People: GM sticks with Kid Rock, but will talk flag
General Motors said Tuesday it’ll continue its sponsorship of Kid Rock’s summer concert tour, despite a request by a Detroit activist group that the automaker cut financial ties with the musician if he displays the Confederate flag onstage.
Members of the National Action Network and Detroit chapter president, the Rev. Charles Williams II, will meet Thursday with representatives from GM’s Chevrolet brand. The two sides have been in discussions recently over Kid Rock, who has been criticized in the past for displaying the rebel battle flag during performances.
“We need to let some open and constructive dialogue occur as a first step, and we’ll go from there,” GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey said.
It’s not clear whether Kid Rock still displays the flag during his concerts, though Morrissey noted: “The only flag on stage during the Chevy-sponsored summer concert tour is the American flag, and to our knowledge, Kid Rock has not used the Confederate flag on stage for several years.”
The Associated Press left messages Tuesday seeking comment from Kid Rock, who was born Robert Ritchie and lives in suburban Detroit.
Goldberg backpedals on Cosby
Bill Cosby’s biggest public defender, Whoopi Goldberg, is backing off her support after getting some legal advice Tuesday on the daytime talk show “The View.”
Goldberg said that “all of the information that’s out there kind of points to (Cosby’s) guilt.”
Goldberg defended Cosby last week after the release of court documents showed the comic admitted in 2005 to obtaining Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to women he wanted to have sex with. More than two dozen women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct in the past four decades; many of them alleged that he drugged them first.
A day after defending him on the air, Goldberg angrily reacted to people who attacked her on social media. She said she believed in a person’s innocence until proven guilty in a court of law.
So “The View” brought on ABC News legal analyst Daniel Abrams Tuesday to explain that because of the statute of limitations in various states, it is very unlikely that any of the women making accusations against Cosby will be able to take him to court.
Essentially, the only recourse for many of these women is the court of public opinion, Abrams said.
“I mean, it is impossible to ignore the consistency of these stories,” Abrams said.
Goldberg said the fact that the passage of time prevents many of these women from taking their accusations to court is “a shock to me.”
“I can’t say any more ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ can’t say that anymore,” Goldberg said, “because there’s no way to prove it. We are the only proof that folks have. We’re the only backup they have.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Patrick Wayne is 76. Actor Jan-Michael Vincent is 71. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 69. Actor Willie Aames is 55. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 54.