The Backstreet Boys are on defense, following a media report that the boy band was unwilling to meet with a 5-year-old girl suffering from leukemia. An article in the Michigan newspaper Macomb Daily News recently stated that the band refused to meet young Morgan Zalewski when their tour took them to the Detroit area. The request was made by the Rainbow Connection, an organization that strives to grant the wishes of dying and seriously ill children. "We used every resource we possibly could," Rainbow Connection director Patricia Flack was quoted as saying.

The story was picked up by the national media, painting the teen heartthrobs in a less-than-favorable light. "We are hurt by these reports that we deliberately did not see an ailing child in Detroit," says the band, which was honored as the 1999 Celebrity Wish Grantors of the Year by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "We are committed to our fans and whenever possible make every effort to meet as many as possible. Due to our current tour schedule and the amount of requests we receive, we're unfortunately unable to meet everyone. We offer our regrets to the Zalewski family and send our best wishes to Morgan."

"We are thankful for the generosity that the Backstreet Boys have shown and continue to show our wish kids," Make-A-Wish President Paula Van Ness says in the same statement. "As one of today's most popular music groups, the Backstreet Boys are extremely busy, but they make a special effort whenever they can to fulfill the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses."

Flack also makes it clear that she had no problem with the Backstreet Boys. "We were disappointed," she says, "yet completely understood that it is not humanly possible to respond to all of them." The Rainbow Connection, the Associated Press reports, is sending the Zalewski family to Disney World.

The Backstreet Boys are currently on tour, promoting their album Millennium. Since its release in May, the album has been certified eight-times platinum in the United States, and at press time had actually sold almost 6.8 million copies domestically, making it practically a lock for the best-selling album of 1999.