rhpsvegasffo's Journal

More lies from the dark side
Once again my name has been libeled. I say libeled because the false information (and it is INHERENTLY false) was posted on Facebook. Don Charette of Divine Decadence felt the need to make a post entirely about me, falsely claiming that I’ve been “caught several times stealing DD’s flyers.” Um, what? Where did this come from? I work full time, I rarely have a chance to flyer myself, and when I do I certainly do not take DD’s flyers (on the few occasions that I have seen them, I simply set ours out as well and that’s that). I always ask before I put ours out anywhere, so the management/staff at the time is well aware of what I’m doing. This so-called “calling me out” is total bull, plain and simple. I have, however, noticed entire stacks of our flyers go missing the very next day after we put them out; as recently as last week. Interesting...

He also encourages people to boycott our shows. A contrived lie about me equals a boycott of my entire cast? There really are screws loose there. What a low-life.

Ever since our sit down with DD five years ago, we have entirely kept to our end of the bargain. We’ve done our shows, they’ve done theirs and we’ve completely left them alone. They have since tried to incite us MANY times and we have not risen to their pettiness. They have recently taken a liking to writing false letters of complaint (I was forwarded one that Don had written) to our theater’s website. Very petty and childish.

In the last several days alone, we’ve had negative contact from them: our facebook was spammed by one of their members Thursday night 12 times in a row with ads for their show and links to their youtube videos. The next night we received a nasty post on our website’s guestbook, again trying to incite us. That same night some of our cast members were flyering at First Friday, a local arts event; DD members were there, glaring at them and trying to make them feel unwelcome. For people who keep sending us notes about wanting peace, their behavior certainly hasn’t shown it.

While I was driving to my show Saturday night I was called by one of my cast members who’d seen Don’s post. I was read the slanderous statements and the responses. I was livid. I called several prominent members of the Rocky Horror community and informed them of what had transpired. They all reassured me that DD is obviously jealous of the fact that we are back performing in a theater regularly again and are now doing whatever they possibly can to try and make us look bad, but it’s only coming off as pettiness on their part. It was also pointed out to me that these places obviously have security cameras, so if I had done such a thing it would surely have been caught on film. Since there’s no evidence that I did anything, they’re obviously lying.

Anyway, my cast was just about to do our walkdowns when Amanda, one of my co-cast leaders, came rushing in and informed me that Corey Thompson (someone we had to let go of several years ago who has since been assimilated by DD) was in the parking lot of our theater giving out DD flyers and making a nuisance of himself; making false claims about FFO and yelling at people passing by. Amanda confronted him and he proceeded to claim that I had stolen flyers and he saw this as a fit way to “get back at us.” She yelled at him, told him to leave and he did. This upset me greatly and it has crossed a line - you don’t go to someone else’s venue, badmouth them and try to promote your own show (it’s not the first time they’ve done this to us, so it doesn’t really surprise me). That not only crosses lines of tact, but also of taste. The theater management has been informed, and they too feel it was a desperate attempt by a desperate person. It’s sad they have to invent these falsities just to keep themselves amused. Maybe if they focused that energy positively into their show, they’d have something to show for it.

Here’s the deal: the lies about me must stop. The harassment toward my cast, venue and patrons must end. I am planning on contacting the management of all of the places we flyer at and informing them of what has transpired. I am also going to ask if they’ve had any confrontations with DD members and if there is any video evidence that I’ve ever done anything I’ve been accused of. I would like to point out what happened the last time they tried to pin false accusations on me: they were proven utterly wrong and had to make an apology to me on the Rocky Horror newsgroup. I believe they also made all of that up on their own. They’ve discredited themselves time and again. The only people who could possibly believe these lies are incredibly naive and childish. This is just a desperate attempt to try to make us look bad before the 35th Anniversary, and it’s not working.

Why can’t we just be left alone to have our show? Why are they constantly trying to bait us into reprising another “Vegas war?” We want nothing to do with them. Every time we’ve tried to interact peacefully with them in the past, nothing good has come of it. Therefor, we want to save ourselves the headache and just ask to be left alone. We want no contact. We do not harass or try to bait them, so why do they insist on doing it to us? We could honestly care less how or where they choose to do their show; all we ask is for the same courtesy. The pettiness and lies must end. It’s not welcome and gives Vegas Rocky Horror a bad name. My conscience is clear.

Current Mood: determined