A film about former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman has been dropped from the Sheffield Doc/Fest after an online backlash against his relationship with a teenage girl in the 1980s.
The bassist, a member of Stones between 1962 and 1992, had been due to do a Q&A session at the June festival and appear at the European premiere of a documentary about him, The Quiet One.
The festival has now pulled the plug on both after being alerted to Wyman’s controversial relationship with his second wife, Mandy Smith.
Wyman, 82, met Smith when she was just 13 and he was 47. Prosecutors considered bringing charges against him two years later, but decided to not take action. The pair subsequently married, when she was 18, but divorced in 1991.
The Quiet One, directed by Oliver Murray and produced by Gizmo Films, documents Wyman’s life using hours of unseen film footage and Wyman’s own diaries.
A message on the organisers Facebook page said: “Sheffield Doc/Fest has decided to cancel screenings of The Quiet One and the associated Q&A with Oliver Murray & Bill Wyman. All purchased tickets will be refunded.”
The documentary is still set to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on May 2nd.
