How not to make a controversy go away

The initial story has already been widely reported (Fox, CNN, ESPN Radio, Drudge, etc.). Mother (Jan Chagnon) and son (Cory Favreau, 24) are discussing “American Idol” when he assaults her and is taken into custody after resisting arrest. Mothers being what they are feel a need to protect their offspring even when they’ve just attacked them. So this mother sets out to set the record straight and downplay the incident to the national media. The explanation is almost Kennedy-esque in it’s absurdity:

“It’s not like he repeatedly hit me over the head … I had to get only one stitch.”

“…[he] was attempting to rumple up her hair when he mistakenly cut her head open with the bottle opener, which had been a free gift with the purchase of two packs of Camel cigarettes.(Note: the bottle opener consists of a bike chain attached to a cross-shaped, sharpened medallion bearing the West Coast Choppers insignia.)

“[He] was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, he forgot he was holding onto the bottle opener at the time.”

“He was having a relapse from his drug addiction.”

“[He] had taken a bunch of hydrocodones throughout the day and one pill of Klonopin, a medication used to treat panic disorders. [He] was also drinking 160-proof vodka while they watched the “American Idol” finale.”

The mom said that by the time of the alleged assault she had consumed five beers herself.

She said her son is a caring person who would never even hurt an insect but she also said that when police tried to arrest Favreau he wrestled with them a little bit.”

I love this women’s perspective of how to quell a controversy and only wish she had been the spokesperson for Patrick Kennedy.

tags: Jan Chagnon Cory Favreau american idol

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 8:27 am by Insider and is filed under Loons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.