I guess this rape story has made Conor Oberst really famous, even TMZ is covering it now! TMZ, the tabloid website that is always talking about Chris Brown’s last victim or whatever happens in the Kardashians’ empty lives, is now mentioning indie hero Conor. Hey we are not in Pitchfork territory anymore! It’s pretty sick and useless as 99% of the people who check TMZ have never heard of Oberst – I have looked at the comments!
But it is actually a follow-up of the story which has very probably destroyed Conor Oberst’s peaceful sleep for the last past month. He is now suing, for more than $1 million, the woman who accused him of rape on the website xoJane. We even know that her name is Joanie Faircloth, and that she is from North Carolina, so I guess we can spy on her, and harass her on the internet now!
Interestingly, the lawsuit insists on ‘Faircloth’s history of inventing stories and personalities online in order to gain attention’… so did she make up everything just for the attention? Conor says he never even met her and I am ready to believe him. I just hope he can prove something and erase this story once for all! One thing is sure, this story is really embarrassing and when you look at Mrs. Faircloth’s MySpace page, it doesn’t make sense at all: Bright Eyes’ ‘First Day of My Life’, Desaparecidos’ Read Music/Speak Spanish’… really? She listens to the music of her rapist? That’s interesting! She put her Facebook page down for obvious reasons (well she has actually changed her name on Facebook), but apparently this is what she posted in a thread a few months ago: ‘The last time I saw Desaparecidos perform at the Cat’s Cradle, it was my 16th birthday and Conor pulled me up on stage and sang happy birthday. Best memory ever!’ err? Someone even archived it here!
On the other hand, her new facebook account and Google + are all about her sick son (she is married with a kid who has autism and a kidney disease). It’s very weird to look into someone’s life like this, but at the same time, she asked for it! I don’t know if her son’s problems were her motivation, there isn’t any trace of the rape allegations on any of these personal pages, and it’s hard to reconcile a desperate mother trying to save her toddler’s life with the obsessed fan accusing her idol of the worst… why is she doing this, she has already so much on her plate, and so far she hasn’t attempting any lawsuit, so this can’t be for the money?
In the last part of his statement, Conor Oberst clarified his intentions regarding the lawsuit: ‘Oberst is seeking to promote the truth and repair the distress this has brought upon him and his family. Oberst intends to donate the proceeds of this suit to charities benefitting the victims of violence against women.’
We will see how this story develops in the following months.