VIDEO VAULT: "Blame It On The Rain," Or The Cruel And Racist Exploitation of Milli Vannili
In 1991, I was an executive with a NYC and London-based company and on a business trip in Los Angeles. Me and my assistant, both of us staying at The Mondrian, were rolling calls in my room when the day took a grim turn. First, we heard sirens, then the sound of running outside the door. Thinking there was a fire, we stepped into the hallway and heard the shocking news. Robert Pilatus, one half of the disgraced Milli Vanilli pop group, had jumped to his death from his room in the hotel. When we went to the lobby, we learned from staff that this wasn't quite true. Yes, Pilatus had indeed tried to jump - after taking pills and slashing his wrists - but was talked down by police. He wouldn't be so lucky next time. In 1998, he was found dead in a hotel room near Frankfurt, Germany from a fatal overdose of pills. That day in 1991 was the first time in which I didn't regard Pilatus and his Milli Vanilli partner, Fabrice Morvan, as some sort of pop music joke, or a silly footnot