That's the question being debated today by fans and foes of the boy band, after the mega-selling popsters refused a hospital visit to a leukemia-stricken girl in Michigan.
Five-year-old Morgan Zalewski, the little girl undergoing painful chemotherapy, had asked to meet the Backstreet Boys when they perform this weekend in suburban Detroit. But the boy band backed out, saying they were too busy.
"We used every resource we possibly could," said Patricia Flack, director of the Rainbow Connection, an association that grants wishes for dying and seriously ill children.
Morgan wasn't angry with the group, and she still plans to see their performance this weekend. "That's how she is," said Morgan's father. "She accepts it and just goes on."
While she seemed to forgive and forget, the perceived diss became fodder for local newspaper editorials and outraged newsgroup banter. "May this band collapse and be forgotten about," read a typical posting in the alt.showbiz gossip group. "They do not deserve fans."
In response to the backlash, Backstreet finally issued a comment Friday. The popsters' publicist says the band gets "thousands and thousands of requests" daily from organizations like the Rainbow Connection and can't possibly fulfill them all.
The Florida quintet also reminding everyone that they were honored by the Make-A-Wish foundation as the 1999 Celebrity Wish Grantors of the Year.
