Hollywood Sexual Harrasment/Assault Thread

[DRW50]

Gravitas is not a word I would use to describe Savannah Guthrie.

 

I think that Charlie Rose did a lot to help build up CBS This Morning to be relatively competitive (albeit still a fairly distant third), so I don't think he was never 'unneeded' for their ratings, but I do think that Lauer was a drag on Today for a long time. 

[DRW50]

Vanity Fair talks about Weinstein's bullying and games with AMFAR, which caused all kinds of upheaval with the board. 

 

I had forgotten Liz Taylor co-founded AMFAR. I wonder if she ever had any runins with him or if by the time he came around she was already out of the game.

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/harvey-weinstein-nightmare-finding-neverland-amfar-money

[Vee]

The Streep posters are made by an alt right troll avenging Trump.

 

(Another alt right troll also apparently coordinated  negative spamming of the new Star Wars' Rotten Tomatoes score because they feel the series is being 'feminized', but that's another story.)

[amybrickwallace]

I hope she finally divorces the creep and takes him to the cleaners!!

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/pagesix.com/2017/12/20/matt-lauers-wife-is-lawyering-up/amp/

 

He totally jumped the shark after the Ann Curry debacle.

Edited December 21, 2017 by amybrickwallace

[DRW50]

Another piece on the allegations against Gary Goddard. I found this difficult to read. 

 

I have a feeling he is going to get through this stuff unscathed so it was very brave of these men to come forward, especially since you can tell while reading it just how many years it's haunted them and likely helped lead to one of their deaths. 

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-goddard-accusers-20171220-story.html

[alphanguy74]

These stories about Matt Lauer and the door lock button do not wash. There's no way any woman could be trapped in a locked room with him with no escape, all she would have to do is manually open the door.

[ChitHappens]

It has yet to be disputed that Lauer could lock his door from his desk.  I don't believe he locked women in, but it was a sign that he wanted them to stay.  I would be scared as hell if my boss asked me into his office and locked the door behind me when he has an office in a secluded area of the building.  

[amybrickwallace]

People might have escape routes, but can still be frozen in fear...especially if it's a man who has considerable power over a woman in both size (height and weight) and professional status. I know I was, and it wasn't even a work situation. 

[Vee]

 

Not a chance. There's been stories about him for years and now they're all going public.

[alphanguy74]

Oh, I'm sure he had the button, but I've seen people right and left jumping on that, acting like he had to ability to trap women inside a locked office with the button under his desk, which is just not possible. Why would you be scared if your boss locked the door? I would assume he wanted to talk about something important and didn't want interruption. If I were "scared" of being alone in a locked room with my boss, I wouldn't be working there. Period.

[ChitHappens]

 

Why lock the door?  Usually, a closed door means "do not disturb". 

[alphanguy74]

Ian McKellen hit the nail right on the head.

http://deadline.com/2017/12/ian-mckellan-sexual-harassment-women-kevin-spacey-1202229600/

[I Am A Swede]

 

I don't think anyone has denied that this has happened in the past, but what people then seem to forget to address is the power imbalance which caused this in the first place. And this only applies to Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry. What about all the women from other professions who have reported similar claims? I don't know how  it is in the US, but here we've had reports of sexual harassment and abuse from virtually every aspect of society. I'd like to see men try to justify that.

To start blaming women for these horrible stories by bringing up the casting couch system is something that I expected would happen, but I for one hope that this will not succeed and that the blame for this is put where it belongs, on the men. This is not simply a Hollywood problem, this is a problem permeating the whole society and it's time to deal with it, openly and honestly.

We've had massive problems here in recent years with women being sexually harassed and even raped right in the middle of a crowd on music festivals, and when one female artist, Zara Larsson, spoke out about this many men immediately tried to shift the focus by attacking her and calling her man-hater and other, non-printable words. Until we men, as a group, start to accept responsiblity for this behaviour, nothing is going to change. Naturally the majority of us men haven't done anything, but we still have a very important part to play. Now we must do our bit to ensure that this kind of behaviour is stopped, by speaking out against it, and calling out those men who have committed these crimes.

[Khan]

Fantastic words, I Am A Swede.  But, too bad they're being wasted on a race-baiting troll.

[DramatistDreamer]

This thread has become so long that I can no longer track whether an article or link has been posted before by anyone (including myself) but I've been keeping up with this saga at WNYC (a station I grew up listening to).

 

Interesting to note how in the drive for money and ratings, the station became even more wedded to a hegemonic structure based on white male patriarchy and one of the drivers of this philosophy was a woman.

 

WNYC Chief Pushed Growth at the Cost of Station’s Culture

 

I was a co-host with John Hockenberry on WNYC. The experience was scarring

 

Also, I had always wondered what happened to Farai Chideya. She was so prominent and then suddenly...she was not.

 

Farai Chideya: Newsrooms Need to Purge Secrets in Order to Heal

Edited December 23, 2017 by DramatistDreamer