Remember, it wasn't just Payne who signed the petition, it was practically half of Hollywood. I'm not going to defend Payne's signing of that petition, but I'm going to speculate that he probably got caught up in the "mob mentality" of defending "one of their own" that the rest of his colleagues did. Kinda like when a lot of Penn State students got irrationally defensive of Joe Paterno after the sex abuse scandal.
For me, hearing that Payne signed the petition isn't quite as disappointing as hearing that Martin Scorsese also signed it too.

Thanks for posting thatbelieve it or not in the year since I posted that comment (on multi signers boards) I've had no answer, just arguments from other people saying to drop itI have always had the belief, if you sign your name to it you should be able to give a reason whythanks again
don't you know there ain't no devil, theres just God when he's drunk

The only one I heard explain signing it was Debra Winger and she said it was because is was so long ago and didn't amount to much. She may have had other reasons but I don't recall them. I guess drugging and tricking a kid is ok if you make well-respected movies.
"Did you make coffee? Make it!"Cheyenne.