Last week, former Smallville star Allison Mack was arrested for sex trafficking over her alleged role as a “master” in a sex-slave cult that masquerades as a women’s self-help pyramid scheme.
It has now come to light that she solicited other celebrities to join Nxivm.
Was she trying to turn Emma Watson and Kelly Clarkson into sex slaves for Keith Raniere?
On Friday, Allison Mack entered a plea of “not guilty” for sex trafficking and forced labor.
See, even if you pretend that it’s “empowering,” it is in fact illegal to coerce people to have sex through blackmail and the threat of beatings.
Yes, it’s still illegal even if the initials are already branded on that woman’s body.
Mack is, of course, accused of recruiting women to join the pyramid scheme and then selecting which women would be ordered to Raniere’s bed.
And now it’s come out that she may have very brazenly tried to recruit two very familiar names over twitter:
Beloved Harry Potter star Emma Watson and sometimes controversial American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson.
“I’m a fellow actress like yourself and involved in an amazing women’s movement I think you’d dig,” Mack wrote.
Her tweet continued:
“I’d love to chat if you’re open.”
A month later, when Watson still hadn’t taken the bait, Mack wrote:
“I participate in a unique human development and women’s movement I’d love to tell you about.”
Well … it certainly is unique as far as women’s movements go.
Allison Mack also wrote to Kelly Clarkson.
With Clarkson, she used a somewhat vaguer approach, apparently hoping to dazzle the Since You’ve Been Gone singer with her “star power.”
“I heard through the grapevine that you’re a fan of Smallville.”
Smallville ran for 10 seasons. Its fan base was relatively small yet very dedicated.
“I’m a fan of yours as well! I’d love to chat sometime.”
Those are deceptive friendly words for such an ominous tweet.
While it doesn’t look like Watson or Clarkson fell for Mack’s invitation, that doesn’t make this any less bizarre.
It’s not surprising, however.
Mack was said to have quickly become one of Raniere’s favorites because he liked having a celebrity (or close enough) to recruit more people to Nxivm.
It only stands to reason that, either of her own volition or acting on Raniere’s orders, Mack would seek other celebrities with whom she might have an “in.”
Emma Watson is an outspoken feminist, so Mack clearly hoped that calling Nxivm a “women’s movement” would help to draw her in.
And since Kelly Clarkson apparently likes Smallville, well, who wouldn’t want to hear from an actor from a show that they love?
It’s not clear if she was determined to rope them into joining the sex slave cult, or was just trying to get them both in the “normal” self-help part of the organization to draw in more members.
There’s no doubt that Allison Mack was a major recruitment tool for Nxivm.
But some have called into question how much a willing participant she was in the abuse that she allegedly doled out.
We don’t know all of the evidence that the prosecution will present, but prosecutors may find themselves in a tricky situation.
If they successfully prove that the women in Raniere’s DOS program were unwilling participants and sex trafficking victims because of abuse and blackmail and brainwashing …
… Might Mack’s defense team use that to argue that she herself was also a victim?
They might also try to argue that, if Mack was capable of making her own choices, that the victims were all there of their own free will?
We’re not saying that we believe those arguments, but this is definitely a complicated case.
We’ll see how things work out.