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CeeLo Green's TBS reality show canceled prior to backlash over Twitter rape comments

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Public criticism is mounting against rapper-actor CeeLo Green, a former judge on NBC's "The Voice" who was the center of a recent TBS reality series, after controversial statements he made via Twitter during the weekend regarding the nature of rape.

    by Shelli Weinstein, External or Unknown
    Published 

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Public criticism is mounting against rapper-actor CeeLo Green, a former judge on NBC's "The Voice" who was the center of a recent TBS reality series, after controversial statements he made via Twitter during the weekend regarding the nature of rape.

The tweets, now deleted from the account, asserted that women can only be raped if they are conscious, and compared rape to a home invasion. Green faced allegations of sexual assault in 2012, and on Aug. 29 pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to a drug charge.

The outrage stirred by the comments sparked calls for TBS to cancel the reality show "CeeLo Green's The Good Life." However, a source said the show was already axed after it completed its first season run earlier this year.

On Aug. 31 Green wrote:

"If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent."

"People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!," he added.

Here, @CeeLoGreen puts the onus on rape victims to prove they were raped, describes women as objects, like a house. pic.twitter.com/IIf8A4vr3C

Green had previously been accused of furnishing the drug ecstasy to a woman who alleged that he sexually assaulted her in 2012. The woman told investigators that she woke up naked in bed next to Green, though prosecutors did not pursue a rape charge on the grounds of insufficient evidence. On Aug. 29, Green pleaded no contest to one felony count of furnishing ecstasy to the woman. He was sentenced to serve probation and community service, according to the Associated Press.

Green's lawyer maintained that relations were consensual, and also filed a special plea that prevents the no-contest plea from being used against Green in civil court, or in criminal court if he faces another drug offense.

On Tuesday, as word of the weekend Twitter comments spread, despite having been deleted from his official account, the women's rights online org UltraViolet circulated a petition to pressure TBS to cancel "The Good Life."