You guys seem like you can read Tweets, so here you go, the latest on Kevin Clash from the AP:
BREAKING: Sesame Workshop says Elmo actor Kevin Clash resigned, calling sex allegations a “distraction.”
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 20, 2012
This after Sheldon Stephens (above left) accused Clash of having a sexual relationship with Stevens when Stephens was 16, then recanted (supposedly for a $125K settlement), then recanted his previous recantation. It’s a bummer. At the very least, Kevin Clash seems like a guy who loves Sesame Street enough to give up his lucrative dream job to keep from giving Sesame Street a bad reputation, even when he hasn’t been convicted or charged with any crimes. Probably not a lot of people would do that. Or, maybe he’s just guilty (seriously, don’t resign if you don’t want people to wonder if you’re guilty). Either way, it’s a little disingenuous for people to act like a guy whose dream was to play with puppets and kids all day isn’t going to have some weird sexual peccadillo.
Meanwhile, it’s getting worse, with TMZ reporting a second accuser coming forward:
Kevin Clash — known as the voice of Elmo — is facing NEW allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a SECOND underage boy … TMZ has learned.
The accuser — who is now in his 30s — has filed a lawsuit against Clash … claiming the two met on a gay phone chat line back in 1993 … when the accuser was 15 years old and Clash was 32.
In the suit, the accuser reveals his name — Cecil Singleton. His attorney also provided TMZ with a photo.
Among the allegations, Singleton claims, “[Clash] trolled gay telephone chat line rooms to meet and have sex with underage boys.”
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in NYC, Singleton claims Clash “groomed [the accuser] to gain his trust by, among other things, taking him to nice dinners and giving him money.”
Singleton claims while Clash was featured on “Sesame Street,” he was “preying on teenage boys to satisfy his depraved sexual interests.”
In the suit, Singleton claims … although the sex occurred nearly 20 years ago, he didn’t take action until now because … he “did not become aware that he had suffered adverse psychological and emotional effects from Kevin Clash’s sexual acts and conduct until 2012.”
Singleton is demanding more than $5 million. [TMZ]
Well I believe him. I mean, that doesn’t look like the face of someone who’d do something just for the attention, does it?