Editor’s Note: The original version of this post appeared as a series of comments made by Kevin in the story Erika Durance Didn’t Like Allison Mack. Kevin’s comments have been combined into a post and edited slightly. His story about working with Mack sounds true, but I do not know who he is.
.By Kevin
What so many forget is that Allison Mack has friends, family members, and former co-workers devastated by what happened to her and who are suffering terribly. We were never in NXIVM and had no connection to any crimes.
We know a different Allison than the one the public knows. And this hurts. She was good to the crew on Smallville and to her assistants pre-NXIVM. When she gets torn to pieces, so do we. Think about that the next time you leave a comment or write a column about her.
Many of her friends who worked with her 15-20 years ago haven’t had contact with her in over a decade, and don’t have a way of communicating with her other than writing to her in prison.
There are so many websites, podcasts, and documentaries that have made her a topic of discussion, with people dumping on her because it’s the popular thing to do.
She cannot defend herself, and it’s beyond cruel when a former co-worker goes on another co-worker’s podcast and makes claims about her, knowing that she won’t be able to respond to them.
Allison is being punished and serving her time in accordance with her sentence. Why isn’t that enough? Why do people have to beat her up when she has nothing left?
And as far as what Erica Durance said, I’ll wait for Allison to address the comments herself. The truth is different from the popular, “Allison was mean to me” narrative in style right now.
Allison Mack with her attorney Sean Buckley
That members of the Smallville crew, her makeup and costume team, and her assistants pre-NXIVM have never been contacted by law enforcement or the press to get a more accurate picture of her is troubling.
Meanwhile, anonymous commenters condemn her. What’s bullshit is a guy who hides behind a fake name and doesn’t know her, and has never worked in the business pretending to be an authority on her life and what happened.
Some random guy who never met her. I knew her for close to a decade. You have as much of a place talking about her as I do talking about a member of your family.
And not once have I defended anything she’s done that was criminal, nor have I disparaged anyone who had a bad experience with her. What I have a problem with is the exploitative way her legal issues have been, and continue to be addressed.
Allison Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. By so doing, she avoided the more serious charges of sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy.
Friends and family members of prisoners who are not famous also suffer. I agree that their suffering should be acknowledged and that they should be free of discrimination in their lives. I never argued otherwise.
The difference is that Allison is still getting beat up in public and will continue getting beat up once she gets out. The average inmate isn’t the subject of multiple documentaries and podcasts. When does it end? When will people leave her alone?
I was on the crew and worked as an assistant until the later seasons when I changed careers and enlisted in the Air Force. I was unaware that Allison was in danger or needed help. I didn’t know what NXIVM was or that her health was failing.
Don’t you think I feel terrible about that? It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about before going to sleep every night for the last four years.
I’m not excusing anything that happened between Allison and the other women because I wasn’t there. They have the right to tell their stories.
But how many seasons of The Vow are necessary to tell the story? How many podcasts? How many books? The line between telling their stories and exploiting the situation has been crossed. The end result is that Allison will eventually be seen as a sympathetic figure.
I don’t like gossip and speculation, and I don’t like that there are people who continue to be hurt by this unnecessarily.
But you won. NXIVM is dead, and Allison is in prison. Congratulations. So why is everyone still here? Five years from now, are you guys going to be following her around if she goes to the grocery store to pick up milk? It’s weird.
