Justin Bieber's Mother Produces Pro-Life Film
Justin Bieber's mother produced a pro-life film which she hopes will help raise millions of dollars to support pregnancy centers.
Pattie Mallette, the pop music star's mother, served as executive producer of the film "Crescendo," alongside Eduardo Verastegui, the lead actor in the 2006 Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award-winning film, "Bella."
Starting Feb. 28, the film will be screened at 100 different locations on opening weekend with the goal of having 1,000 screening events worldwide by the end of 2013. But the producers of the film and production company Movie to Movement have an additional goal in mind: raise $10 million to support pregnancy centers nationwide.
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In her book Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber's Mom, which she wrote with author A.J. Gregory, Mallette says she was sexually abused as a child and started using drugs when she was just 14-years-old. She left home at age 16, turning to petty crime in order to support her unhealthy habits, and at age 17 threw herself in front of a truck and wound up in a mental health center as a result.
It was there that she became a Christian. Once released, she fell back into old habits until she became pregnant with the child of then-boyfriend Jeremy Bieber. Though faced with tough circumstances, she decided to have the baby instead of having an abortion.
"I knew that I had to do what it took. I just couldn't abort him," she wrote in her book, referring to Justin. "My hope through this involvement is to encourage young women all over the world, just like me, to let them know that there is a place to go, people who will take care of you and a safe home to live in if you are pregnant and think you have nowhere else to turn," Mallette, who received help from a pregnancy center as teenager, said in a statement about the film
In an interview with Rolling Stone published in February 2011, Justin was asked about his stance on the abortion issue.
"I really don't believe in abortion," he told the magazine. "I think [an embryo] is a human. It's like killing a baby."
After the interview was released, a "source close to the singer" told New York Daily News that Bieber's statement on the issue wasn't conveyed correctly by the article's author, who vehemently denied that was the case.
More recently The Chicago Sun-Times interviewed a "longtime Bieber associate," who suggested that Bieber is uncomfortable with the attention his mother is receiving because of her film.
"Justin just is very uncomfortable about political issues – especially ones like abortion that are very divisive," the anonymous associate stated. "He's all about entertaining his fans with his music and not interested in pushing a political agenda. ... Furthermore, I don't believe he agrees with his mom on this issue."
"Crescendo" has won over a dozen film festival awards. Mallette plans to make appearances at several screenings of the film, where she will share her story in person.
