Moby is backing away from his insistence that he once dated actress Natalie Portman in an apology the musician posted Saturday on Instagram. “As some time has passed I’ve realized that many of the criticisms leveled at me regarding my inclusion of Natalie in ‘Then It Fell Apart’ are very valid,” Moby wrote on Instagram. “I also fully recognize that it was truly inconsiderate of me to not let her know about her inclusion in the book beforehand, and equally inconsiderate for me to not fully respect her reaction,” he continued. “I have a lot of admiration for Natalie, for her intelligence, creativity, and animal rights activism, and I hate that I might have caused her and her family distress,” he said. Moby’s claims were rebutted by Portman herself after the release of Moby’s new memoir Then It Fell Apart. Moby pushed back at her denial, even posting a shirtless photo of himself with his arm around Portman as proof, for several days before finally posting his apology. In an interview, Portman characterized their brief friendship as “creepy.” “I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school.” Moby concluded his apology, “Also I accept that given the dynamic of our almost 14-year age difference I absolutely should’ve acted more responsibly and respectfully when Natalie and I first met almost 20 years ago.” Moby is nearly 16 years older than Portman, according to publicly available birth dates.
A former business manager of Stan Lee was arrested Saturday on elder abuse charges involving the late comic book legend. Keya Morgan was taken into custody in Arizona on an outstanding arrest warrant after being charged by Los Angeles County prosecutors earlier this month. Morgan faces felony charges including theft, embezzlement, forgery or fraud against an elder adult, and false imprisonment of an elder adult. A misdemeanor count also alleges elder abuse. Authorities say Morgan sought to capitalize on the Marvel Comic mastermind’s wealth and exert influence over Lee even though he had no authority to act on his behalf. Police say Morgan pocketed more than $262,000 from autograph signing sessions Lee did in May 2018. Authorities say Morgan at one point also took Lee from his Hollywood Hills home to a Beverly Hills condominium “where Morgan had more control over Lee.” Lee’s daughter said in a request for a restraining order last year that Morgan was manipulating the mentally declining Lee, preventing him from seeing family and friends, and trying to take control of his money and business affairs. Lee died in November at the age of 95. Morgan’s bail has been set at $300,000. He will eventually be extradited to Los Angeles to face the charges.
