Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Waiting For Terry To Exhale

Terry McMillan was on Tavis Smiley's PBS talk show last night promoting her new book The Interruption of Everything (hmm!) and did not duck the obvious question when it was brought up: What's up with her and her (soon-to-be ex) husband? In response, Ms. McMillan went on an extended diatribe against her husband Jonathan Plummer, seeming to speak for minutes on end with out taking a breath. Quoting from memory (click the link above to hear the exact words yourself):

He made sure my business is on the Internet. He and his lawyer are guilty of doing that. They did this now knowing that I have my new book coming out. He's suing to have our prenuptial agreement overturned. He was given access to a vehicle and I set him up with a pet grooming business. Now I hear that three days ago he has sold the entire contents of the store and has disappeared. This is all about money. I have evidence that he was gay when he married me. He's trying to claim that I'm homophobic. I was getting ready to divorce him and kick him out of my house when he told me that he was gay and then I found out that he had a lover, a male lover for over 9 months. I have already spent over 300 000 dollars on that man. He got U.S. citizenship from me. He put my life in danger by sleeping with men and then sleeping with me. What if I turn up HIV positive? How am I supposed to get over that? He lied in court documents. I didn't know you could do that. He said only one, no, two things in those court documents which are true. One, He's gay. Two, his name is Jonathan Plummer. Everything else he said is a lie. Now, he wants my money. Well...He's. Not. Getting. It.

Tavis withstood this stream of consciousness admirably well, letting the "Yes, I'm pissed off" author speak her piece, though unfortunately failing to address some of the (several) problematic things she said, as well as their troubling inferences. 1) Why would she assume that she would get HIV from her husband just because he was having sex with men (just because he had unprotected sex with her doesn't imply that he had it with other people)? 2) It's easy to confirm whether Mr. Plummer has actually "disappeared" or not. 3) False statements and declarations to a court constitute perrjury, so she is accusing her husband of perjury and his lawyer of a disbarment offense. 4) Why did she feel it necessary to ask for an annulment of their six-year marriage, thus jeopardizing the immigration status of her husband?

Feel free to add to this list, in the comments!

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