First off, our apologies for an error: Victoria imitated Tina Turner, not Diana Ross, on Johnny Carson's show. Here is Victoria's letter in its entirety, followed by my responses to her other points.
I suspected that the just released article by Gus Garcia- Roberts for the Miami New Times/Village Voice/LA Weekly, etc., (they are all connected), would be negative, knowing the liberal media and it's predictable slant. I asked Gus upon our first meeting, "Are you a capitalist or a socialist?" knowing the answer.However, I was still surprised to read an outright blatant lie and several other omissions and half truths. It still hurt. I expected Gus, who spent over 9 hours with me and my family, to exaggerate the fat/mental/religion stuff to make us out to be lunatics, but oh what a great job he did beginning with the article's title ..."rabid right"!
I did not "live in the shadow of her tormented (mental) aunt!" I met her once and she lived far away. Never thought about her.
The dolls in my mom's "doll room" are not in "various stages of disrepair and hair loss" inferring insanity.
Gus doesn't explain why I was always holding my Flip camera. One reason was to record our conversations to protect me from lies and the other reason is that I'm a citizen journalist these days, trying to emulate the wonderful O'Keefe and Giles in exposing fraud since the media has long since left that cause. I'm always camera ready.
Gus's biggest lie was that I was fired from SNL. That is simply not true. Dolores Robinson didn't even represent me in 1992. James Dixon from William Morris was my agent and Lorne Michaels told me I could stay at SNL as long as I wanted to. I'd been there six years, a year past my original contract, and I decided to leave since professionally, I was out of ideas, and personally, I was going through a divorce. I didn't want my little 4 year old to be home alone with a baby sitter now that her stay- at-home- dad was gone.
The alimony info was incorrect and I am legally not allowed to discuss it. My SNL salary was incorrect. I made more.
I quoted lots of Bible verses and urged Gus to include the Bible verses. He assured me he would. He did not. I also told him that I wanted it very clear that my remarks about the gay Glee kiss were not intended to accuse homosexuals, I'm a sinner too, saved by grace not by my works. Ephesians 2:8,9. I told Gus that Romans 1 puts gossip and homosexuality in the same paragraph as equally sinful. I told Gus that I am just very upset that TV shows are targeting children in prime time TV shows, brainwashing them into believing that homosexuality is a normal lifestyle. Gays have freedom to do whatever they want in the privacy of their homes, but they should not be teaching children to emulate them. And of course, gay marriage is just wrong.
When my dad said, "I'm homophobic!" Gus left out the rest of his comment. Dad said to Gus, "I mean, I would rather have a woman give me a massage than a man. Would you rather have a man or a woman give you a massage?" Gus said, "A woman." Dad said, "Then you're homophobic!" And we all had a good chuckle.
At the end Gus says we broke into "manic laughter." "Manic," "rabid." Yikes. I'm scared of these people.
The things Gus wrote about my brother were downright mean. My L.A. architect brother James is the smartest and funniest person I know and he told Gus funny stories for over an hour on the phone. Gus then twisted James' humility and honesty into cruel adjectives like fat and stupid. Strange.
My mom's family were not "zealots who went door to door preaching the evils of alcohol, caffeine, movies, music, etc." Where does he get this stuff? It sounds like a gross exaggeration of his concept of Christianity.
Gus's whole story about me flipping through rings of fire and my brother hanging over a log while I threw flames at it is all wrong! Gus is trying to describe the campfire show my Dad put on at Camp Ocala. Gus's story sounds like a satanic cult ritual.
More errors: Paul didn't dump me after our first engagement in 1979.
I didn't live in Johnny Crawford's guest house when I first arrived in LA. I slept on his couch for a month and told him "I don't sleep with men, I'm a Baptist virgin." I got a job at The Kipling Hotel, a retirement hotel on 3rd and Western. I fed old people three meals a day in exchange for room and board. I made this very clear to Gus. This is an important story because the cliche is that girls sleep their way to the top in Hollywood and I never slept with anyone to get ahead, including Johnny Crawford. I never lived in his guest house. He doesn't even have a guest house. Actually, I was never invited to any casting couch.
My first husband was not a sword swallower. He was a fire eater. My mother did not take me to my first gynecologist. Where did that come from?
It was Tina Turner not Diana Ross that I did on Carson. Our Connecticut home was not "colonial" it was a barn shape.
"She couldn't keep up" at SNL?! Then, why wasn't I fired for six years?!
Roseanne and Zsa Zsa were not my only recurring gags. Roseanne was!
The Bibles on cassette I gave my cast members were not all "angrily returned." Only one was.
I had a "sad, short stand up career"? I did it for 12 years. It wasn't sad or short. I'm not the best stand up but no one ever threw tomatoes at me!
Gus says most of my self made documentary is me sobbing in hotel beds. There is only one scene where I'm doing that, because I missed my kids.
"...then she discovered something life-changing; When she talked about Obama being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, people watched-and cared. Then job offers came." This is a lie. I gave my first "don't vote for Obama" speech in Oct. 2008 and went to my first tea party in 2009 before I'd ever heard of the Muslim Brotherhood. I only learned about them three months ago. Job offers did not come. I wrote blogs for Breitbart for no money in 2010. Then, for a pittance for WND in 2011.
"...cagey group of industry conservatives?" Where does he get this stuff?
The Citizen's United movie Hype did not make me shout "Orwell! 1984!" The movie Blocking the Path to 911 did.
All of his facts are mixed up.
The "loads of attention" I got for my gay Glee kiss comment was not instigated by me. It was 3 little sentences thrown into an article about the new Muslim women's magazine that taught mothers how to raise suicide bombers.
Gus insinuated that I got involved with politics to get attention or create a career. That is ridiculous. Being an out spoken conservative is a career killer. I'm simply worried about my America that is becoming communist and Obama must not be re-elected or America will be gone, a beautiful memory, like Brigadoon, or Camelot.
If I am ridiculed for loving the Ten Commandments, the Bible, Jesus Christ, and the Constitution, than I am humbled and honored to be persecuted for these amazing truths that I and many other patriots believe in.
(By the way, I was not naked beneath the flag and banner in the photos. I was wearing a shirt and denim jean shorts. My brother James was at the photo shoot. He's my witness!)
Why did I do the interview knowing the liberal media would lie, exaggerate and denigrate? I think all press is good press because it makes people think. I hope that my fading SNL fame will shine a sliver of light on the conservative cause and that maybe one person out there will do a double take and wonder if they've been brainwashed by the left, and maybe read a book and have an original thought and see that truth is the best way to go. Truth always wins in the end.
My responses: To address Victoria's claim that she quit SNL: The assertion that she was fired came -- as was made clear in the story -- from her former agent Dolores Robinson, who claimed to have inside knowledge of what happened there. The show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, declined to be interviewed for the story.
That Victoria made her first trip to the gynecologist after having sex with her future first husband came from an interview with Victoria herself in which she expressed shock that her mother even had a gynecologist for them to see.
As to whether her future second husband, Paul Wessel, dumped her during their first engagement, Victoria told us at different times that she returned the engagement ring and that he left her for the "girl that winked at him in church." He married that girl.
Dolores Robinson also told us that Victoria lived in Johnny Crawford's guesthouse and that she "was worried about her." The assertion that Victoria's first husband, Nisan Eventoff, was a sword-swallower in addition to a fire-eater came from Dolores's recollections as well as previous articles concerning Victoria Jackson's life.
The numbers concerning her alimony payments and salary on SNL came, as made clear in the story, from divorce records.
Victoria's dad, Jim Jackson, indeed asked me if I would rather have a Swedish massage performed on me by a man or a woman. I replied that I preferred a masseuse but did not agree that preference made me homophobic.
Update: Uh, Victoria has responded to our response to her response:
A Rebuttal to a Rebuttal to a Rebuttal by Victoria Jackson
This is getting silly, but I must write a rebuttal to the rebuttal to my rebuttal. Then, I will drop it.
I was not "dropped" from SNL. If Dolores Robinson said so, she lied. It was my choice.
The gynecologist story is all wrong. My mother did not take me. The truth is a much juicier story. I told Gus that Nisan, my ex- husband took me to "his" gynecologist, Dr. [redacted by New Times] of Beverly Hills. That's where he took all his women! When I walked in the door, Dr. [redacted] said, "Hey, Nisan, how's Rosa?" This statement hurt and shocked me and reminded me that I had given my virginity to someone who did not value morality or me. I actually wrote a song about my first gynecology visit and Dr. [redacted] framed it and placed it on his wall. [Redacted] was since arrested for molesting his patients, one of whom was Melanie Griffith. I read it in the paper. I was not surprised because I recall that he had walked me to my car once after a check up and inappropriately kissed me goodbye. That is the true story. Much more interesting than the mis-truth Gus wrote about my mom.
Dolores Robinson made another mistake telling Gus that she was "worried about me" when I lived in Johnny Crawford's guest house. First of all, Crawford doesn't have a guest house. Secondly, she was talking about Seymour Englander who let me live in a room in his garage for a couple months when I was in between apartments. I lived in 17 places in Hollywood while I worked my way up the show biz ladder. Seymour Englander was from South Africa and owned the wine club where she first saw me perform with Johnny Crawford. I was doing a handstand on the bar. Dolores was probably "worried about me" because the street I lived on in the garage, had a few murders take place there. It was Wonderland Ave.
Gus's divorce records are not complete, but do touch on some of the facts.
Not that it matters, but Gus did say he preferred a woman as a masseuse.
More errors include Gus's telling that I took my 17 year old to a "gay party" held by "my newest gay friend, Seth." Gus leaves out the fact that Seth was my next door neighbor and landlord in the Hollywood Hills and that I had to pass by his back yard to get to my front door. I did live in Seth's "guest house." Seth was being polite to invite us to his party. We had to pass by it anyway. We were polite to stop in for 10 minutes.
I also told Gus that my gay friend Glenn was the only person who ever believed in me or my career and that he flew to Miami in 1982 to get in my Toyota with me and my cat and her litter box to drive cross country back to L.A. after my guilt-ridden nervous breakdown. Glenn said I belonged in Hollywood. I even wrote a song about it, called "Handle Us With Care" that I gave Gus but he chose not to include:
1.
There were days in the gym
Trying to be slim
You know a woman is always too fat
There were years in the mirror
Trying to get nearer to the boy
Who was gone just like that
Chorus:
If only you knew
What me and my uke have been through
I think that you would handle us with care
2.
On the cheerleading bus looking down the long, dark road
After watching the football team play
The Best of Bread and Karen Carpenter wove through
My ukulele strings and sang all of my teenage angst away
If a picture paints a thousand words
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses
Baby I'm a want you, Baby I'm a need you
I'm on the top of the world
3.
On the way to LA with my gay friend in the car,
Route 66, we were young and naive
"You'll be a star," he would say, "Just let your ukulele play,"
"Let the world see the heart on your sleeve."
4.
All alone, don't phone home
There is nothing for you there.
Write a song, you'll belong to a dream.
Tell your cat where you're at. If you listen to his purr
He says, "nothing's as bad as it seems."
Chorus:
If only you knew what me and my uke have been through
I think that you would handle us with care
5.
Suddenly I'm on a stage
With the world at my feet
Vulnerable as a body can be
You're amazed at the sound when the curtain comes down
Of applause - how addictive it can be
6.
Then you give up your life to be a mother and a wife
And when no one can see you, you sigh
Dust your ukulele off and then you can release
All that jazz in a soft lullaby
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
7.
Now you sit in a chair with your first grand baby there
Crawling up to your grandmother knee
And you smile and you say, "What do you want me to play?
How 'bout that good ol' standard, Jesus Loves Me?"
Jesus love me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
8.
Now I'm ready to die and in the corner of my eye
I see my uke sitting in someone else's lap
The girl is strumming along, making up a song
'Cause she thinks I am taking a nap.
I think she has a clue what me and my uke have been through
And, I think that she will handle us with care
I think that she will handle us with care
I think that she will handle us with care
In conclusion, I don't know that Gus purposefully lied. He seemed like a nice person. My dad did say those inappropriate things about "fat" but Dad is 83 and occasionally speaks uncensored. My brother is not a "disappointment" or "300 pounds." My brother James Jackson is one of the top architects in the world, having worked with Richard Meiers and Frank Gehry and having designed portions of The Getty Museum and the Disney Music Hall in downtown Los Angeles. He should write an article on me. It would be hilarious and accurate!Update 2/5: She continues,
Please add these sentences right after this paragraph in my first rebuttal.I just remembered them. I told Gus but he "forgot."Gus's biggest lie was that I was fired from SNL. That is simply not true. Dolores Robinson didn't even represent me in 1992. James Dixon from William Morris was my agent and Lorne Michaels told me I could stay at SNL as long as I wanted to. I'd been there six years, a year past my original contract, and I decided to leave since professionally, I was out of ideas, and personally, I was going through a divorce. I didn't want my little 4 year old to be home alone with a baby sitter now that her stay- at-home- dad was gone.
Also, I had a "holding deal" with Gail Berman, Sandollar and Fox. They were paying me $ 60,000 to wait around while they wrote me my own sit com. It was called "Victoria" and George Clooney played my boyfriend. This was 1992, right before he got E.R. The pilot never made it to air, but I was paid. This is common in T.V. Clooney told me he'd been in 12 pilots up to that point. I'd been in Tom Dreesen's and Gary Burghoff's and more recently a Sofia Vergara project that never made it to T.V. After my pilot didn't make it, I settled in Miami with Paul because Scarlet was starting first grade.
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