‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Pulled From Consideration For GLAAD Media Awards After New Allegations Against Director Bryan Singer

LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been removed as a best original film nominee at  the GLAAD Media Awards in light of new allegations of alleged sex crimes against director Bryan Singer.

Singer has weathered years of allegations of recruiting underage boys for sexual contact, and even rape, but the attention increased recently with the release of an expose by The Atlantic where four new accusers came forward. GLAAD told Variety exclusively it has pulled the film from contention for the award after a “weighted decision” that takes a stand for sexual assault victims.

“In light of the latest allegations against director Bryan Singer, GLAAD has made the difficult decision to remove ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ from contention for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Film – Wide Release category this year. This week’s story in The Atlantic documenting unspeakable harms endured by young men and teenage boys brought to light a reality that cannot be ignored or even tacitly rewarded,” GLAAD said in a statement to Variety.

“Singer’s response to The Atlantic story wrongfully used ‘homophobia’ to deflect from sexual assault allegations and GLAAD urges the media and the industry at large to not gloss over the fact that survivors of sexual assault should be put first,” the statement continued.

🙏@TIMESUPNOW ! This is the type of support we wanted from the industry back in 2015 when we released @AnOpenSecret. We hope more of your members will continue to pressure Hollywood to make child sexual abuse in the industry a focus for awareness & change 👊#TimesUp #AnOpenSecret https://t.co/CiM09ymM2S

— An Open Secret (@AnOpenSecret) January 25, 2019

Time’s Up, the group formed in light of Harvey Weinstein’s concerns, applauded the decision.

“We are in the midst of a cultural reckoning. Though there was once a time when business as usual could continue amid credible allegations of sexual assault and violence, that era has ended forever. The recent allegations regarding Bryan Singer’s behavior are horrifying and MUST be taken seriously and investigated,” the group said in a statement.

GLAAD had previously celebrated the movie for its depiction of Freddie Mercury as a gay man and his battle with AIDS.

Singer has called the allegations a smear campaign.

Meanwhile, Queen guitarist Brian May has apologized for defending Singer.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Dear Folks – I was shocked and saddened to realise what I had done by my hasty and inconsiderate IG reply to this lady yesterday. I’ve posted an apology to her in the ‘reply’ box, but it seems to have disappeared – so I’m going to try to repeat it here, to be clear. ———- Dear Sue, I’m so sorry that I responded to your post so snappily and inconsiderately. My response was a result of my perception that someone was telling me what to do. I now realise that I was completely wrong in thinking that. You were actually just trying to protect me, for which I thank you. I am mortified to discover the effect my words produced. I had no idea that saying someone was innocent until proven guilty could be interpreted as “defending“ Bryan Singer. I had absolutely no intention of doing that. I guess I must be naive, because also it had never occurred to me that ‘following’ a person on Instagram could be interpreted as approving of that person. The only reason I followed Bryan Singer was that we were working with him on a project. That situation came to an end when Mr Singer was removed during the shooting of the film, but I suppose unfollowing him never occurred to me as a necessity. Now, because of this misunderstanding, I have unfollowed. I’m so sorry. This must have caused you a lot of upset. I wish I could take the comment back, but all I can do is apologise, and hope that my apology will begin to make amends. Sadly, this is all very public, but since I snapped at you in public, it’s only fitting that I should apologise in public. I’m going to try to follow you so we can communicate privately if you want. With love – Bri. —— I should add that this is also a sincere apology to anyone else out there that I inadvertently offended. No such offence was intended and I will be more careful in future. Bri

A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal) on Jan 24, 2019 at 8:25pm PST