the huge
success of Kelly's most recent single, the sexy
Ignition, shows that much of his fan base is still on
his side, or at least willing to suspend negative
judgment for the time being.

"He can overcome this if he continues to put out good
music," Parker says. "This can be just a chapter in
his life. Ignition is winning people over. His music
will be a guilty pleasure for people. Most people on
the street think he's guilty, but in the end he'll
rise or fall based on his music."

Kelly's last album, TP-2.com, sold 3.5 million copies
in the United States, a million more than his previous
disc, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Parker and others say that our measure of a person's
faults and talents begins long before the indiscretion
or crime is committed. People are likely to be more
forgiving of their heroes than of an artist they don't
follow.

"I think the Townshend thing will be a small stain,"
says Louis Black, editor of The Austin Chronicle and a
director of the South By Southwest music festival. "In
50 years, this won't define him, because rock writers
don't want to believe it -- whereas we want some
people to get their comeuppance, like Martha Stewart.
Some people are Teflon and some people aren't.

"I think most people still think Roman Polanski is a
pervert -- they see him as a weirdo who likes young
girls and makes great movies. But within the cinema
community, I don't think most people care" about the
conviction.

Parker and Black both note that public reaction to
stars' indiscretions is also based on their image
before the incident.

Black says that the Townshend arrest will be very
damaging in the short term, because before this he was
seen as a creative, thoughtful songwriter who -- based
on such records as Tommy and Quadrophenia -- cared
deeply about young people.

Kelly, on the other hand, is known for sexually
charged music and videos. While that certainly doesn't
excuse the accusations against him, it does make them
"less surprising," Parker says.

"If you do something that goes against an artist's
image, it has a better chance of ruining him -- if you
betray your image, you suffer more of a backlash,"
Parker says. "R. Kelly has always talked about sex,
sex, sex, bumpin' and grindin'. This doesn't make him
a fraud -- whereas if he was a gospel artist like Kirk
Franklin it would ruin him. If you like someone and
then you find out he supports a group like the Aryan
Nation, he's more likely to lose supporters than if he
gets in a fight."

And there's always, too, the iconic "outlaw" image to
consider. A performer who sets himself up as being
outside the normal rules of society is more likely to
be forgiven if he breaks the law, or at least does
something tawdry.

Black notes that fans forgive notoriously hard-living
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards for drinking
onstage -- and now and again missing a few notes, too
-- because he's Keith Richards and has been known for
his wild ways since the late '60s.

The same people might demand their money back if, say,
James Taylor came onstage with a whiskey bottle and
gave an inebriated performance.

Which is why, Black says, the shooting in Spector's
home was not as shocking as if it had been a more
visible, seemingly normal celeb.

"Phil [Spector] is crazy and weird," Black says. "He
was famously whacked -- he pulled out guns at people,
he was reclusive -- so this incident goes to
expectations. It's not what you did -- it's how you
were defined before you did it."

Which is part of the reason that Grammy-winning pop
culture writer Dave Marsh, who worked for Rolling
Stone for years, gets so angry when discussing the
public reaction to both Spector and Townshend. Both
men, he says, are being judged by the fact that
they're associated with the rock industry.

"Public perception is steered by people assuming if a
public figure is accused they're guilty, and I don't
buy any of it," says Marsh, who has been covering rock
music since the '60s. "That's the fundamental error we
make -- nobody ever assumes that a pop star could be
good. What they hear bad about a person is true and
what they hear good about a person isn't. This is
ruining Pete's life."

And there have been artists whose careers were
permanently destroyed by scandal, including silent
film comedian Fatty Arbuckle. In 1921 Arbuckle, one of
Hollywood's most popular stars, was accused of the
rape and murder of a young woman.

Although a jury found him not guilty -- and even
apologized to him -- his career was ruined and his
films banned. He directed films under an assumed name
before dying in 1933 at the age of 46. "Fatty
Arbuckle" and "rape" were forever, and unfairly,
linked.

But such ruination, even for someone guilty of a
crime, doesn't have to be the case, and how well a
performer can bounce back also depends on spin
control.

"Hugh Grant was the model of how to address a
scandal," says Variety managing editor Timothy M.
Gray. "He went on TV, he said he was sorry, and he
looked penitent. His obit will mention Divine Brown --
there's no living it down -- but a scandal doesn't
have to screw up the rest of your life."

In the end, time may be the surest cure for getting
public opinion back on a performer's side. Black
brings up Rob Lowe, who is now far better known for
his acting on The West Wing than for the negative
press he received for videotaping sex with an underage
girl in 1988.

"He laid low, took some small roles and stuck it out,"
Black says. "It took him a while to work himself back,
but he did."

And so may the current crop of fallen celebrities.
Whether that's fair or not is, of course, up to the
individual to decide.

"People are pretty tolerant," Gimarc says. "We've had
the 'Don't judge other people' mantra drilled into us
for years now. People don't want to look foolish or
intolerant. Then again, that's a pendulum, and
pendulums swing back the other way."


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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