Hollywood Sexual Harrasment/Assault Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

More than a third of the way through (I think) the New Yorker article about Moonves and for some reason, the account by the writer Janet Jones had me a bit choked up.  I think it was the threats that she'd never work as a writer that truly got to me, after all she'd done to try to build a career.

 

Also, I'm now reading the part about the unnamed actress "who played a police officer on a long-running CBS program" and trying to figure out who it is. 

For some reason, the actress who played the cop partner on the drama Hunter immediately sprang to mind.  Then I remember that I used to watch Hunter on NBC.  Hunter was produced by Lorimar though, where Moonves was working during the late 1980s. I remembered the actresses name although when I did a quick online search realized I had misspelled her first name, Stepfanie, not Stephanie as I had spelled it. Kramer, I always remembered.  As a child, I was always reading the opening credits and sometimes, the closing credits too.

It was Stepfanie Kramer who immediately sprang to mind. 

 

I'll try to make it through the rest of this article.

[DRW50]

 

I had wondered if it was Sharon Gless. Gless had shows on CBS through 1992. I don't remember her working a lot on CBS post-Moonves taking over, aside from one appearance on Judging Amy (I may be wrong as I haven't checked her IMDB). The last C&L TV-movie aired in 1996, not long after Moonves took over CBS.  I know she was on QAF, and Showtime has ties to CBS, but I'm not sure he has a role over Showtime.

 

The part about how the men at 60 Minutes/CBS News treat women is also tough to read. It's unfortunate that this aspect of the article is mostly being forgotten by people who want to act like it's all a big campaign against Moonves.

Edited July 29, 2018 by DRW50

[DramatistDreamer]

 

According to the article, Moonves has been at CBS for 24 years, so he would've gotten to the network in 1994.  Not sure what his duties were and how much power he had to "greenlight" projects in his first years, but I am thankful that shows like Kate & Allie, Cagney & Lacey and Murphy Brown all preceded him.

 

I just looked up C&L and interesting that Gless and the show's producer Rosenzweig have been married since 1991.  Rosenzweig's wife Barbara Corday was one of the show's two original writers.  Also Loretta Swit appeared as Cagney in the pilot.

 

Ever since this story had hints of breaking, I've been saying that the culture of misogyny at CBS is so evident that it bleeds into their programming.  As someone in the article said, CBS is an old company...and I agree that this includes their mores.  Many are trying to fight those facts and what this means.  CBS has so much work to do in order to clean house.

Edited July 29, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[DRW50]

 

I remember the stories about that Kern guy who produces CSI New Orleans (or did, anyway) and they were so unsettling, this normality of an atmosphere where a woman felt so mistreated that she was ultimately forced to leave. 

 

The last year has been an eye-opener for me in that I knew women were not represented and that onscreen portrayals for most TV and film remain negative for women, but I didn't realize just how much of a level of everyday harassment was still present. I'd like to believe this will start to change...but...

[DramatistDreamer]

A brief anecdote:  I had a brief freelance stint at a television show when I was fresh out of college in the late 90s and at the show where I worked (which fittingly, was located in the Fox building), I discovered that there was a known harasser (just a few desks away from me) who was in the midst of a sexual harassment trial and was blithely arriving and leaving each day, looking as if nothing was amiss in his world.

Thinking of the look of smugness and entitlement on his face... galls me to this day.

 

Looking at Lorimar's history--Moonves worked there from 1985-1993 and he was president at Lorimar from 1990-1993, which is why I mentioned Hunter because Lorimar produced that show.  I think the actress mentioned that in 1995 when he landed at CBS, he told her that she should've f*cked him when she had the chance years ago when he made all those sexual overtures to her.  Disgusting.

 

Fager's part in this predatory culture is every bit as reprehensible.  Leslie Stahl may not have felt this but many women and a few men who were in less prominent positions obviously felt this.

[SoapDope]

If you are interested, Sharon Gless (and Tyne Daly) did interviews with The Archive Of American Television. Sharon Gless is hilarious and interesting. She talks about how she started out as a contract player in 1972 with Universal and stayed 10 years. She was the last contract player in the history of the studio system. When they did the 1981 C&L pilot TV movie. They wanted Gless from the start, but she was under contract with Universal. When it went to series, they tried to get her again, she was still under contract. They shot 6 episodes with Meg Foster as Cagney and CBS pulled the plug after 3 aired. Rosenzweig begged for another shot and told CBS he would get Gless. Her contract had come to an end by then and was able to snag her. 

 

Barbara Corday and her partner who wrote C&L in the 70's had always saw SG in the Cagney role. It took them 6 years to get a network to buy the series. Sharon said she knew when she started that the whole show rested on her to help Tyne make it work, which was a lot of pressure.  

[Faulkner]

Chen “addressed” the issue very briefly at the top of today’s Talk. She just said, “Some of you may be aware of what’s been going on in my life in the past few days. I issued the one and only statement I will ever make on this topic on Twitter. And I will stand by that statement today, tomorrow, forever.” And she just kept it moving to the hot topics. Pretty much what was expected. Sara and Sharon were absent with guest co-hosts filling in. 

 

Lots of chatter on social media about her statement being hypocritical (since she discusses everyone else’s business on the show) and cowardly, but I don’t know what they thought they were going to get. The Talk isn’t The View. It’s a much more canned, controlled show. Even The View probably would have kept mum on Bob Iger if he had such allegations levied against him, especially if he’d been married to the lead host.

 

The View would have likely milked the drama a bit, as they traffic in tears and discord between the women, although less now than in the past.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Faulkner

[reallyhateskateonlost]

So The Talk won't talk about it.

 

[Faulkner]

 

 

[Juliajms]

^ I'm not the least bit surprised. I fully expected him to get away with it.  10 more victims and they may have had a shot at getting rid of him.

[DramatistDreamer]

May CBS' stock continue to drop.  When it comes down to it, it is money not ethics, that speaks to these corporations.

 

As for The Talk and Chen.  I've only seen about 2 or 3 episodes (and not even complete ones) since the talk show has been on the air. 

Though I no longer watch The View, and haven't for about a decade, at least The View had some cultural impact at one time.  The Talk is a superficial chat show pretending to be impactful.  I don't expect Chen to demonstrate any ethical sense, it's clear she has no ethics.

 

 

[Faulkner]

At least Colbert addressed things a touch more forcefully. But, again, expected for his brand.

 

 

 

[ChitHappens]

 

Eve's response is no better!  Les says he's kissed women and sometimes he's made them uncomfortable.  Is it such a leap that he also made aggressive advances?!  We didn't think Matt Lauer had a device at his desk to lock women in his office, did we?  

 

If Cheryl and Sara don't believe they can speak freely, then it's best to not say anything.  Viewers would know how they felt but respect that they are trying to keep their jobs.  

[Faulkner]

A very good article about what’s at stake for CBS and Moonves right now:

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/leslie-moonves-future-cbs-viacom-sexual-misconduct-1202889777/

[Faulkner]