It is typical now, whenever an immediately important photograph appears, for Twitter to start drawing Fibonacci spirals over it and declare it an accidental Renaissance work, whether it is Angela Merkel standing over a truculent Trump, or that brilliantly debauched New Year’s Eve scene from Manchester a few years ago. Many were similarly quick to point out the pristine golden ratio of Lazarus Jean-Baptiste’s shot of the US TV presenter Gayle King interviewing R Kelly in his first media engagement since he was charged with 10 counts of sexual abuse (including nine against three victims aged between 13 and 17) in February. In the throes of denying the charges and numerous other, similar allegations, Kelly stands in the right-hand third of the frame, wrathful, shouting, pointing into the studio lights, as undone as the dismantled coffee cup at his feet. Standing slightly towards the back of the shot, he almost appears to be levitating with the force of his anger. On the left, King remains sitting, staring forward, as calm and still in the face of Kelly’s performance as the bottle of water by her chair. While the image’s proportions are perfectly in line with Renaissance composition, Jean-Baptiste’s undeniably artful shot seems drawn from a more prosaic school: its depiction of male power and aggression is so textbook, it could come straight out of a stock imagery catalogue. The photograph has become a flashpoint amid the allegations surrounding Kelly. Even more so than in his recent mugshots, there is a sense of an alleged abuser being held to account – an image that becomes more potent in a week where allegations of sexual abuse surrounding Michael Jackson, Kelly’s former collaborator, reached an irrevocable pitch when Jackson is no longer around to face them. Kelly’s demeanour is revealing: if this is the manner in which he proclaims his innocence – screaming, weeping, pointing aggressively – in a media setting, then how might he wield his power in the private settings detailed by many of his alleged victims, in which they say he makes them call him “daddy” and ask for permission to use the toilet? In the interview from which the photograph was taken, Kelly claims that this is his first opportunity to discuss the matter – an obvious falsehood given that the Chicago Sun Times’s Jim DeRogatis has been pursuing this story since 2000. It might have been Kelly’s first opportunity to discuss the matter in what he perceived to be a safe environment – opposite a woman, comfortable in the knowledge that if King rose to his bait, her emotions would become the story. This is another way that abusers, the kind that Kelly is accused of being, wield power against their victims: a crying woman is a hysteric whose testimony is unreliable. An angry man is impassioned, virile. 02:28 R Kelly denies sexual abuse in first interview since criminal charges – video Yet as undone as Kelly is here, he is not a good enough actor to conceal his obvious performance. His lines are so corny and rehearsed (“I have been buried alive, but I’m alive”) that King calls him out on playing the victim. Before and after his outburst, he asks whether the camera is on him, and addresses the audience directly, imploring them: “Use your common sense.” When he stands to rage, the studio lights illuminate the contours of his face with cinematic drama. He knows what he is doing. Unfortunately for Kelly, the lights also capture a disembodied man’s hand around his arm – that of a publicist or manager standing directly behind him – suggesting he rein it in a bit. The looming hand is as prosaic as it is surreal, the chiaroscuro machinations of the celebrity apology complex made flesh.<doc-sep>Gayle King is being praised for keeping her composure as R. Kelly seems to lose his temper during his first interview since the rapper was charged with aggravated sexual abuse. In pictures Ms. King posted of the upcoming CBS interview on Instagram, the R&B singer is seen standing over her, appearing to yell at the reporter. “rkelly sits down for first intvu since @survivingrkelly doc & let’s just say he has lots to discuss tomorrow…,” Ms. King posted. The full interview will be released on Wednesday and Thursday. The journalist is getting praise online due to looking calm and composed as someone holds back Mr. Kelly. “In the face of my worst enemies, I aspire to keep a composure like Gayle King’s,” Antonella Morales tweeted. In his first interview since being charged, Mr. Kelly said through tears that “he didn’t do this stuff” and added that he is “fighting for his f—-ing life” in clips released. The singer was bailed out of jail in February after being arrested and charged with aggravated sexual abuse against four people, including three underaged girls. He has pleaded not guilty. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>"I gave you all 30 years of my career! Thirty years of my career! Y'all trying to kill me!" he screams, pointing aggressively at the cameras. "You killing me, man. This is not about music. I'm trying to have a relationship with my kids. And I can't do it. Y'all just don't want to believe the truth. You don't want to believe it."<doc-sep>CBS The "CBS This Morning" anchor reveals what was going through her head when R. Kelly stood up shouting and started flailing his arms toward her, and how she kept her cool. King also revealed how Kelly asked her crew if he could stop interview with his girlfriends. It's the interview people can't stop talking about, as Gayle King sat so calmly while R. Kelly unraveled before her eyes. She dropped by "The Late Show" Thursday night to unpack all the wildness and take Stephen Colbert behind the scenes. She also threw some pretty wicked shade toward Fox News, understandably a little irritated after commentator Jesse Watters conflated her and Robin Roberts. The co-host of "The Five" faced a little heat after he complimented King's interview, saying it redeemed her for her previous interview with Jussie Smollett. The only problem is that wasn't King at all, that was Robin Roberts. Watters' co-host Dana Perino corrected him, which King appreciated, and so she sent a lovely email to show her gratitude, while slipping in a pretty barbed dig at both Watters and the entire network. Watters also apologized on air. King told Colbert she wrote, "Hi, I just wanted to thank you for letting your colleague know that Robin Roberts and I -- It was a great compliment, but thank you for letting him know that we're two different people. And could you let the rest of your colleagues know that all black people do not look alike. Could you please just share that." As the audience cheered, she added with a smile, "Yes I did. I said that to her." Colbert couldn't help but offer his own praise for her work in that interview. Not only did she ask the right questions, and challenge Kelly when he tried to evade her questions or get completely off-topic (at least to the best of her abilities), she showed remarkable poise in the face of a rather volatile and unpredictable subject. R. Kelly is currently facing ten charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He denies those charges as well as all of the allegations of sexual abuse and underage sexual abuse that have been levied at him over the years. He was acquitted of similar charges years ago. The singer is currently incarcerated for unpaid back child support, having been arrested shortly after this interview, which could also have led to his volatile emotional state. "I could see him getting more heated," King said. "He was upset with me about some of the questions; that's okay. He was a little irritated; that's okay." But when he stood up and started flailing his arms, that's when her poise really stood out. And Gayle said it was a calculated decision to sit there so calmly, and even say his name in that soothing but stern manner. In fact, her first concern wasn't for her safety, it was that he might leave. "So I decided if I sit there quietly, make eye contact with him," she said. "I thought the minute I walk up and say-- If I stood up, like, 'Calm down!' ... So I thought if I just sit there quietly looking at him, he would know I'm not going anywhere and I'll just wait for you to finish whatever this is and then you'll sit back down in the seat, and he did that." She also thought, "You're looking a little crazy right now, please sit back down." When it came time to interview Kelly's girlfriends, Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage, King had no idea that R. Kelly had slipped back into the room. "R. Kelly comes back in so he can hear the conversation; he's out of my eyesight and he's out of the girls' eyesight, too," she said. "But when there was a question he didnt like, and I can't remember what it was, you hear this." At this point she started aggressively coughing. King thought it was someone on her staff very unprofessionally ruining the interview, but it was Kelly. She also revealed that he was pacing back and forth off-camera and even going so far as to ask her crew if he should go in and shut down the interview. Of course, they said no. "I am told that R. Kelly is talking to members of my own team," King recalled, adding that Kelly asked her crew members, "'They're doing okay. They're doing okay? Should I go in there and stop it? Should I go in and stop it?' He's having a dialogue with people in my team!" As for the girls themselves, King noted how angry they both were during that interview, and said she even got an apologetic phone call from Clary's father afterward. "That is not the daughter I raised, I don't know who that girl is, I'm so sorry," she recalled him saying. She even admitted after her interview with them aired Thursday morning that her own motherly instincts had her wanting to snatch them up and take them away. "It's a bad situation. I think one day years from now, everybody will look back on this and say it's very sad, very tawdry and just very very ugly," she said. "We don't know how the R. Kelly story is going to end, but what I do know is those girls are going to need their family sooner I think rather than later, so it was heartbreaking," she told Colbert Thursday night. As for Kelly, King admitted that she never expected him to break down and confess to anything. "I did think that on some level he would have a moment of reflection, he would have contrition," she admitted. "So it became very troubling to me to see him really just fall apart. She went on to add, "I thought we were witnessing the self-destruction of a man having a breakdown, and that's never a good thing to see." Viewers will get to see even more of King's reportedly 80-minute interview with Kelly in an hour-long special set to air Friday night at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Got a story or a tip for us?<doc-sep>
"CBS This Morning" anchor Gayle King is continuing to share details that didn't make it into her explosive two-part interview with R. Kelly. The latest tidbit came in a Friday interview with Time Magazine in which she shared what she really wanted to tell Azriel Clary, one of the singer's girlfriends, during their contentious conversation, in which she and Jocelyn Savage reiterated some of Kelly's more shocking claims, like their families "sold" them to him. "What I wanted to say – but I didn’t want to get snippy with her the way that she got snippy with me – was, 'Listen, listen, little girl, you don’t even know what you’re saying right now,'" King told Time. '"And one of these days you’re going to regret this moment. You’re going to regret this moment, you’re going to regret this time in your life.” But I saw no point in chastising her or, as the young children say, breaking bad with her the way she did with me." King shared other behind-the-scenes details with "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert on Thursday and revealed what was going on in her mind during some of her tense exchanges with Kelly himself. "Absolutely everyone is marveling, including myself at your composure in this moment," Colbert said holding a photo up to the camera of an impassioned Kelly standing over King. "What's going through your mind at this moment?" "When I see Robert getting really upset, and he stands out of his seat, my initial reaction is, 'Oh, God, please don't leave, please don't leave, please don't leave,'" King explained. "We've seen him storm out of interviews before. So I thought he was gonna do that, and I was thinking, 'I'm not done with my questions. What can I do to save this interview?'" "So, I thought if I just sit there quietly, looking at him, he would know I'm not going anywhere, and I'll just wait for him to finish whatever this is and then he'll sit back down in his seat, and he did that." More:R. Kelly's 'girlfriends' defend him to Gayle King: 'Our parents are out here just to get money' More:Gayle King praised for composure in R. Kelly interview: I thought 'let it play itself out' Referencing a clip from the sit-down in which King attempted to calm Kelly by addressing him by his first name, Colbert deemed King's reply "instantly legendary." "If anybody yells at me, for the next year, I'm just gonna go, 'Robert,'" he cracked. "I thought, 'I'll just be calm, say his name,' 'cause you know when somebody says your name, it is soothing," King said. "I'll say his name, he'll know that I'm here, and he will eventually sit back down." As she mentioned earlier in the week on CBSN, King said she wasn't afraid of Kelly during the interview, though, as she told Colbert, she "worried that he would accidentally hit me." "If you could've seen the thought bubble it would've been: 'Ruh-roh! Please sit back down,' " she said on "The Late Show." " 'You're lookin' a little crazy right now. Please sit back down.' That's what I was thinking." Later in the interview, King took a more serious tone. "When I went into the interview, Stephen, I knew he wasn’t going to say, ‘Gayle, you’re right. I’ve done terrible things,’" she said. "But I did think that on some level, he would have a moment of reflection, he would have contrition. "It became very troubling to me to see him really just fall apart. I thought we were witnessing the self-destruction of a man having a breakdown, and that’s never a good thing to see – never." Contributing: Maeve McDermott More:R. Kelly says he has $350K in the bank: 'People have been stealin' my money' More:Timeline: R. Kelly's history of sex-abuse arrests, indictments and lawsuits over the years More:Gayle King says 'all black people don't look alike' after Fox News mix-up with Robin Roberts