This makes me very, very sad.
If it’s true, then Bob has been using his position and fame to assault young women. That is disgusting.
If it’s not true, I think his reputation will be too damaged for him to go on. He is ruined even if innocent.
In any case, I think we will hear of his retirement very soon.
I think that sums the situation up perfectly: guilty or innocent, I can't see any easy way out of this for Bob to remain in his job now.
My problem is, no one else really knows the "guilty or innocent" answer for certain except for Bob's and Michelle's own personal interpretations of the same event. Disney obviously believed Bob's version (as there's absolutely no way they would have risked potentially damning brand-damage otherwise, especially if there was a photo sent to them) but Michelle has also made a very clear and compelling case on Facebook countering that opinion with her own side of the story. Sadly, Bob's guilt or innocence is probably now a moot point as this will all come down to whatever spreads fastest on the internet, and I think we all know how that will end.
My own concern, as I stated above, is that this all comes down to interpretation. I would be really amazed if in 20 years of arranging photo opportunities with assorted groups of people, hands had not occasionally landed in places where they should not have been while getting everyone lined up for a photo on that small stage area. And as I understand it, this incident was with quite a big group of Disney race bloggers, and presumably lots of cameras and mobile phones (which thinking about it in hindsight, would be a
really stupid time to think about groping someone!).
Michelle clearly interpreted this as a completely deliberate and malicious attempt to "feel her up", and quite rightly she regards this as abuse against her person and in the current climate she is adamant that needs to be addressed and action taken. However this is an interpretation that I suspect Bob may not agree with, but I honestly think that whatever he might say now will just add fuel to the fire and be treated as merely a cover-up - it's now a case of "damned if you, damned if you don't". The internet will have decided.
So I'm not saying who is right and who is wrong as I wasn't there so I can't know - and further evidence may still crop up anyway, as this allegation is only 24 hours old. What I am saying is that I like and trust both Michelle and Bob, so there are still questions in my own mind as to two potential interpretations of the same event, both of which may be utterly accurate in each person's recall.
Now how you resolve that I have no idea, but as I said above I can't see any good outcome of this for Bob no matter whether this situation was actually accidental or malicious.
Andre