Katarina's Benzova absence

[Politania]

7 minutes ago, HollyWoodRose84 said:

Really hoping this entire thread doesn’t turn into members attacking other members. 

too late

[BillConnor_1982]

Someone needs to send this to TMZ etc. get it out in the mainstream press 

[Politania]

12 minutes ago, agustingloger said:

How can You prove something without accusing it?

oh yes you can. My ex boss had a master degree at it

[Uncle Bob]

[Spike Killer]

There is a lot I don't understand.

 

Benzova also accused Lebeis of once trying to force his way into her hotel room after she rejected his requests to drink wine with him at 6 a.m. In another alleged incident from May 2018, Benzova claimed Lebeis tried to force himself on her and “continued to pressure Benzova to succumb to his sexual demands for 10 minutes — physically touching her, coercing her, continually trying to force himself onto Benzova in a dark alley outside of her house.” 

 

This sounds very bad.  However, this is in May of 2018.  Bezova stayed with the band for several more years after this - until 2022.  I have questions about this incident, the exact nature of their relationship, and why it took another four years to report this.  

[dave94]

The copyright infringements certainly comes across as amateur whether there’s any malicious intent or not, it’s just not the way to manage a high profile multi million dollar global business. I’m not as clued up on the management as other members here, but everything I’ve ever heard about them has been negative, they don’t seem to have any experience outside of being personal assistants to Axl Rose.

Edited November 14, 2023 by dave94

[Eric Cantona]

3 hours ago, Słash said:

Logged in after 7 years! hope everyone is doing well.

This is extremely disgusing, really kick out TB and get a proper manager. 

I am honestly not surprised and won't be surprised if something similar happened with Mellisa too. 

 

Good to see you man

[BillConnor_1982]

15 minutes ago, Rodela said:

Axl is not married.

Fernando

[meadsoap]

9 minutes ago, Spike Killer said:

There is a lot I don't understand.

 

Benzova also accused Lebeis of once trying to force his way into her hotel room after she rejected his requests to drink wine with him at 6 a.m. In another alleged incident from May 2018, Benzova claimed Lebeis tried to force himself on her and “continued to pressure Benzova to succumb to his sexual demands for 10 minutes — physically touching her, coercing her, continually trying to force himself onto Benzova in a dark alley outside of her house.” 

 

This sounds very bad.  However, this is in May of 2018.  Bezova stayed with the band for several more years after this - until 2022.  I have questions about this incident, the exact nature of their relationship, and why it took another four years to report this.  

Well, as I mentioned before, in the four years between that incident and her departure from the band, Fernando and her didn't have much contact with each other. It probably made it easier for her to compartmentalize/separate her bad experiences with Fernando away from the rest of her time with the band.

After being let go and being hit with a copyright lawsuit, it probably made her very angry and less willing to brush aside the things Fernando subjected her to. 

[Wabby]

On 7/4/2023 at 12:01 PM, gavgnr said:

Rumor has it she wouldn’t benzova anymore 

This did not age well 😳

[Propaganda]

Are you seriously throwing my name around on a Kat Benzova thread? Or are you talking about another Andre?? She's really hot btw!

Anyways, Murph told me  that someone was throwing around my name here, so I thought I would come here and say my piece.

I haven't been around in forums or discord groups in ages! I get my GNR news from Murph and another dude, and very rarely I come here to check out the reactions when there's new songs and make a comment on it. But I haven't been active in the forums for a very long time (since the locker leaks).

I don't know why people still dwell on stuff that happened 15 years ago (!?!), but for what it's worth, you have my guarantee that I didn't do anything wrong recently and I can guarantee that I'm not involved in any attempts to get songs or leaks or whatever you wanna call it, if that's what I'm being accused of (I didn't read it but that's usually the topic where my name gets brought up).  As a matter of fact, I never leaked anything in my life, as I never had anything to begin with. 
I think the stories of all the leaks are readily available online for everyone to read anyways, so go read it, and anyone knows the real characters in those stories. 
My time in the public forums or discords is over, and I have no intentions of changing that. 

Furthermore, since I'm not active in the forums anymore, and if it makes you feel happier, mods you can go ahead and ban me from the forum, if you wish to do so. 
 

I hope everything's well with the few people I know from here. Cheers!

[axlsflannel]

2 hours ago, AxlRQ93 said:

Did GNR really have to say in their statement that she was “treated well”?

It comes off like a really at best insensitive and at worst unwilling to acknowledge any flaw pre #MeToo statement. Just painting her as a money hungry woman. 

It seems to me that the GNR 'statement' was perhaps composed by the accused scumbag himself. 

[meadsoap]

Considering Kat comes down hard on Fernando but isn't very critical of anyone else associated with the band, I think it's likely that she has some complicated emotions attached to all this. She could have been way harder toward GnR as a whole for letting this happen under their noses, whether they knew about it or not.

She worked and lived with these people for over 10 years, she dated Fortus and seemingly remained friends after they separated, and working with GnR has made up the bulk of her career. That's a lot of memories that this legal battle will sully. This lawsuit is probably painful for her too.

[Rindmelon]

Badapples forum. If you want to copy things iv'e said why not screen shot it and show it as it was, instead of editing it to look like I added more. 

Makes you look like window lickers

[WhazUp]

I know GNR is a rock band and with songs like Anything Goes, and all that, but to me on the business side of things it is mindblowing that a management team that conducts business and deals with contracting people for jobs didn't have any sexual harassment policies in stone - as well as an HR department

To me this is another reason why you don't just turn the family that did housekeeping for your ex, into your management team for a huge name brand and band

[ZoSoRose]

Just now, WhazUp said:

I know GNR is a rock band and with songs like Anything Goes, and all that, but to me on the business side of things it is mindblowing that a management team that conducts business and deals with contracting people for jobs didn't have any sexual harassment policies in stone - as well as an HR department

To me this is another reason why you don't just turn the family that did housekeeping for your ex, into your management team for a huge name brand and band

That song is also over 30 years old, as is that entire era of the band. Ideally, they would grow up and function like decent people. They like to outwardly appear as if they do. It is no doubt all of GNR were gutter trash- scumbags in the 80s and 90s that no doubt did horrible things to people that did not deserve it. In an ideal world, they'd have grown up. 

 

[IndiannaRose]

1 hour ago, AxlRQ93 said:

I thought they were Mexican too. They aren’t?
 

Why would they be Mexican? Is Axl Canadian?

[JAxlMorrison]

It’s kind of irritating to know that this nepotism hire with no experience had no respect for the opportunity he was given, tried to use his power to force Kat to do whatever, and god knows how many others. Plus his ignorance and incompetence puts in jeopardy all the blood sweat and tears the members of the band have left on the stage for the last 7 years. This is what happens though, when you let one screwup around, and even give him an important position. He can take the whole house of cards down with him, and he probably would/will, since we all know how he feels about the fanbase. 

[WhazUp]

Just now, ZoSoRose said:

That song is also over 30 years old, as is that entire era of the band. Ideally, they would grow up and function like decent people. They like to outwardly appear as if they do. It is no doubt all of GNR were gutter trash- scumbags in the 80s and 90s that no doubt did horrible things to people that did not deserve it. In an ideal world, they'd have grown up. 

 

Yeah for sure.  I would be very curious as to how much Axl and everyone else in the band knew about all of this, in particular the stuff with Fernando and the harassment. 

Either way, even if they didn't know, to me it is inexcusable in 2023 to operate a huge business operation without any sexual harassment policies and procedures to deal with such in the workplace - especially when that workplace is within the entertainment industry where sexual harassment is already out of control even within companies that have those policies to begin with

[alfierose]

Those of you who were here almost a decade ago might remember I reached out to Kat to do an interview about being the tour photographer for GNR.

It was a bit of a bizarre experience and all this certainly sheds some light on why.

I sent in a set of very tame questions for approval via the publicist at the time. Virtually nothing that mentioned GNR or Axl by name was approved. It all had to be taken out. I'm not talking controversial stuff here - if I recall correctly one rejected question was something like 'Do you have a favourite photo you've taken of Axl?'

It was meant to be a GNR fan forum interview with their tour photographer however by the time what was written was re-written enough to get approval you wouldn't really know she had very much to do with them at all.

For what it's worth I didn't get the impression this next to no mention of GNR or Axl allowed rule came from Kat or the publicist.

 

 

[ZoSoRose]

Just now, WhazUp said:

Yeah for sure.  I would be very curious as to how much Axl and everyone else in the band knew about all of this, in particular the stuff with Fernando and the harassment. 

Either way, even if they didn't know, to me it is inexcusable in 2023 to operate a huge business operation without any sexual harassment policies and procedures to deal with such in the workplace - especially when that workplace is within the entertainment industry where sexual harassment is already out of control even within companies that have those policies to begin with

For sure, all you have to do at a minimum is use any of the many resources already drafted and built out. You can tweak them to your organization from there. I don't know if GNR has someone who is a part of SHRM, though 

[bangit]

1 hour ago, ZoSoRose said:

the sexual allegations 

Allegations. Unproven. Fernando is probably an arsehole for many many reasons. I don't know him but what I do know is that this at present these are purely allegations and despite the shitshow of GNR, everyone is entitled to a fair 'trial'. Interesting how a significant proportion of the issues here relate to money. #justsayin

 

[ZoSoRose]

3 minutes ago, JAxlMorrison said:

It’s kind of irritating to know that this nepotism hire with no experience had no respect for the opportunity he was given, tried to use his power to force Kat to do whatever, and god knows how many others. Plus his ignorance and incompetence puts in jeopardy all the blood sweat and tears the members of the band have left on the stage for the last 7 years. This is what happens though, when you let one screwup around, and even give him an important position. He can take the whole house of cards down with him, and he probably would/will, since we all know how he feels about the fanbase. 

He is the definition of a hanger- on

[James Bond]

5 minutes ago, ZoSoRose said:

He is the definition of a hanger- on

Beggars & Hangers-On?

[Lio]

35 minutes ago, Propaganda said:

Are you seriously throwing my name around on a Kat Benzova thread? Or are you talking about another Andre?? She's really hot btw!

Anyways, Murph told me  that someone was throwing around my name here, so I thought I would come here and say my piece.

I haven't been around in forums or discord groups in ages! I get my GNR news from Murph and another dude, and very rarely I come here to check out the reactions when there's new songs and make a comment on it. But I haven't been active in the forums for a very long time (since the locker leaks).

I don't know why people still dwell on stuff that happened 15 years ago (!?!), but for what it's worth, you have my guarantee that I didn't do anything wrong recently and I can guarantee that I'm not involved in any attempts to get songs or leaks or whatever you wanna call it, if that's what I'm being accused of (I didn't read it but that's usually the topic where my name gets brought up).  As a matter of fact, I never leaked anything in my life, as I never had anything to begin with. 
I think the stories of all the leaks are readily available online for everyone to read anyways, so go read it, and anyone knows the real characters in those stories. 
My time in the public forums or discords is over, and I have no intentions of changing that. 

Furthermore, since I'm not active in the forums anymore, and if it makes you feel happier, mods you can go ahead and ban me from the forum, if you wish to do so. 
 

I hope everything's well with the few people I know from here. Cheers!

As far as I know, Andrei Gilott was talked about, not you.