Heidi Hutchinson
By Heidi Hutchinson
I’m a huge fan of Shivani’s unabashed, free-flowing writing style and often agree with her, however in her article –Allison Mack Decided to Be the Snidely Whiplash of Female Empowerment, but She Was Really White Trash – Shivani missed the mark.
Before Shivani showed up here on Frank Report, there was much discussion about the New York Times Magazine NXIVM interview(s) in which Allison Mack took the credit for dreaming up the branding.
Allison Mack at United States District Court in Brooklyn in May 2018. .Photo Jemal Countess/Getty Images
From the New York Times Magazine: “In her apartment, I was surprised to hear Mack take full responsibility for coming up with the DOS cauterized brand. She told me, ‘I was like: “Y’all, a tattoo? People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle ‘BFF,’ or a tramp stamp. I have two tattoos and they mean nothing.”’ She wanted to do something more meaningful, something that took guts.”
The general consensus supported by the facts and circumstances is that that New York Times Magazine story — which appeared in May 2018, months after the branding story broke — after the arrests of Keith Raniere and Allison Mack but prior to the arrest of Clare Bronfman — was part of an entirely contrived, expertly planned and staged, criminal defense media misinformation strategy — down to NXIVM’s preselection and manipulation of the young female writer, Vanessa Gregorialis, who was flown to Mexico to conduct the interviews at the Mex-NX headquarters in October 2017, in addition to visiting Allison Mack at her alleged Brooklyn high-rise apartment where, in fact, Mack was only briefly situated — or, perhaps, “where she was ‘set-up’” is a more apt description.
As the DOJ themselves pointed out in media reports at the time of Allison Mack’s rather surprising arrest: Allison “took the fall” — starting with the false and possibly forced ‘confession’ she made in that Gregorialis interview.
So, sorry Shivani, I loves ya but I find it a bit unfair of you to judge Allison based on her lies to Gregoriadis in that yarn that was, obviously, spun by some expert defense strategists.
I agree that Allison should not have made a martyr of herself or “taken one for the team” — as she seems to view it.
Allison Mack was overheard in a crowded restroom in court by writer and filmmaker Roberta Glass saying, “I’m used to taking one for the team.”
Allison should not have lied for any reason but the distinction for me is that Allison was, indeed, not only strung-up like a marionette — including by Nxivm’s powerful purse strings — but was strung-out on Keith Raniere and Nancy’s Kool-Aid for many years prior.
In fact, Allison’s starring role in Nxivm — which Kristin Kreuk also auditioned for — “Pinochiette Takes the Fall” — was cast waaaaaay back before she ever set foot on the Bronfman jet, IMHO.
Allison Mack and Kristin Kreuk at a Nxivm gathering. Kreuk recruited Mack into Nxivm. They were co-stars on the TV show Smallville. Kreuk was able to quit the notorious sex cult. Mack stayed in and wound up being charged for various felonies and secured a plea deal with two felonies – racketeering and racketeering conspiracy.
Lauren Salzman
Lauren Salzman persuaded Allison to admit [lie] that the branding was Allison’s idea when she knew damn well it was Keith’s idea.
Here is another quote from the New York Times Magazine article
To be honest, I was surprised that she was sitting there at all. And Mack told me that she’d been experiencing some anxiety talking to a reporter. It felt “scary and pressureful,” she said.
But Lauren Salzman, who along with Raniere and Clare Bronfman had guided my highly controlled tour of their world, helped her by telling Mack to cast her mind back to when she was a child and received praise at the same time that other kids didn’t. This made Mack feel uncomfortable. But now she was surmounting her fear. “So when I was 8, I created a conclusion and built a foundation of my assumptions that was faulty,” she told me. “Now that I’m 35, I can look back at that 8-year-old’s belief. And I can say, ‘Oh, that doesn’t make any sense anymore.’ ” She continued, “Boom, my belief system is upgraded.”
And so “boom”… Lauren helped Allison get her belief system upgraded – upgraded to lying that she thought up the branding.
Nice work, Lauren.
