A few weeks ago, we learned of alawsuitfiled against Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears by a pair of anonymous siblings accusing them of, among other things, grooming and sexual abuse. A couple days ago, the suit was dismissed with prejudice—meaning the plaintiffs can’t refile—on behalf of the plaintiffs. That’s right, the now 22-year-old Jane Doe plaintiff asked the case be dismissed with prejudice, and this after theoriginal complaint was sealedbecause it contains photos of then 7-year-old John Doe, the plaintiff’s younger brother, who is still a minor. With the original complaint sealed and the suit dropped, it would seem everything is resolved.
Jane Doe issued a statementthat sounds suspiciously like Tiffany Haddish’s lawyers wrote it:"My family and I have known Tiffany Haddish for many years – and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us. We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us."
Well, this is fishy as hell, but now we’re probably never going to know any more about it. I was wondering if additional details might come out after the initial news broke that the case was dismissed, but now that doesn’t seem likely. And I really doubt Haddish will ever “share a lot more about this situation”, because the way this has gone away, and so quickly, less than three weeks, sure looks like the whole thing being swept under a rug.
我当然不是在这里大声survivor, and if Jane Doe thinks it’s best for herself and her brother to move on, then fine and good. Best wishes to both of them. But I still think Spears and Haddish SHOULD answer some questions about what the f-ck they thought they were doing back when. It’s AMAZING how many people, fellow comedians and audience alike, remember the “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes” video from before it was taken down by Funny or Die back in 2018. It made an impression on those who saw it, and not because it was funny. Questions range from “why did they think this was funny” to “why did they have to use a seemingly naked kid”, but now we’ll never know. This is designed to go away, now, undoubtedly, to leave plenty of time for everyone to forget about this before Haddish’s Disney press tour forHaunted Mansionnext year.
But while this might perhaps end up as a disturbing footnote on Tiffany Haddish’s Wikipedia page, it does bring up real questions about kids and acting and kids in acting. Over the last few weeks, while many people were sympathetic to the Does, there was also a lot of “acting sucks sometimes” going around. That’s true, people often take gigs they’re not proud of when they’re starting out, just to make ends meet. But there’s a big difference between a grown person knowingly accepting a job they realize is dogsh-t but they have bills to pay, and a child following an adult they trust into a situation they don’t really understand, and that makes them feel bad. Remember, John Doe and his family thought he was going to make a sizzle reel for Nickelodeon, not a suggestive “comedy” video.
That is the question I want answered. That’s the “energy” I have.
If those kids were brought to these acting “jobs” under false pretenses, it suggests someone knew they probably shouldn’t have those kids there in the first place. They didn’t want Mom to know what was really being filmed. So I just want Haddish and Spears to answer the question—why did you mislead them? Explain that, because it will probably answer every other question, too. But now there will be no answers, just silence. Whatever you may think the Does got out of this—and there probably is a settlement we’ll never know about—what Aries Spears and especially Tiffany Haddish, who has FAR more to lose, get out of it is just that. Silence.
