Get Out! GAY Magazine – Issue 505
Featuring content from the hottest gay and gay-friendly spots in New York, each (free!) issue of Get Out! highlights the bars, nightclubs, restaurants, spas and other businesses throughout NYC’s metropolitan area that the city’s gay a population is interested in.
Featuring content from the hottest gay and gay-friendly spots in New York, each (free!) issue of Get Out! highlights the bars, nightclubs, restaurants, spas and other businesses throughout NYC’s metropolitan area that the city’s gay a population is interested in.
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CELEBRITY INTERVIEWER EILEEN SHAPIRO<br />
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LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!<br />
“ Titanique is<br />
the greatest piece<br />
of theater I have<br />
EVER<br />
SEEN! ”<br />
The Daily Beast<br />
“UNDOUBTEDLY<br />
THE<br />
<strong>GAY</strong>EST NEW<br />
MUSICAL.”<br />
Zachary Stewart,<br />
TheaterMania<br />
Nothing on Earth Could Come Between Them.<br />
Except Céline Dion.<br />
BOOK BY<br />
MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS BY<br />
Nicholas Connell<br />
CHOREOGRAPHED BY<br />
Ellenore Scott<br />
DIRECTED BY<br />
DARYL ROTH THEATRE<br />
101 EAST 15TH ST, NYC<br />
TELECHARGE.COM<br />
800-447-7400<br />
TITANIQUEMUSICAL.COM<br />
@TitaniqueMusical<br />
#Titanique<br />
@Titanique
BY EILEEN SHAPIRO<br />
CELEBRITY CORRESPONDENT<br />
DAVID KOZ<br />
WORLD RENOWNED SAX PLAYER<br />
RELEASES CHRISTMAS BALLADS<br />
(25TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION)<br />
As a Christmas celebration, saxophone guru<br />
David Koz and friends released his eighth<br />
holiday album, which will be followed by a<br />
tour for the season. The album features the<br />
romantic tunes of the season and songs which<br />
Koz has never recorded before. It features<br />
pianist David Benoit, trumpeter Rick Braun and<br />
guitarist Peter White. Dave’s music is defined<br />
by virtue and integrity and is forged by the<br />
force of the joy of the season.<br />
The album includes classics such as “Ave<br />
Maria”, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”--once<br />
recorded by John Lennon--and “Merry<br />
Christmas, Darling,” known for the Carpenters’<br />
version. Beyond all else Dave Koz’s music<br />
is the magic of the holiday. <strong>Get</strong> <strong>Out</strong> spoke to<br />
David regarding the season….<br />
INTERVIEW >>><br />
Hello, Dave. What inspired you to do<br />
the songs that you chose?<br />
Well, I don’t know if you know this, but<br />
I’ve had a lot of Christmas albums. This<br />
is number eight. The biggest challenge<br />
from this one was committing to recording<br />
10 songs that I never played before and I<br />
never recorded before. That was the lens<br />
by which we started. We were able to find<br />
10, and thanks to the producer Kalik, who<br />
I worked very close with on this project,<br />
we reflected kind of a nice part about<br />
Christmas that we hadn’t yet worked on.<br />
I recorded an album that kind of set the<br />
tone for this particular moment, where this<br />
is kind of like on a night where you have<br />
a party and guests over. After they leave,<br />
you put all the decorations away, clean the<br />
dishes. And then you sit down in your living<br />
room with a fireplace a nice cocktail and<br />
maybe somebody special. That’s what this<br />
album reflects--that more quiet, often more<br />
romantic side of the holidays.<br />
What inspired you to make Christmas<br />
album since you’ve made so many of<br />
them?<br />
The funny thing is, I’m Jewish. How does<br />
a nice Jewish boy from Los Angeles have<br />
25 years of Christmas tours and eight<br />
Christmas albums? The main thing, really,<br />
is that I love the music. Even though I<br />
didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas,<br />
I used to go to my friend’s house and<br />
decorate the tree. Music was such an<br />
important part. There’s so much meat on<br />
the bones of these songs.
That’s why you hear every year people<br />
doing renditions of classic Christmas<br />
songs in so many different ways. You can<br />
kind of push and pull them in different<br />
directions and they hold up. The other<br />
main reason is because we started this<br />
tour 25 years ago and we never imagined<br />
that we would be doing this 25 years<br />
later. Because of the audience and the<br />
people that come and bring their kids,<br />
and those kids grow up and bring their<br />
kids, it’s become a family tradition in all<br />
the cities that we go to. Oftentimes in<br />
companionship with a tour, I like to put<br />
certain music together.<br />
Now you’re going on a tour, and you do<br />
this every year?<br />
Yes. This is our 25th annual. Although we<br />
didn’t tour in 2020 because of the covid<br />
situation, we did do a live stream. So we<br />
kept consistent, and here we are at our<br />
25th anniversary. Unbelievable.<br />
Who’s your favorite saxophonist?<br />
I grew up listening and idolizing a man<br />
named David Sanborn. Another New<br />
Yorker. He was kind of like my chief<br />
saxophone mentor and then many years<br />
later, we got to collaborate on my new<br />
album, which came out in 2020. David<br />
Sanborn and I wrote a song and performed<br />
together. That was kind of a full circle<br />
moment for me. To be able to collaborate<br />
with the guy that I grew up listening to. It’s<br />
just a weird thing, like a kid in a bedroom<br />
playing albums of his favorite saxophone<br />
player and then I’m standing next to him.<br />
The reality of that hit me hard.<br />
Have you had your ultimate stage<br />
fantasy yet, and if not, what would it<br />
be?<br />
I’ll tell you what was great--getting to play<br />
with one of my heroes, Dean Martin. That<br />
sticks out. Capitol Records did a Dean<br />
Martin tribute album, and I was signed to<br />
Capitol at the time. I was asked to play a<br />
duet with Dean Martin on an album. That<br />
was really amazing because you could<br />
hear his voice in the headphones and<br />
it was almost as if he was in the room,<br />
right next to me, singing. I don’t know<br />
why that came to mind when you asked<br />
the question. I had so many of that kind<br />
of moment playing on the road with Barry<br />
Manilow. I opened up tours for him and<br />
then played his show. He and I have<br />
been great friends for a long time. Also,<br />
getting to work with Rod Stewart on stage<br />
or Stevie Wonder. I played with him live.<br />
Playing Madison Square Garden with a<br />
young band called Wolfpack. They sold out<br />
the Garden. I remember playing Carnegie<br />
Hall with another artist, and my mom flew<br />
all the way from Los Angeles to see me<br />
be a support for another artist for a few<br />
minutes on the Carnegie Hall stage. So,<br />
there are a lot of those kind of moments,<br />
tons of “Pinch me” moments. But I can’t<br />
really say that I’m bereft of those moments<br />
or need another one. But if another one<br />
happened to happen, I welcome it, of<br />
course.<br />
Is there anything that you want to tell<br />
me that I haven’t asked you?<br />
The main thing is that we’re very excited<br />
to bring our show out for our 25th<br />
anniversary. It stars a trumpeter, Rick<br />
Braun, and a guitarist by the name of<br />
Peter White. They are sort of the earliest<br />
cast members of this tour. So, for our 25th<br />
anniversary, we wanted to have them be<br />
part of the tour. This tour will also feature<br />
Keiko Matsui on piano--a fantastic artist,<br />
and she’s probably been on our tour<br />
like four or five times. So she’s kind of<br />
a veteran. And then we are featuring a<br />
young vocalist named Rebecca Jade for<br />
the second time. She was with us last<br />
year and people fell in love with her, so we<br />
invited her back. She is a fantastic singer<br />
with an album of her own. The key to this<br />
album has always been collaboration and<br />
the core of how it all comes to be and have<br />
it all sort of attract this audience that is<br />
so supportive of us, especially for holiday<br />
music. It’s about supporting each other,<br />
for our artistry to thrive. And it’s a really<br />
wonderful ride, and I look forward to it.
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LIVING WITH HIV SINCE 2018<br />
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ABOUT BIKTARVY<br />
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POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY<br />
BIKTARVY may cause serious side<br />
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Those in the “Most Important Information<br />
About BIKTARVY” section.<br />
Changes in your immune system.<br />
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Tell your healthcare provider if you<br />
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Continued on next page.<br />
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REAL BIKTARVY<br />
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ZACH<br />
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HUGO<br />
CHAD<br />
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DIMITRI<br />
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Tell your healthcare provider if you:<br />
Have or have had any kidney or liver<br />
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Have any other health problems.<br />
Are pregnant or plan to become<br />
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Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to<br />
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Tell your healthcare provider about all<br />
the medicines you take:<br />
Keep a list that includes all prescription<br />
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antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal<br />
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BIKTARVY and other medicines<br />
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Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or<br />
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GET MORE INFORMATION<br />
This is only a brief summary of important<br />
information about BIKTARVY. Talk to<br />
your healthcare provider or pharmacist<br />
to learn more.<br />
Go to BIKTARVY.com or call<br />
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If you need help paying for your<br />
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Please see Important Facts,<br />
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week in pictures >> BY WILSONMODELS / wilsonmodels.blogspot.com<br />
MISS BIG ADAM'S APPLE 2022 @ INDUSTRY<br />
SUNDAYS @ THE EAGLE
week in pictures >> BY WILSONMODELS / wilsonmodels.blogspot.com<br />
FUQBOI @ REBAR<br />
LECHE @ HUSH
BY EILEEN SHAPIRO<br />
CELEBRITY CORRESPONDENT<br />
VINCENT PATERSON<br />
ICONS AND INSTINCTS<br />
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2022 SETHAFFOUMADO.COM<br />
Legendary choreographer, director, producer<br />
and a million other things Vincent Paterson<br />
(with writer Amy Tofte) has unleashed his<br />
inspiring new book, Icons and Instincts.<br />
Globally acclaimed for being the choreographer<br />
for artists including Michael Jackson, Madonna,<br />
Björk, Lucille Ball, Liza Minnelli, Shirley<br />
MacLaine, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and<br />
a parade of at least 100 others, Paterson<br />
celebrates his behind-the-scenes escapades<br />
and anecdotes. His hope is that his stories are<br />
entertaining and inspiring and in his own words<br />
“a reminder of how we each choreograph the<br />
steps to our individual dances in life.” He also<br />
wishes that his recollections “might offer insight<br />
into what it means to be a working artist in a<br />
volatile industry.”<br />
Paterson has choreographed, directed and produced for film, theater, Broadway,<br />
concert tours, operas, television, music videos and commercials. His works<br />
include Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal and Madonna’s Blonde Ambition<br />
Tour, as well as Berlin’s first original production of Cabaret. He is now happy to<br />
share his renowned experiences with the world.<br />
INTERVIEW >>><br />
Hello, Vincent. You are a director and a<br />
choreographer, which came first?<br />
I directed first when I was in college, then<br />
an actor, then after being a dancer for many<br />
years, I became a choreographer and then<br />
back to directing again.<br />
What made you want to become a dancer?<br />
It was kind of accidental. I was working in<br />
Tucson for a while, I was walking back and<br />
forth past the dance studio every day. I was<br />
a theater person, not a dancer at all. I kept<br />
hearing this music come out of the studio and<br />
I stepped inside and asked if I can maybe<br />
take a class. It was a ballet studio and the<br />
woman that ran it said, “We don’t really have<br />
adult classes, but you could take a class with<br />
these young teenagers.“ That’s how I started.<br />
Changed my whole life.<br />
So how did you come to work with Michael<br />
Jackson and Madonna and all those super<br />
famous people that you worked with? How<br />
did you get that reputation?<br />
I did a lot of dancing once I moved back<br />
down to Los Angeles. I traveled the world with<br />
Shirley MacLaine. I was Barbara Mandrell’s<br />
partner on her TV show for two years. I<br />
auditioned for “Beat It”. Michael Peters, who<br />
choreographed it, was a mentor of mine. I<br />
auditioned for it and got it.
That was my beginning of knowing Michael<br />
Jackson. The second thing I did with<br />
him, I assisted Michael Peters and was<br />
a dancing zombie on “Thriller”. After that,<br />
I started almost creating everything for<br />
Michael Jackson. I began with “Smooth<br />
Criminal”, which I conceived and created and<br />
choreographed. I did his first solo tour and<br />
went on to do maybe four or five other short<br />
films or videos with him. I choreographed<br />
them as well as directed them. I did his<br />
Super Bowl performance, Grammy Awards<br />
and many, many other things. Through<br />
Michael Jackson, I had met a commercial<br />
director, Joe Pytka, who<br />
directed “The Way You<br />
Make Me Feel”--one of<br />
Michael Jackson’s pieces<br />
that I choreographed--and<br />
Joe was directing a very<br />
controversial commercial,<br />
as it turned out, for<br />
Madonna for Pepsi. He<br />
called me and asked if<br />
I would come down and<br />
help. He said Madonna<br />
didn’t want to sing and<br />
dance, but he wanted<br />
me to be there anyway.<br />
She walked past with<br />
her entourage and Joe<br />
attempted to introduce me<br />
as a choreographer and<br />
she said, “I don’t need a<br />
f****** choreographer”. That was my intro<br />
to Madonna. I then went on to do the video<br />
for “Express Yourself” and then “Vogue”.<br />
I directed and choreographed the Blonde<br />
Ambition tour. And many other things I did<br />
for her, like the Marie Antoinette version<br />
of “Vogue” for MTV, the film Evita. Once<br />
it all began, it just kind of steamrolled. It<br />
continues to this day, and I’m very grateful<br />
for that.<br />
Of all the people that you directed and<br />
choreographed, who has been your<br />
biggest challenge?<br />
I think the biggest challenge as a<br />
choreographer may have been Whitney<br />
Houston. As sweet as she was, she was<br />
really uncomfortable with moving. So that<br />
was a little tough. Donna Summer was<br />
the same way. She was happy to learn,<br />
but she just wasn’t that comfortable with<br />
moving. Those were the two trickiest, I<br />
think. What I tried to do, Eileen, is I try to<br />
look at a person’s body and see how they<br />
move and then try to create movement<br />
that I think makes their body look good. As<br />
a choreographer, that’s the way I always<br />
worked. Even Bjork, when I choreographed<br />
Dancing in the Dark, I watched her a little bit<br />
and used movements that I thought worked<br />
well for her body and it did. I called her a<br />
Teletubby because she was just so sweet<br />
and kind of moved that way. So that’s the<br />
way I try to work. I tried to<br />
work my body into the way<br />
their body moves, and if it<br />
feels good on mine, I know it’ll<br />
feel good on theirs.<br />
I’ve interviewed a million<br />
people on the planet, but<br />
I never really interviewed<br />
choreographer, so this<br />
is really exciting to me.<br />
I always ask musicians,<br />
“How do you come up with<br />
lyrics and what inspires<br />
instrumentals?” so I want<br />
to kind of ask you the same<br />
thing. What inspires you to<br />
come up with movements?<br />
How do you think of them?<br />
I followed something<br />
that Michael Jackson once told me at<br />
the very beginning, when I first started<br />
choreographing for him. He gave me<br />
“Smooth Criminal” and he said, “I want you<br />
to take this music, don’t impose anything<br />
on this music. Let the music tell you what it<br />
wants to be. Listen to it again and again and<br />
again and let it tell you what it wants to be.”<br />
And that’s kind of how I choreographed my<br />
whole life. I don’t impose an idea on a piece<br />
of music. When I hear a piece of music, I<br />
think, “Wow, I really like this” and then I listen<br />
to it intensively for what could be 100 times<br />
or more. Then, images start to come to my<br />
head. They start off abstract and then I go<br />
into a studio and ideas come.Like circles or<br />
squares I see in my head when I get into a<br />
studio. I start to put that feeling on my body<br />
and move along with it.
who is also a playwright. She had gone to<br />
see this documentary that was done about<br />
me and came back and said, “That was<br />
incredible”. She said, “Have you ever written<br />
anything?” And I said, “Yeah, I’ve written a lot<br />
of journals.” When I worked around the world<br />
a lot, I never got to take somebody with me.<br />
I would pick up an assistant wherever I was<br />
working. So I gave her some of my journals.<br />
Between the work that was in the journals and<br />
the interviews that she did with me, that’s kind<br />
of how we put the book together.<br />
I learned a lot from Hermes Pan and what<br />
he did with Fred Astaire when I was first<br />
beginning to choreograph, to understand you<br />
don’t have to choreograph to five, six, seven,<br />
eight. I could follow a string line or a flute line<br />
and be inspired that way. Having worked in<br />
the theater, grown up in the theater, basically,<br />
a lot of the choreography I’ve always created<br />
has had a narrative theme or substance to<br />
it. I like dancers being characters in a way,<br />
expressing a story with movement.<br />
So, with everything that you’ve done,<br />
a book was inevitable. What made you<br />
decide to write this book?<br />
It actually was my co-writer who urged me.<br />
There was a documentary about me called<br />
The Man Behind the Throne. That’s kind of<br />
how I lived my career, mostly. In the early<br />
career, I was behind the scenes and didn’t<br />
get much credit for what I did, although my<br />
stuff was highly visible by billions of people<br />
around the world. I thought, “Let me move<br />
forward with this career. And let me see what<br />
if it works for me.” I just kept following my<br />
heart and found that by doing that, doors<br />
were opening for me. One person would see<br />
the work and give me a call and I’d work with<br />
them and move on to something else. That’s<br />
the way it kind of came about. It’s a beautiful<br />
career. I directed a play for my co-author<br />
I wanted to create a book that had a reason<br />
to exist. To give people the insight behind<br />
the process of how some of these major<br />
entertainers actually work when they’re in<br />
the rehearsal studio. I thought that would be<br />
interesting for people. For young artists, it<br />
was an important book because it talks about<br />
being prepared, and that’s a really important<br />
lesson. You never know when opportunity’s<br />
going to afford itself to you and you want to be<br />
ready. Take some classes, take some acting<br />
classes, take some voice classes. If this is<br />
really the career that you love, be prepared.<br />
The third reason was people look at my<br />
situation, and when you read the book, I think<br />
you’ll understand this better. They look at the<br />
successes that I’ve had and they think, “Oh,<br />
my gosh, you’ve had it so easy.” Well, yes, on<br />
one hand. We hear so many more nos than<br />
we do yesses, so we have to be strong and<br />
listen to that instinct that tells us that we’re on<br />
the right path.<br />
Have you had your ultimate stage fantasy<br />
yet?<br />
I think creating the blonde ambition tour for<br />
Madonna and changing the base of Pop<br />
tours. I think that was so fulfilling for me. To<br />
be able to bring theatrical talent to the pop<br />
arena, and now look and see that that’s the<br />
course that everybody has taken. In terms of<br />
that, I’m very happy. The Pope actually said,<br />
“With the Blonde Ambition tour, Satan has<br />
been rereleased into the world,” and I thought,<br />
“Oh, my God, I did that.” So I guess you can<br />
call that an ultimate stage fantasy.<br />
So, is there anybody that you haven’t<br />
worked with that you wish you did or that<br />
you still want to?<br />
In the music world, I’ve always wanted to<br />
work with Lady Gaga.
I think that she is a really incredible talent<br />
on many, many levels. I just sent a book<br />
for her to read and I hope she enjoys it.<br />
She is someone that I thought that we<br />
would collaborate beautifully together. In<br />
the acting world, a great actress that I’ve<br />
never had an opportunity to work with and<br />
whom I absolutely adore is Meryl Streep. I<br />
got to work with Glenn Close and she was<br />
brilliant. I’m a kid who came from very poor<br />
area down south of Philadelphia; there<br />
was no culture around there. But I always<br />
knew I was destined for something else. I<br />
didn’t know how and<br />
I worked my butt off<br />
because we were<br />
very, very poor. I was<br />
able to get some<br />
scholarships to go<br />
on to college. And<br />
that changed my life.<br />
And that’s another<br />
important part of the<br />
book, that we don’t all<br />
have things handed to<br />
us and we really have<br />
to work hard to get<br />
what we want.<br />
Is there any question<br />
on the planet that<br />
you would want me<br />
to ask you?<br />
One thing that I’m<br />
really concerned<br />
about, and I write<br />
a whole chapter<br />
about it, is about<br />
the lack of equality<br />
for choreographers.<br />
I’m not really<br />
choreographing anymore, but I’m fighting,<br />
fighting, fighting for choreographers to<br />
get first of all credit for their work and<br />
equality with pension health and welfare.<br />
Some form of ownership because we kind<br />
of work for hire, so we own nothing. And<br />
the consequence of that is hundreds and<br />
millions of people have seen my work,<br />
but they don’t really know it’s my work. If I<br />
was to try to put my work up at a concert,<br />
I could be sued. I own absolutely nothing.<br />
We’ve been advocating, and there is a<br />
new group now called the Choreographer’s<br />
Guild that has some very powerful players,<br />
and it’s very exciting. We have bylaws,<br />
we have a board and executive board,<br />
executive directors, and now we’re pushing,<br />
pushing, pushing for membership of<br />
choreographers on the West Coast that<br />
deal with the electronic industry film and<br />
video, but also live theatrical. So, those<br />
things are very important to me. I also want<br />
to campaign the Academy to give an award<br />
to choreographers. I have an agent here<br />
and the two of us have been talking to the<br />
CEO of the Academy and two women on<br />
executive boards<br />
to find out how<br />
we can get more<br />
choreographers in<br />
as members first<br />
so that eventually<br />
choreographers will<br />
have a voice. I’ve<br />
read letters from<br />
1962 questioning the<br />
board on why they<br />
don’t have awards<br />
for choreographers.<br />
That’s 60 years ago.<br />
This has to change.<br />
The thing that’s<br />
disturbing to me is, I<br />
am a member--Mike<br />
Nichols supported me<br />
and got me in when<br />
I did The Birdcage<br />
for him. This is what<br />
I mean about credit.<br />
Even though I had<br />
the main title credit on<br />
that film, a gentleman<br />
named Mark Harris<br />
wrote a biography<br />
of Mike Nichols and in it he says one of<br />
the greatest improvisations that Robin<br />
Williams did was the eclectic celebration of<br />
the dance, “Fosse, Fosse, Fosse, Michael<br />
Kidd, Michael Kidd, Madonna, Madonna”.<br />
Well, that was mine. I created all of that<br />
from nothing. And because you were just<br />
so overlooked because lack of education,<br />
people don’t know what we do. They didn’t<br />
step any further to find out if Robin had<br />
actually done that or where it came from,<br />
so he just took it upon himself to say Robin<br />
did it.
VICK Y DE VILLE<br />
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