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Jailed Boy-Band Guru a 'Sexual Predator'?

Former Employee, Singers Recall 'Inappropriate' Lou Pearlman

AOL / CBS News

Posted: 2007-10-02 18:01:48

(Oct. 2) - He helped launch the careers of some of the biggest boy-bands of the 1990s, but a new report by Vanity Fair hints that jailed music impresario Lou Pearlman had other motives for wanting to mentor the young singers.

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John Raoux, AP

Boy-band mogul Lou Pearlman's former assistant reveals in the November issue of Vanity Fair that he "would absolutely say [Pearlman] was a sexual predator."

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"I would absolutely say the guy was a sexual predator. All the talent knew what Lou's game was," Steve Mooney, an aspiring singer who used to work for Pearlman, told the magazine. "Some guys joked about it. I remember [one singer] asking me, 'Have you let Lou [fellate] you yet?'"

Mooney says Pearlman, who is currently in a Florida jail awaiting trial for bank fraud, once told him what he would have to do in order to make it in the music business. "I'll never forget this as long as I live. He leaned back in his chair, in his white terry cloth robe and white underwear, and spread his legs," Mooney said. "And then he said, and these were his exact words, 'You're a smart boy. Figure it out.'"

The article details Pearlman's rise to power through his aviation and music ventures followed by his crushing downfall amid lawsuits from former band members and fraud charges that have landed him in a Florida jail. Insiders tell stories of Pearlman showing pornographic films to his young talent, greeting guests at the door wearing only a towel, and inappropriate touching including massages to balance one young man's "aura."

An early member of the Backstreet Boys says Pearlman was "definitely inappropriate" with Nick Carter, the youngest singer in the group. Jane Carter, Nick's mother, told the magazine, "Certain things happened and it almost destroyed our family. I tried to warn everyone. I tried to warn all the mothers ... I tried to expose him for what he was years ago."

Pearlman also masterminded such groups as *NSYNC, LFO and O-Town.

Tim Christofore, a member of another group, Take 5, said that during a sleep over at Pearlman's house, the producer engaged in a wrestling match with him and another boy wearing only a loosely attached towel. Christofore describes his reaction after the towel came off: "We were like, 'Ooh, Lou, that's gross.' What did I know? I was 13."

"None of these kids will ever admit anything happened," one attorney who has sued Pearlman in a contract dispute tells special correspondent Bryan Burrough. "They're all too ashamed, and if the truth came out it would ruin their careers."

"I tried to protect the kids," says a former publicist, Jay Marose. "You'd see Lou kind of moving in on one of them, and you'd just tell someone, 'Get that kid away from Lou before it's too late.' "

The November issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Oct. 3 and nationally on Oct. 9.

2007-10-02 12:48:37

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cincyschwartz 09:24:33 PM Oct 04 2007

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silly fagot dicks are for chicks!

pauliek 09:07:22 PM Oct 03 2007

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Another "businessman" pervert found molesting children. Okay he's a pervert that's pretty much a given. Parents, guess what? Some clown wants to take your under aged kid under his wing and "mentor" him or her, he's probably a pervert.

Parents. So eager to get the big 'ole mighty dollar out of little junior, pimp their kids to any sexual predator out there just so they can buy a big screened TV. Hell, I don't know why perverts slink around elementary schools risking arrest when all they have to do is make some gullible, greedy parents salivate by waving around a dollar bill with one hand while their other hand is up some kid's skirt or down some boy's pants.

Why risk arrest when some stoopid-assed parent will just hand their kid right on over to you? The article quotes 'ole Nick Carter's mama as saying that she knew what a freak he was and she "tried" to warn other parents. She *tried*. What does that mean? What? Were her hands broken and she couldn't dial 911? Her mouth was broken

cqwerv 07:12:05 PM Oct 03 2007

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I tried it, Twilarasian. Many gay people try to fit in and hide their true selves. All it leads to is heartbreak for everyone involved. Luckily my attempt never got being getting engaged to a wonderful person whose life I might have ruined had we gone through with it.

Twilarasian 06:29:48 PM Oct 03 2007

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I guess 'cause "gay follow-through" (going to get some from another gay person) IS a choice, just like goin' to get some from another straight person, Cwerv. Like if you chose not to, some people'd say that you're a man -- a supposed real man -- because they see you'd be doing what straight men do. Of course, that's not really where your feelings are, so in actuality, the straight world is telling you to say to hell with how you feel...BE LIKE US. You wanna try it (not saying ya should)?

DiddlEMaN1225 06:21:28 PM Oct 03 2007

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he must have felt like alice in wonderland

Dwightal72 06:09:20 PM Oct 03 2007

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THAT EXPLAINS NICK CARTER'S PROBLEMS. I GUESS LANCE BASS DIDN'T MIND. THAT EXPLAINS WHY JUSTIN IS TRYING TO BE ALL TOUGH AND S HIT.

troubleboricua 05:48:09 PM Oct 03 2007

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Right now he's in HEAVEN, he might as well change his name to Lou Assenballs

Billy817 05:41:57 PM Oct 03 2007

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USAATLAS HE SURE DOES LOOK ALOT LIKE HEAD RUSH, NO WONDER,
HE'S CREEPY LOOKING JUST LIKE HEAD RUSH.

Billy817 05:35:33 PM Oct 03 2007

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NO WONDER NICK AND AARON CARTER ARE SO MESSED UP

citylife9 05:23:12 PM Oct 03 2007

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PROBABLY A MICHAEL JACKSON WANNA BE

STG1030 04:50:32 PM Oct 03 2007

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Billym752... you made me laugh out loud.. that was good!

usaatlas 03:45:33 PM Oct 03 2007

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LOU PEARLMAN is a RUSH LIMBAUGH BODY DOUBLE / LOOKALIKE

Cqwerv 03:44:29 PM Oct 03 2007

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kroft5 wrote: "more and more evidence is coming out, that homosexuality, isn't a disease, and its not a born trait, most evidence points, to those suffering from this lifestyle choice, went through some very tramatic circumstances at an early age."

No, homosexuality is not a disease. Nor, however, is it a choice. Nor is it a result of childhood trauma.

I was neither molested nor had any other major childhood traumas other than appendicitis when I was nine, after I'd already had a crush on another boy. If molestation turns people gay and if it's true that one in four girls is molested then 25% of the female population would be lesbians.

Why is it that people are *so* insistent that homosexual orientation must be a choice or a result of trauma BUT accept left-handedness as completely normal? After all, the majority (90%, I believe) of people are right handed, so people who use their left hands *must* be deviants who choose to defy nature and use their left hands instead of their r

HitleryClintoon 03:16:02 PM Oct 03 2007

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Libturds(mad because on of their own was caught)

Combination of Liberal and turd. A Libturd is generally referring to politically left leaning to extreme left leaning person that believes their liberal view points are the only valid view points and anyone that disagrees with them is a fundie and belongs to the Religious Right.

HitleryClintoon 03:15:14 PM Oct 03 2007

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LOU PEARLMAN WOULD MAKE A GREAT MAYOR FOR SAN FRANCISCO

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