Brian Presley and Melissa Stetten Twitter Scandal

Overview

Brian Presley and Melissa Stetten Twitter Scandal began with a series of live-tweets by model Melissa Stetten claiming that married actor Brian Presley was harassing her while intoxicated on a flight in June of 2012.

Background

On June 6th, 2012, model Melissa Stetten began live-tweeting her interactions with actor Brian Presley while aboard a flight from Los Angeles, California to New York, New York. In the tweets, Stetten claimed that Presley denied being married, removed his wedding ring while in the bathroom and became intoxicated after drinking several alcoholic beverages. Additionally, Stetten retweeted an article in the religious blog Christianity Today^[15] detailing Presley's recovery from years of alcoholism. Within two days of the incident, Stetten gained over 14,000 new Twitter followers.

No thanks, Brian, the actor sitting next to me on this flight talking about his role with Kurt Russell and his spiritual beliefs.

— Melissa Stetten (@MelissaStetten) June 6, 2012

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On June 6th, 2012, the story was published on several sites including the men's interest blog Manolith^[13], the tech news blog Now Public^[2], The Daily What^[20] and the pop culture blog Hyper Vocal.^[14] The same day, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[1] posted Stetten's live-tweets as well as Presley’s last tweet prior to the incident, which read:

@JoelOsteen has changed my life! God wants to do amazing things with our life! Choosing Gods way isn't always the easy way!

— Brian Presley (@Brian_Presley) May 23, 2012

On June 7th, the "Oh No Polio" Tumblr^[10] blog posted screen shots of the tweets, which received over 21,000 notes within 24 hours. The same day, the Tumblr post was subsequently submitted in a post to the /r/funny^[12] subreddit by user vanwyngarden, which received over 19,800 up votes and 2,700 comments within 24 hours. Also on June 7th, Redditor Nacho_Average_Libre submitted a post titled “Bad Luck, Brian”^[9], which included a head shot of Presley comparing him to the Bad Luck Brian advice animal. Within 21 hours, the post received over 7,700 up votes and 400 comments. Within 21 hours, the post received over 7,700 up votes and 400 comments.

Presley's Response

On June 8th, 2012, Presley denied Stetten's claims in a post on his official Facebook^[11] page, affirming that he was sober and remained dedicated to his wife and children. The same day, Stetten tweeted a screenshot of Presley's Facebook post with the description "Now THIS is funny."

Now THIS is funny… twitter.com/MelissaStetten…

— Melissa Stetten (@MelissaStetten) June 8, 2012

Blog Coverage

In the following days, Stetten's tweets were picked up by mainstream celebrity publications like People, Glamour, Gawker and The Guardian, and led to several column articles of varying opinions about Stetten's tweets and Presley's denial.

Shortly after Presley's Facebook status update on June 8th, Daily Mail's columnist came in defense of Presley and questioned the reliability of Stetten's allegations. The next day, The Guardian's Alex Clark raised a concern with the influence of Twitter on our everyday privacy.

On June 11th, Jezebel's Hugo Schwyzer countered Daily Mail's column with an article titled "Creepy Dudes Who Can’t Take No For an Answer Are Fair Game for Mass Ridicule," in which he asserted that the media coverage of Stetten's tweets as misperceived and defended her action for not doing "what women in her position are 'supposed' to do, which is quietly put up with the come-ons of older married dudes in various stages of intoxication."

That same day, Mediate's Tommy Christopher posted an editorial piece titled "Model Melissa Stetten’s Live Ruination Of Brian Presley Proves Twitter Beats Facebook," which pointed out that Presley's Facebook response was incompatible with the speedy exchanges on Twitter "where egos must compete in real-time mortal combat."

Biographical Information

Brian Presley (shown below, left) is an American actor who has appeared in Beverly Hills, 90210, Any Day Now and 7th Heaven. From 1999 to 2003 Presley played the character Jack Ramsey on the soap opera Port Charles. He played high school football star Scott Murphy in the 2011 film Touchback. He is married to actress Erin Hershey Presley and has two children.

Melissa Stetten (shown above, right) is a model who lives in New York, New York. On May 15th, 2012, she published a post on her personal blog^[16], which described her experience moving to New York and break up with former boyfriend Anthony Cumia of the satellite radio show The Opie and Anthony Show.

Search Interest

External References