As we discussed last week, Moby is a creep and he’s hellbent on showing us just how creepy he is. Moby’s promoting his second memoir, Then It Fell Apart, which seems to just be about how he spent his 30s and 40s being extremely creepy with teenage girls and young women in their early 20s. He included stories about how a young Lana del Rey wouldn’t sleep with him on the first date, and how he “dated” Natalie Portman briefly when, he claims, she was 20. Natalie Portman slapped back at Moby’s memoir hard, giving an interview to Harper’s Bazaar UK where she said that no, she was 18 and barely out of high school. This is part of what she said:
“I was surprised to hear that he characterised the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school. He said I was 20; I definitely wasn’t. I was a teenager. I had just turned 18. There was no fact checking from him or his publisher – it almost feels deliberate. That he used this story to sell his book was very disturbing to me. It wasn’t the case. There are many factual errors and inventions. I would have liked him or his publisher to reach out to fact check… I was a fan and went to one of his shows when I had just graduated. When we met after the show, he said, ‘let’s be friends’. He was on tour and I was working, shooting a film, so we only hung out a handful of times before I realised that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate.”
Shortly after Portman’s interview came out, Moby reacted by, like, mansplaining to Natalie how they totally DID date and he had photographic evidence, like the header photo of a shirtless 30-something man looking hella creepy while a very young looking Natalie looked uncomfortable. He posted that photo with a caption that included this: “To be honest, I can’t figure out why she would actively misrepresent the truth about our (albeit brief) involvement. The story as laid out in my book Then It Fell Apart is accurate, with lots of corroborating photo evidence, etc.”
Well, Moby has reconsidered. Sort of. He heard all of the criticism and decided to offer an apology to Natalie on his Instagram, writing:
As some time has passed I’ve realized that many of the criticisms leveled at me regarding my inclusion of Natalie in Then It Fell Apart are very valid.
I also fully recognize that it was truly inconsiderate of me to not let her know about her inclusion in the book beforehand, and equally inconsiderate for me to not fully respect her reaction.
I have a lot of admiration for Natalie, for her intelligence, creativity, and animal rights activism, and I hate that I might have caused her and her family distress.
I tried to treat everyone I included in Then It Fell Apart with dignity and respect, but nonetheless it was truly inconsiderate for me to not let them know before the book was released.
So for that I apologize, to Natalie, as well as the other people I wrote about in Then It Fell Apart without telling them beforehand.
Also I accept that given the dynamic of our almost 14 year age difference I absolutely should’ve acted more responsibly and respectfully when Natalie and I first met almost 20 years ago.
That apology came after days of Instagram posts where Moby tried to play the victim and continued to claim that Natalie was misrepresenting the truth of their brief dating situation. So, his reaction to being challenged by a young woman was to call her a liar and then act like he was being attacked, and then to only offer an apology a week later, when it seemingly just occurred to him that perhaps HE was misremembering and misrepresenting what happened. He is truly a gross and messed up person.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
Translation: my publicist is seeing nothing but negative reactions and I need to do some damage control.
^^ This.
No realization he was wrong, just damage control to his “brand,” probably only reluctantly agreed to at that, based on how long in coming it was and how vociferously he “defended” his position originally when he could have, you know, just said nothing at all.
Moby has a brand? Is it the kind that doesn’t even sell at the dollar store?
@ S
He’s determined to let the world know he thinks he slept with Natalie Portman.
And then it fell apart.
Yep. Then it REALLY fell apart
“And Moby, … let it go, it’s over. Nobody listens to Techno! Now let’s go …”
Thanks, Eminem
Until this day I thought Eminem was being a rude ass as usual, but now I think he was too soft with this one.
1st and 5th paragraph are what he actually means. Boo this man, boo him.
Ah some people should really just STFU aka YOU Moby.
In addition to being lecherous, it seems he’s also quite bad at math.
And his teeth are a darker shade of yellow than the background.
I’m delighted Natalie Portman pushed back on this hard. Most women would slink away and hide for fear of drawing more attention the situation. I admire her courage here.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one staring at those mossy gravestones in his mouth.
Agree that Natalie was brave about refuting his lies. I’m really starting to like her.
He keeps bringing it up on his IG and is catching hell from people who had been admirers because of his environmentalism. Still fudging the age gap.
Yes! The age gap is 16 years. He was born in 1965 and she was born in 1981. Does he not know how to Google? Or basic arithmetic?
It seems he’s still trying to add two years to her age, even after all this time. I can only guess that’s how he justified going after her in the first place.
I don’t know what the protocol is when writing a memoir but I’d think letting people know you included them is pretty standard. Otherwise it seems like maybe you’re avoiding them because you know your version of events is sketchy. He’s gross.
I agree. I think he knew she wouldn’t approve or agree, so he just didn’t tell her. Rude and creepy!!!
Don’t publishers fact check this stuff so they don’t get sued?
Not anymore. Publishers barely do anything these days.
Uh his apology is literally just for not giving her a heads up. That’s hardly an apology at all! That wasn’t the problem with his story. What a pig.
+1
Yep, he’s not admitting he mischaracterized their relationship. Its like he’s saying “sorry you got offended by the truth” and I should’ve told you I’d be telling everyone about us in my book. What an ass.
I would love to hear what the young models who date Leo say 20years from now. Would it be more of creepy old fat guy who you had to be in a relationship with to get known in modeling?
Apparently he lies there and let’s them do all the work.
Young women he considers cheaper and more socially acceptable than an escort, exclusive to him for 2 years. Probably sealed by a non-disclosure contract.
Incredulous: one part of me wants to know how and if you really know that. The other part of me REALLY doesn’t want to know-
Trashaddict : I can’t remember who, but there was a published account from a model who said that she banged Leo, and the whole time he lay there, listened to music, on his own set of headphones, and vaped.
My opinion: he wanted to portray himself as this amazing edgy seducer, but he comes out like THAT guy. The creepy man with such a massive ego, the one unable to tell the truth as in Lana del Rey case: she insulted him, but he decided she was ironic. Natalie Portman was barely legal and uncomfortable, they hang out and he decided it was “dating”. GROSS.
He’s just like any other perv romanticizing his lecherous behavior with an 18 year old girl. While he was at the height of his fame/power in the industry.
Yes! I think he’s a dork that is all “look at this hot chick I got and she was YOUNG” and probably got annoyed at the backlash at first, then horrified that it hurt his image, then finally brought himself to a weak half apology.
This attempt at damage control is too little, too late. If he had come out with this statement right after Natalie’s comments I might have believed him. His Instagram posts showed how creepy and self-absorbed truly is though.
Is anyone buying this book? Sorry no Moby.
‘Nobody listens to technooooo’
My stupid ass friend bought this book!!! I have been sending her these stories all week because I’ve always thought he was a bald creep, and she has since stopped responding.
too late.. your true, ugly self has been revealed and there’s no walking that back.
Unpopular opinion…
I think something did go down between Natalie and Moby. Her denial doesn’t actually deny that possibility. Her problem was more with the fact that she was incredibly young, obviously the relationship was brief and unserious, and she is now uncomfortable that whatever it was ever happened. Two people that hang out, hook up, whatever… can have completely different feelings and interpretations of what happened. One might have felt a deep connection, while the other forgot it ever happened. Natalie should have been consulted before he wrote about her. And once she denounced the “relationship” he should have let it go. You can’t write another person into having feelings for you. It doesn’t work that way.
Yeah that’s how I read her statement too. I think she was young and impressionable and he manipulated her into bed. She felt uncomfortable about what happened, realised he was creepy and broke it off. She is understandably upset because in the book he’s characterising his predatory behaviour as a relationship of equals – “dating” – and playing up the romance aspect.
Her quote is “we only hung out a handful of times before I realised that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate”. That sounds like a pretty clear denial to me.
This.
I don’t think they hooked up. There’s no way I can see an 18 year old being interested in him or being flattered that he’s showing an interest in her. Some older men can manipulate young women, but she was a pretty confident 18 year old who was already used to male attention from better-looking men. Heck, even David letterman is better-looking than Moby. She also had protective parents,
I’ve said it before – I reckon they hung out a few times, he tried something physical. She either went with it because it seemed easier, or like something a grown up would do – or fended him off, he apologised for moving too fast. This probably happened a couple of times. And then she faked having a boyfriend or acquired one – and done.
Say the name of your book one more time in your “apology,” Moby. JFC
That first photo is so creepy.
Wow, half of his apology is name checking his book, what a douche.
Before last week I had no opinion on Moby. Now I can’t stand him. What a creep. But he did give the Guardian a chance to write a good piece about nice guy misogyny. It’s a good reminder that we don’t just have to watch out for the incels and MRAs.
I know his publicist must be exhausted.
But really as a Moby fan, his behavior about Portman’s denial has been a real let down. He’s so eloquent and thoughtful in interviews about the themes in the book, it’s surprising that he chose to “defend” himself rather than listen to the headwinds of MeToo and just sit down and take the L.
I admit I was reluctant to believe that nothing went down between the two of them because of white women using the myth of purity to maintain or rehabilitate their image (Taylor Swift anyone?).
Also can this be discussed on the podcast: publishers/editors not fact-checking? This isn’t the first high profile fact-check error. One that comes to mind is “Chasing Hillary” by Amy Chozick where Chelsea Clinton disputed several accounts in the book including one where she was drinking heavily on the night of the election. She was actually breastfeeding her infant son at the time.
I wasn’t reluctant to believe it. Because even though there are situations where women use purity to protect themselves by being dishonest at best or by throwing other people under the bus at worst, (with the Taylor Swift ‘innocent blonde woman’ thing being a racial example of that. Moby has privilege that Kanye doesn’t though, as a white man), it’s also very common for men to exaggerate and lie about women sexually, for all kinds of different reasons. Most spaces tend to give men the benefit of the doubt over women when they say a woman did something with them, (the guys are just seen as being blunt but honest and trustworthy with little questioning about what skeletons they may have in their closets, while women are seen as liars automatically) and sometimes that’s assumed even without the man saying it himself when it comes to online gossip communities.
I don’t think Natalie having dated him 20 years ago would be that scandalous now either, so it would be surprising if she were bothering to lie about it.
Oh my God, go away, and please take all the gross AF people defending your pursuit of her that young with you.
He’s still apologizing for the wrong thing.
No one gives a fack if you got to touch Portman’s tits, or whatever Moby’s twisted definition of dating has become.
The issue isn’t that he’s just misrepresenting, it’s the fact that he’s a predator. He’s presenting grooming and assault as ‘dating’.
I wish Natalie was more political, because if this was Jess Chastain or Jamela Jaleel or someone who is loud, there would be a hellacious clap back. Natalie isn’t required to do so, but omg would it be satisfying.
The misrepresenting *is* the issue. I think the words “grooming” and “assaulting” are not relevant here at all and shouldn’t be used when not appropriate.
She was an adult when all of this happened and she has never said or implied that any assault occurred. He pursued her and she turned him down. That doesn’t make him a predator.
He’s gross for trying to get with a teenager when he was in his mid-30s. It was also gross of him to go bragging about “dating” her in his book when that’s not what happened.
To throw around words like “assault” when they are not applicable at all is doing everyone a big disservice.
He ‘heard all the criticism’? Likely he heard from her lawyers.
Yeah that was my thought, she got her legal team in after he posted that awful photo of himself topless that was clearly meant to imply.
All this tells me is that Moby doesn’t see women as fully formed individuals with their own thoughts, opinions, and feelings about their various encounters.
That’s the textbook definition of a misogynist
Once a self-important nerd, always a self-important nerd.
Gotta love how he name drops his book THREE times in that “apology”. Convenient advertisement.
Also…wtf is Moby?
Moby Dick….and he’s more than proven the “Dick” part.
Here’s a thought: don’t be a creep, and you won’t have to apologise for being a creep.
No one listens to him or techno any more and the book is just a sad attempt at relevancy and too make money. He has always always been full of it.
I hope Portman doesn’t let it go and got her lawyers involved.
He tries to let everyone know all the “cool” guy things he’s ever done like dating every pretty nerd crushes and brushing his dick against Trump. None of the women were proud of dating him and everyone felt bad for Trump. That’s how uncool he is.
It’s not an apology if you mention your book that many times in such a short amount of space – or at all.
He’s allegedly a predator from what I’m seeing and I’m glad that I wasn’t a real fan. I did download the free music he made once that was for relaxing, but that’s it.
there is no “very valid” — only valid or invalid
Restated for impact:
“Ms. Portman’s complaint is valid.”
The only apology he offers is no advanced warning. He doesn’t apologize for getting facts (like her age) wrong. He doubles down on his weirdness. Dude – she’s just not, nor was she, that into you. You came across creepy and your statements only confirm it