October 14, 2017

"Hollywood’s de facto governing body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to 'immediately expel' Harvey Weinstein..."

"... breaking with 90 years of precedent and turning one of the biggest Oscar players in history into a hall-of-fame pariah. The academy’s 54-member board of governors made the decision at an emergency session after investigations by The New York Times and The New Yorker that revealed sexual harassment and rape allegations against him going back decades...."

The NYT reports.

The Board sought distance from the monster:
“We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over. What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”
But that doesn't mean there are not other monsters. Getting rid of the one who's been outed doesn't send a message that you'll do anything about sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in your industry that hasn't been the subject of a big exposé. You'll have to do a lot more to convince me that the "era... is over." Message not yet received.

As the NYT points out, Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby are still members of the Academy.

One member of the Academy's board, Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy "told fellow board members that she was outraged by the allegations... [but] was also said to be aware that pushing him out could put the academy on a slippery slope."

If the slope is slippery, the era is not over.

165 comments:

Matt Sablan said...

Alright, I'm officially confused now.

What did Weinstein really do that pissed off Hollywood? If being proven to have drugged and raped children wasn't enough to get Polanski kicked out, I don't see how Weinstein merely being accused (though I don't doubt he's guilty of some of what he did) is enough.

So, I'll join the group that are asking the question: What is he really being punished for?

David Begley said...

He has 19 or 20 Oscars. They need to strip him of them. That's what the NCAA does for cheating college sports teams.

sykes.1 said...

It is guranteed that a very large majority of the Academy are Weinstein copycats. And then there are the armies of pedophiles. The question is, Who isn’t a sexual pervert? I will nominate Tom Hanks pending further info.

n.n said...

A baby trial. What or who are they protecting?

tcrosse said...

What did Weinstein really do that pissed off Hollywood?

He wrecked their pulpit, for one thing.

cubanbob said...

Its been decades since Hollywood had a witch hunt. Its about time they have another witch hunt. The hypocrisy will more entertaining than most of their movies?

Matt Sablan said...

I honestly think if Weinstein hadn't attacked famous people, they'd still be covering for him.

Earnest Prole said...

Saul David Alinsky’s Rule 4: Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.

Now I Know! said...

I agree Ann. Hopefully this new era will continue to spread and take hold in every industry and at all levels.

Ann Althouse said...

What happened was that the press came after HW.

Why did the press come after him?

I think it traces back to one man: Ronan Farrow.

Hagar said...

It was the NYT and The New Yorker who brought all this up into the light of day?

Earnest Prole said...

It was the NYT and The New Yorker who brought all this up into the light of day?

Yes.

Now I Know! said...

Ronan Farrow should be in the running for a Pulitzer.

Paddy O said...

"What is he really being punished for?"

"I don't see how Weinstein merely being accused (though I don't doubt he's guilty of some of what he did) is enough."

He's not being punished for being accused, that's a matter for the courts. He's being punished for what the voting members know he did. They don't want him back.

He's like Caligula.

His revenge, of course, could be telling the world what everyone else has done. Burn down the whole of Hollywood.

Matt Sablan said...

Paddy: Which brings me back to my point. Polanski raped a kid, and the Academy is fine with him. Weinstein isn't being punished for being a rapist; rape is fine by the Academy. He's being punished for picking the wrong targets, as far as I can tell.

tcrosse said...

He's being punished for picking the wrong targets, as far as I can tell.

He's being punished for having been exposed.

Matt Sablan said...

Polanski was exposed too, though.

buwaya said...

More and more cockroaches scurrying away to cover.

And to erase credits on old movies? That is simply panic.

The sheer number of these things is telling about the political and cultural significance of the scandal.

buwaya said...

He is being punished because the scandal threatens everyone in the industry and on that side of politics. The stink attaches to all of them.

Now I Know! said...

It also seems that his downfall is being help by the fact that he was a bigly asshole who was abusive to everyone around him.

Does this sound like someone else who is currently in the national spotlight?

Ron Nelson said...

Now that he is out of the club, what form will his revenge take? No need to keep the confidence of those who no longer protect you.

Mikec said...

Matthew Sablan has a very, very important comment. Weinstein isn't being punished for rape, obviously, so what is bothering hollywood? Is it because they really don't like him?

Off topic, but will Althouse please limit comments by any individual to three per topic? Actually even one comment should be enough. But this one idiot that comments 10 or more time is just running the whole comment section.

Kevin said...

If the slope is slippery, the era is not over.

Well said.

Big Mike said...

He has 19 or 20 Oscars. They need to strip him of them. That's what the NCAA does for cheating college sports teams.

Not if you're a sufficiently important program, like UNC basketball.

tcrosse said...

Polanski was exposed too, though.

I'm guessing that the Academy would have been happy to allow things to continue as they had for all these years, but Weinstein's exposure was a huge embarrassment. Polanski never operated on the same scale.

cubanbob said...

Now I Know! said...
It also seems that her downfall is being help by the fact that she was a bigly asshole who was abusive to everyone around her.

Does this sound like someone else who is currently in the national spotlight?"

Why indeed it does!

Now I Know! said...

Mike C, Matthew Sablan has the most comments to this thread. Is that who you are trying to silence?

buwaya said...

Its not Weinstein so much as the very plausible implication of large-scale collusion by a large number of others, including enormous media companies like Disney, as well as the entire professional elite of the entertainment industry.

Moreso, it also implies that there are many more cases that have not, yet, come to light. The panic suggests much more.

Big Mike said...

Does this sound like someone else who is currently in the national spotlight?

Hillary Clinton is well known for abusing the Secret Service agents who are sworn to take a bullet for her.

Kate Danaher said...

My pet theory is that Bob W (or more likely, surrogates) fed Ronan Farrow the story 10 months ago, after beloved mother Miriam passed away. He wouldn't do it so long as she was living.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/movies/miriam-weinstein-died-miramax.html

Breezy said...

I think this is an interesting passage in the NYT article:

The Saturday meeting began at 10 a.m. and lasted until roughly 12:30 p.m. It was held inside a colossal conference room on the seventh floor of the academy’s mirrored-glass tower on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. As with all academy board meetings, voting was anonymous. Some participants participated via speakerphone. Coffee and fruit were available.

Colossal, mirrored-glass tower, Beverly Hills, voting was anonymous, coffee and fruit... can't have a good expulsion without coffee and fruit!

And, if the vote was so cut-n-dried, well over the two-thirds required voted to expel HW, why'd it take 2.5 hours?

Now I Know! said...

This why we need to get more women in positions of power--not just in the entertainment industry but everywhere.

tim in vermont said...

You mean like rape apologists like Hillary?

tim in vermont said...

I cannot believe that they think that they can scrub the stain off of those movies that easily. But they are Democrats.

The Godfather said...

Letting Polanski skate is inexcusable. He was not just accused, like Harvey and Cosby, he was found guilty (pleaded guilty in a plea bargain), and not of sexually abusing (chronologically) adult women, but a child. He fucked her in the ass, as I recall. There are cultures in which that would be a capital crime. If he's still a member of the Academy, the least they should do is rule that he has to attend one meeting a year in the US.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

So, I'll join the group that are asking the question: What is he really being punished for?

Matthew: For getting caught. Exposing the corrupt game. Subjecting everyone who was playing along with being exposed as well. Shining the light of day on the venal and corrupt players in Hollywood.

More than that....exposing their hypocrisy. No longer can the Hollywood or other Elites stand in front of us and lecture on morality, cast aspersions on everyone else, while trying to cloak themselves in righteous moral indignation.

Harvey is being punished for showing that the Emperor, The Elites, and the Hollywood insiders have no clothes, no morals and are empty soulless people who should be ignored.

Big Mike said...

What did Weinstein really do that pissed off Hollywood? If being proven to have drugged and raped children wasn't enough to get Polanski kicked out, I don't see how Weinstein merely being accused (though I don't doubt he's guilty of some of what he did) is enough.

Weinstein's last hit was "Django Unchained" in 2012. In Hollywood failure to make money is the only real sin.

A question for you lawyers out there: suppose (the famous hypothetical!) a senior partner in a white shoes law firm is a major rainmaker, and he routinely harasses attractive junior associates. Does anyone think he'd be treated differently than ol' Harvey until the point where he stops making it rain?

Now I Know! said...

This is a monumental leap forward for ending misogyny in the work place and our culture. It is a warning to all men in power that their bullshit will no longer be tolerated. I suspect we are going to see some other currently powerful men brought down over the next year.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Except Bill Clinton, right NIK?

Fabi said...

Now I Know! is desperately scrambling to make a batch of lemonade out of this purely democrat scandal. My, how his/her tone and tack has changed over the last week. Sad!

Paddy O said...

"Which brings me back to my point..."

Maybe I wasn't clear. They know about Polanski and what he was accused of doing, to someone else.

They know what Weinstein did because they all have their own stories about him, that they can never share. But they know, because they were there at various points.

No one could be as bold and shocking as he was unless the whole culture gave him space for that. That's why Roman emperors were so especially perverse.

Polanski is a creep, but being a creep is allowed for artists. But, HW was something more than a creep, and they can take the measures they want to now without having to take responsibility for his rage.

It's less like Polanski, and more like if Kim Jong Il were to suddenly become vulnerable. He'd go from dear leader to dismembered corpse extremely quickly once those around him find any excuse to turn on him.

Which is to say, those with power in Hollywood have evidence, most of which will never see the light of day, but they know HW, and so they are, effectively, kicking the hated bandit out of town. They won't implicate themselves to bolster what has already been made public, but they will cut the tumor out to save what they have left.

They don't like him. That's basically what it comes down to. They hate him. And now they have an excuse to get rid of him.

whitney said...

"Does this sound like someone else who is currently in the national spotlight?"

If you are referring to Trump then no. There are numerous reports of him treating people that work for him with great graciousness. Asking about their families, knowing all their names. It's sharp contrast from Hillary who wouldn't let the little people look at her

Unknown said...

That was Now I Know's 1,000th post about HW. Predictable.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Scott Walker - taken down any minute now. By fake corrupt communist totalitarian leftwing mid-night raids.

Unknown said...

@whitney

If Trump were even close to being guilty of such shenanigans, women would be sought out, encouraged, and paid handsomely to come out of the woodwork with accusations.

Hari said...

I wonder how much of the reaction is influenced by the fact that HW is fat and ugly (as opposed to, say, Roman Polanski).

There is an underlying assumption that no beautiful actress could possibly have been attracted to HW.

But perhaps some or many actresses wanted to trade sex with HW for advancement. And perhaps now some or many who were attracted to HW's money, power, and favors are also ashamed of the choices that they made and the advantage they gained.

To be clear, I am neither defending HW nor claiming he is anything less than an absolute monster. What I am saying is that the Academy's job has been made easier ny the fact that HW looks like a monster.

buwaya said...

The more likely general lesson is not to mess with women in the workplace, not socially and not casually. VP Pence has the right idea.

Male-female relations belong strictly on a social, non-professional sphere, else there are always risks that cannot be mitigated, ever. Biology is simply far too powerful. Combine with the present unlimited downside cost of problems in such cases, one wonders why women are at all employable. Its simply not worth the risk.

Now I Know! said...

This weekend I think there are many men, no matter their political leanings, who are rethinking their behavior. That is a great thing.

We also need to strengthen our workplace anti-sexual harassment laws.

Hari said...

"He has 19 or 20 Oscars. They need to strip him of them. That's what the NCAA does for cheating college sports teams."

Should the same apply to any actress who won an Oscar for a role she got in exchange for sex with HW?

Matt Sablan said...

"We also need to strengthen our workplace anti-sexual harassment laws."

-- What are the current laws? Please, in a 3-5.

Jupiter said...

"If the slope is slippery, the era is not over."

Kathleen Kennedy, hey? She probably thinks that just because she is a woman, she doesn't have to dip her fingers in the sacrificial victim's blood.

Now I Know! said...

Buwaya--
Why didn't you instead write "Combine with the present unlimited downside cost of problems in such cases, one wonders why MEN are at all employable. Its simply not worth the risk."?

Drago said...

NIK: "This is a monumental leap forward for ending misogyny in the work place and our culture. It is a warning to all men in power that their bullshit will no longer be tolerated."

Says the strong Hillary/Bill supporter....who also enjoyed the standing "O" given to Roman Polanski and the diatribes by the Hollywood types against middle America and Trump voters by an actress who called HW a "god".

So, uh, yeah, we aren't listening to you enablers anymore.

Or didn't you know that by the results on Nov 8 of last year?

Drago said...

Unless every lefty heads to TWC headquarters with their p****-hats in hand you know that every single thing the lefties here are saying is a lie.

Pssst, every single thing the lefties here are saying is a lie......and they have no intention of following up on it.

Unknown said...

"What is he being punished for?"

I think the punishment isn't so much BECAUSE he exposed their hypocrisy, but rather to allow the punishers to continue their belief that they're not hypocrites. I think Hollywood folks believe their BS and they want the severity of this punishment to demonstrate how much HW is outside their norms.

Drago said...

NIK: "one wonders why MEN are at all employable..."

Ah yes, a continuation of the lefties attempt to drag all men into a problem of their own making.

Tell you what, you clean your own house out first and we might give you a listen.

But you won't.

So we won't.

Carry on.

tim in vermont said...

"Now I Know! said...
This weekend I think there are many men, no matter their political leanings, who are rethinking their behavior. That is a great thing.

We also need to strengthen our workplace anti-sexual harassment laws" But WJC is still untouchable.

Fabi said...

You know it's an exclusively democrat scandal when its shameless defenders try to frame the issue as generic and inclusive. Sad!

tim in vermont said...

Swallow it down, the jagged little pill, throw the Clintons overboard so that you can begin to rebuild your party! What have they done for you?

tim in vermont said...

They have hundreds of millions of dollars they got for being "public servants." They'll be fine!

Mary Beth said...

They hope that if they thoroughly shun him, the story will end with him and there won't be any investigation into similar stories about any others of them.

Now I Know! said...

The Weinstein Company was a small boutique independent film studio whose owner turned out to be a monster. Conservative Fox News is the biggest cable news channel which has a pervasive culture of sexual harassment. Big difference.

Now I Know! said...

The Clinton's are way in the past. Another generation. Neither one of them has won elected office in over a decade.

Now I Know! said...

But Trump is here and now. And you are stuck with him.

n.n said...

This foretells a catastrophic anthropogenic climate change forced by merging adolescent boys and girls in intimate settings.

Well, at least we can celebrate Planned Parenthood's service of around one million inconvenient human lives annually. For social progress.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Left: Hahahahaha look at you being forced to destroy the NFL, your favorite institution! This will never happen to us!

Right: Hold my beer and watch this.

William said...

I don't think it's humanly possible for the people in Hollywood to act in such a way as not to highlight their cowardice and hypocrisy. It's fun watching them try to squirm off the hook though..... .A lot of well known stars were photographed giving Roman Polanski a standing ovation. I don't know of a single celebrity who criticized their fellow celebrities for giving him such an ovation. I don't know of a single Hollywood reporter who has asked Meryl Streep if she regrets giving him that applause, nor have they asked any other celebrity to criticize Meryl for that applause......The media will do their best to cover for their kissing cousins in Hollywood, but such evasions and tactful omissions just makes them part of the scandal.

Jupiter said...

Now I Know! said...
"But Trump is here and now. And you are stuck with him."

Actually, you are stuck with him. And we're going to stick you with him again. Assume the position, and put on this pink pussy hat.

tim in vermont said...

Deny and deflect. Hillary Clinton won your party's nomination for the presidency a year ago.

Paddy O said...

Bad Lieutenant, ha! Exactly true.

Now I Know! said...

I was a Bernie supporter. He would have kicked Doofus's ass.

tim in vermont said...

It doesn't help your credibility to pretend what is plain to see isn't real. When Hillary speaks on this as if she was not part of the problem, you guys should join us in hooting her off the stage.

tim in vermont said...

Bernie might have, but you guys ran the rapist and the enabler.

buwaya said...

This Weinstein business implicates NBC and the NYT, for spiking the story at various times, the other MSM networks (for having ignored it; at a guess it will turn out this or variations were shopped to them also; the entire movie industry (all those Oscars!), including, not least, TV production. Note it follows after Joss Whedons little scandal and Amazon TV's also.

And count in Disney, as Weinstein was working for them for 15 years.

Fox News is very small potatoes. Add up the market valuations.

Jupiter said...

Now I Know! said...
"I was a Bernie supporter. He would have kicked Doofus's ass."

Interesting assertion. Would fewer people have checked the "Anyone But Bernie" box than checked the "Anyone But Hillary" box? With Hillary, it's personal. We've had to tolerate her for decades, and we really hate her guts. Bernie is ... well, he's a Commie, of course. There's that.

Anyway, we may get to find out in 2020, right? Here, put on this hat.

tcrosse said...

The DNC and the Economic Royalists of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Hollywood sacrificed the Progressive Agenda on the altar of Hillary Clinton's personal sense of entitlement. She and her campaign were too obtuse to understand how the Electoral College works, and in spite of spending a huge amount of money, lost the election to the most unlikely rival. So if anybody is stuck with Trump, give credit where it's due.

n.n said...

Social liberalism progressed under a thin veil of privacy. Comic irony.

buwaya said...

A large part of political corruption in the US comes from interests using politics to extract value or defend against competition. Consider the very strict US copyright laws that benefit owners of media collections, which are all large media companies.

Now these players have that much less political cover. Usually the real contest is not about the point immediately at issue.

Unknown said...

Bad Lieutenant wins thread.

whitney said...

It's amazing how all the Liberals still want to make this about Trump. And we know if they could find anything on him it would be out already. Larry Flynt is offering a million dollars, ten million dollars, something, for anything on Trump. And he probably get nothing. I didn't vote for Trump, I have never thought highly of him but the fact that they are constantly trying to destroy him and can find nothing makes me think he's a lot better than I thought he was.

He's not pretending to be virtuous while he hides all the scandal in the back of the closet, it seems he pretends to be scandalous while he's hiding all the virtue

Earnest Prole said...

This Weinstein business implicates NBC and the NYT, for spiking the story at various times, the other MSM networks (for having ignored it; at a guess it will turn out this or variations were shopped to them also; the entire movie industry (all those Oscars!)

"You can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, buwaya: Isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America."

Earnest Prole said...

Fox News is very small potatoes.

Speaking of Fox News, who most resembles Jabba the Hutt, Harvey Weinstein or Roger Ailes?

Kate said...

Hollywood believes that Trump has done everything Weinstein did, that he is just as misogynistic and abusive. They're blue in the face from trying to convince Americans of Trump's crimes. After a year of none of us listening, they punish the scapegoat. That much vitriol must find an outlet.

MadisonMan said...

That's what the NCAA does for cheating college sports teams.

Unless it's UNC and the sport is Basketball.

A meaningless degree is the one from UNC.

CStanley said...

It is guranteed that a very large majority of the Academy are Weinstein copycats. And then there are the armies of pedophiles. The question is, Who isn’t a sexual pervert? I will nominate Tom Hanks pending further info.

Yeah I'm really hoping Tom Hanks and Ron Howard have clean hands (so to speak.)

They hope that if they thoroughly shun him, the story will end with him and there won't be any investigation into similar stories about any others of them.

This sure seems like they are trying to sacrifice him to the volcano. It seems like they're now overreaching so much that it may backfire. Surely Weinstein knows who else is guilty and can find a way to make it public?

Bill Peschel said...

To bring this back on topic, let's suggest to the producer's guide that they adopt a simple code of conduct:

* Actors and actresses meet with producers and casting directors during business hours only, in the production offices only.

* Actors and actresses hired for a job can only meet with producers on sound stages and production offices, and in public spaces.

* If they meet in a private office, the door must be left open.

They can call it the "Pence Rule." Seems to work fine for him (and Billy Graham).

rhhardin said...

I'm reminded of Derbyshire's characterization of some scholar criticizing black victimology being chased down by an angry mob

So imagine this scenario: You're a commentator who wrote something unkind about black people. As a result, you're being chased down the road by a howling mob of leftists. Desperately looking around for some support from your colleagues, you spot your editor — right there in the mob, howling along with the rest of them!

What must that feel like? How should I know? It happened this week, though, to Naomi Schaefer Riley, a paid ....


http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2012-05-11.html

The howling mob is not very self-aware, anyway. They lack empathy you could say. They're sociopaths temporarily. They're pleasuring themselves. The become monsters.

rhhardin said...

The spanish presumption, I read when I was a kid, was that if a man and a woman were alone together, it was assumed they were having sex. Hence chaperones.

Why that doesn't just give 3-ways I don't know.

Anonymous said...

The only reason i come here anymore is to read NIK!

She sounds like a 25-yr old kid in college who has the critical thinking skills of a newel post

The arrogance and the naivety! Very entertaining!
Like watching a baby throwing a tantrum.

So, I for one hopes she never leaves. She's like the cartoon before the movie.

BTW, I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon via this portal and I do it solely so that NIK! has a place where she can purge her cloaca.

Wait, that makes NIK! directly responsible for giving Prof. (Emerita) Althouse profit and supporting her existence! My God, will NIK! leave this blog and deny Prof. (Evil) Althouse her blood-stained, hate-tainted, vile lucre?

Ha Hahha Hahahaahhha!

Simply charming I tell you.

Hey, Amazon has farm tractors! Gotta go.

Bad Lieutenant said...

The howling mob is not very self-aware, anyway. They lack empathy you could say. They're sociopaths temporarily. They're pleasuring themselves. The become monsters.


Who should know better than you?

rhhardin said...

"So do not believe the monster when he tells you he is monstrous because others treat him as monstrous. He is monstrous because he lets the task of becoming human wait upon how others treat him"

Cavell, The Claim of Reason.

Inapplicable here because monster is the accusation of the crowd, not the thought of a monster, but a nice quote. See how it continues.

I'd apply it to black gangsters.

Bay Area Guy said...

It's not just Harvey - the Hollywood casting couch is long and wide.

All actresses in Hollywood who have been sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by leading actors, directors, producers or studio execs should unite, bond, start naming names and filing civil actions.

Let a thousand subpoenas blossom!

Silence is assent.

Amadeus 48 said...

Just to clear the air, here is Academy member Roman Polanski to a British magazine post-flight:

"Judges want to f**k young girls. Juries want to f**k young girls. Everyone wants to f**k young girls!"

I really get inspired when lectured by my moral superiors.

rhhardin said...

The academy is doing mob management.

The right move is to give everybody oscars, right now. It's the only way to deprive Weinstein of feeling he won an honor.

Give the mob oscars.

Sebastian said...

"But that doesn't mean there are not other monsters."

That doesn't mean no other monsters will be created and hunted. James Woods, Jon Voight, Clint -- watch out.

The meeting took over 2 hours because the players in the Media-Political Complex have to strategize to contain the damage.

Sure, Ronan Farrow is a brave crusader, but Remnick and the NYT opened the gates to the MSM Holy Land. The Clinton empire is crumbling, another must be built soon. Can it be done without civil war on the left?

Though the cui bono is still female POC, it may hurt Oprah. Two-million-dollar deposits at an actual bank won't suffice to put her in the clear.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"I don't see how Weinstein merely being accused (though I don't doubt he's guilty of some of what he did) is enough."

It doesn't matter. In the eyes of the Academy, HW is now an unperson.

rcocean said...

"I think it traces back to one man: Ronan Farrow."

Exactly. "The Press" didn't expose Weinstein. NBC and the others wanted to bury the story and keep protecting Harvey Weinstein.

Its only because Farrow - on his own, using his own money - kept after the story and convinced ONE magazine to publish it, that the story got out. We now know the NYT only published stuff information because the Weinstein Co. was doing damage control.

BTW, People forget that the WaPo and the MSM tried to bury the Lewinsky scandal. Its only because of Drudge and the internet that it got out.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Matthew Sablan said...

So, I'll join the group that are asking the question: What is he really being punished for?

Ever think that maybe he pissed off most of the major players in Hollywood over the years? Somehow I can't see him being a Jekyll/Hyde; brutish with starlets, but a gentleman in the boardroom. I suspect he's fucked over more people than we can imagine and they're using this opportunity to destroy him.

rhhardin said...

All the monsters are in the mob, I would say.

rhhardin said...

Harvey just has a dysfunctional personality. Lots of managers do. I know some of them.

Fernandinande said...

"PraBob" for virtue signaling! From Hollywood, no less!

If Weinstein weighs the same as a duck, does it matter what kind of duck?

I finally heard "Weinstein" pronounced by a media professional. They said "Wine-steen", which is probably considered correct because it's inconsistent and nonsensical.

Pronouncenames.com says "Wine stine", though the writing says "wayn stayn".

rcocean said...

The difference between Polanski & Weistein.

1) The internet and Cable TV
2) Polanski raped ONE girl and fled the Country
3) Weinstein committed numerous sexual assaults over the space of 20 years.

The stories keep coming and coming - like Harvey Weinstein around a potted plant. Booting him out was the only way to do some damage control.

rhhardin said...

I'm proud to have been one of the first workers complained about by a feminist to higher authority, in the late 80s or early 90s.

I had said that kettle logic, contrary to what you'd expect, has nothing to do with women.

My boss received the complaint, came into my office. I explained the point and defended it.

"Well," he said, "don't talk to women."

So he can check off the conference-given box and return the form. The work of a manager is never done.

rcocean said...

"Harvey just has a dysfunctional personality. Lots of managers do. I know some of them."

So you work with managers that have engaged sexual assault year after year for 20 years?

Interesting.

Fernandinande said...

Bay Area Guy said...
All actresses in Hollywood who have been sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by leading actors, directors, producers or studio execs should unite, bond, start naming names and filing civil actions.

Let a thousand subpoenas blossom!

Silence is assent.


If their silence was for more than a few days, then their silence really was, and still is, assent and consent, and what they're doing now is just joining a mob and pulling a timely $cam.

rhhardin said...

I go along with the system, for what it's worth. They're all adults.

At the moment women are not taking that as positive because they're hormone-driven, but they change their minds a lot and you just have to wait them out.

rhhardin said...

Working with women means you're working with mind-changers. Just enjoy the comedy.

tim in vermont said...

It's simple, HW was holding aces and eights and the bastard issue of one of his past and multitudinous misdeeds walks up behind him and blows him away, right in front of Calamity Jane!

rhhardin said...

Men go along because how else are you going to get babes.

Ray - SoCal said...

Chelsea ran from questions on Harvey’s donations to the Clinton Foundation. And bill used security to block.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4980948/Chelsea-Clinton-runs-Harvey-Weinstein-s-questions.html

rhhardin said...

My line is the line the academy and hollywood in general should be taking to derail the mob. Also their pictures would improve.

A truth everyone actually knows can beat a pretend truth organizing the mob.

0_0 said...

sykes, Tom Hanks is not a nice person at all. But he may not be a pervert.

CStanley- Look at Jessica Chastain. Then ask why Ron Howard warned her about Harvey.

pacwest said...

Has anyone else noted the decline in the number of Laslo's comments since HW's problems? Coincidence, I think not!

Just kidding Laslo. I'm still waiting for that fascinating little blue haired McDonald's employee to make another appearance.

SDaly said...

Why do they care now when they didn't with Roman Polanski? I think it does involve Trump, but now how the most frame the issue. Why now? Look at the NFL. A lot of Americans were quietly seething with the anthem protests, but it was very individual, and the big media was almost uniformly sympathetic to the kneelers if not actively supporting them. Trump gave a voice to those who hated what was going on, and that voice couldn't be ignored. The public's views of the NFL have cratered, almost instantaneously.

Hollywood is trying to avoid that fate. When the Polanski standing ovation happened, it was news, but it was low-key and the public outcry was manageable by Hollywood. There was no President who was capable of tweeting, without stop, about what hypocrites Hollywood liberals are.

Ambrose said...

Remember the old Western TV show "Branded"?

rhhardin said...

If you want to find Hollywood nice guys, look for single long term marriages.

Jim Gust said...

Here's a trivial example of Weinstein's casual rudeness to women:

http://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Nanny-says-Weinstein-interviewed-her-in-boxers-at-12273839.php

Rabel said...

If Harvey responds with the Groucho membership quote it will improve my opinion of the fat bastard.

rhhardin said...

Behind every successful man is an enabler.

Drago said...

Now I Know!: "I was a Bernie supporter. He would have kicked Doofus's ass."

LOL

Bernie did precisely as he was told. He was told to back off Hillary's email, so he did. He was a good little Soviet apparatchik, just as you would expect.

Bernie was run out of the primary on a rail and his stupid supporters sat there and took it..because if there's one thing the lefties are good at, it's following directives from their superiors!

Sure, Bernie would have beaten Trump, except he couldn't get his socks and shoes on without Dem Party permission. Sounds like a real "world beater".

Better luck next time loser....but there won't be better luck next time, since Hillary is clearly running again and Li'l Bernie doesn't have the gumption God gave a flea to stand up to it all.

walter said...

Standards of behavior are a bitch.

Ken B said...

Matthew Sablan: he is being punished for their complicity. He was expelled, and not Cosby or Polanski, because more movers and shakers knew of and hid Weinstein’s behavior. This is CYA.

Next his name will disappear from movies, digitally excised.

Bay Area Guy said...

The Los Angeles Society of Potted Plant Greensmen are holding an executive session vote on Harvey as we speak......

Ken B said...

Another way to put my point is that he is being punished for the same reason NBC tried to tank the story. Why would a news organization tank the biggest story of the year?

wildswan said...

Maybe Hollywood is worried about the bottom line - how no one wants to go to the movies. They say: "We are making Harvey Weinstein-type movies but the time for them is over." But Hollywood can't change without a new script. Along comes "Ronin" Farrow, a man defending his women and by extension all Hollywood women but also one of their own. OK, get Weinstein. Then, start making a new type of film. Probably suddenly we'll see a lot of movies about the dilemmas of Deplorables. Hollywood starlets assaulted by Weinstein-type producers go back to Mississippi and get over their scars by understanding a black Baptist minister who leads the charge to get a factory back into the town. The starlet is almost raped by a union organizer but saved by the capitalist-pig handsome factory owner. But he only wants to marry her. Should she become a union organizer in a new town or marry (ugh) the capitalist or go back and expose Hollywood? Gone with the Wine Stein

tcrosse said...

"You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart."

Quoth Fred Allen, whose picture I am not worthy to use as an Avatar.

Unknown said...

@ pacwest

Laslo has some brilliant commentary on HW, but I think you are right, HW has somehow out-Lasloed Laslo.

http://iamlaslo.blogspot.com/

JMS said...

Some people here assume that what goes on in Hollywood has a parallel in the corporate world. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the last two decades or longer, women in the corporate world who experience harassment will file a complaint, usually without a second thought. 86 million people work full-time in the US private sector. 6,758 sexual harassment claims were filed with the EEOC in 2016. Of those, 4,019 were found to be without cause. That's not a lot of cases across the millions of private sector companies. The worst you're going to hear about the corporate sector in 2017 is the class-action pay discrimination lawsuit filed by women who work for Google. Hollywood is clearly a different animal, and so is politics.

Christy said...

Is this anything more than a slap on the wrist? What are the practical consequences to HW?

John said...

Darryl Zanuck could not be reached for comment.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

rhhardin said...
I'm proud to have been one of the first workers complained about by a feminist to higher authority, in the late 80s or early 90s.


I ask, who could have predicted this?
I'm shocked! Shocked!

Birches said...

Methinks they doth protest too much.

Laslo Spatula said...

"If the slope is slippery, the era is not over."

The slope is very slippery by the potted plants.

I am Laslo.

Anonymous said...

The English hang an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others. (Voltaire, Candide)

Rabel said...

"The slope is very slippery by the potted plants."

That's Oscar worthy, Laslo.

Comanche Voter said...

Well Ol Harvey and his "pecker" dillos threatened to rip the sheet and the covers off Hollywood mores--so they had to cast him out of the moral smuggery.

narciso said...

The first film, that really brought him attention, and made sidebergh the toot he is today, as 'sex lives and videotape'

Original Mike said...

"This weekend I think there are many men, no matter their political leanings, who are rethinking their behavior. That is a great thing."

And then there are all of us who've never done a damn thing and are weary of being treated like we have.

Etienne said...

The Academy is sensitive to the wind. Once it was communists, now it is sexual predators. In neither case did the members have to be proved guilty. The mere accusation by the government, or press, was good enough.

If being a sexual deviant is no longer acceptable, they need to blacklist many more members.

Narayanan said...

@Whitney ... Interesting point about appearing scandalous and hiding virtue . Art of war and/or art of deal

Narayanan said...

@Etienne ... You have things exactly reversed.

PB said...

I hope to see many "Hollywood" hypocrites sliding down that slippery slope on their keister.

Roughcoat said...

Remember the old Western TV show "Branded"?

All but one man died
There at Bitter Creek
And they say he ran away . . .
He was innocent
Not a charge was true
But the world would never know . . .

Branded! Scorned as the one who ran;
What do you do when you're branded
And you know you're a man?

{I wrote that from memory!)

Earnest Prole said...

Is this anything more than a slap on the wrist? What are the practical consequences to HW?

He'll never work in that town again.

glenn said...

"So, I'll join the group that are asking the question: What is he really being punished for?"

Letting the rest of us find out.

walter said...

rhhardin said...I had said that kettle logic, contrary to what you'd expect, has nothing to do with women.
--
Eh.. a bit of context might help..

Quaestor said...

But Trump is here and now. And you are stuck with him.

America isn't that blessed.

Michael K said...

It is a warning to all men in power that their bullshit will no longer be tolerated.

You lefties will not be satisfied until the last male college student is driven off campus and banned from earning a living.

I am so fucking sick of female hysteria about male privilege.

Weinstein and Bill Clinton got away with it for years because women use sex for promotion.

Weinstein happened to be a particularly ugly pervert but this has gone on since Fatty Arbuckle. I doubt you know who he is.

We had dinner tonight with a stepson whose three boys have done extremely well without college and are starting nice families.

You assholes have wrecked college as a place for both sexes. Men are badgered for fake harassment and women spend their lives on bullshit majors that will never allow student loans to be repaid.

We are currently in a cultural meltdown that could end up with a lost war.

West Point has been destroyed by black and female cadets who will not obey the traditional cadet honor system.

I doubt we could win a war these days.

We are depending on a limited number of men who are willing to fight our small wars without good leadership above O-6.

Michael K said...

More evidence of the corruption of colleges, which offer fake classes for black athletes and fake majors for women.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The Academy is a club and expelled Harvey for harming other members of the club in the Hollywood workplace clubhouse. Polanski and Cosby did not harm club members. Some of Cosby's victims were aspiring to club membership so he should be out. Polanski is where the slope gets slippery. If they expel him, there all sorts of members who have committed crimes who might have to be evaluated for expulsion. They'd have to develop actual standards to judge those cases.

Birkel said...

The Leftist Collectivists bought their indulgences from the Church of Democrats and that was supposed to clear them with the Almighty Media. Weinstein gave $1.5 million to the First Street Church of Clinton on promise of Eternal Salvation.

But the Clintons are false gods. And the MSM no longer controls the Pearly Informational Gates. So all the wrath of the Deplorables was unleashed on Hollywood and Gomorrah after the fall of Wisconsin. The apple of Knowledge of Good and Evil has been bitten by far too many who receive their news by following hyperlinks to source data.

Perhaps we are not all socialists now, after all.

Darrell said...

First draft of a new approach to the Harvey problem--

When my brother and I decided to leave the music business for Hollywood, we didn't have enough money or an established production company in place to make our own features. Somewhere along the way we had heard about these little foreign films that were unfinished or had already bombed in the US market, whose worldwide rights could be had for a song. We recut these films for the American market--going by our guts, trusting that other people would like what we liked--and maybe adding music and such. We started to have genuine hits. We signed up a boatload of foreign producers before the first film hit, so bigger companies could steal our idea. Eventually we tried our own features--starting out with a horror film because if it were a little schlocky, you can get away with that with horror films. People expect it.

Along the way, actresses were coming up to me telling me that Hollywood had become a f"ucking corporation"--a soulless factory that cranked out product. My God, Harvey, they have you come in for a reading and you're expected to perform on cue in those couple of minutes--no makeup, no glamor, no costumes! And you are judged by a sour group of executives--ugly men and uglier women--and you know none of them ever got any in school. How I wish things were like they were in the old days!!! Days when we could use our charms--and all our hard work getting HOT--to clinch the roles we were born to play!

I heard their cries. I felt their pain! Over and over and over again. I asked , "What can I do to silence your lamentations?" Cast us, Harvey, like the old days! Make us show the tits you want America to see! Make us proved how far our dedication to our craft extends. Find out how deep it runs.

The rest you know.

---Harvey

rhhardin said...

rhhardin said...I had said that kettle logic, contrary to what you'd expect, has nothing to do with women.
--
Eh.. a bit of context might help..


It's all there. Kettle logic is the use of several contradictory excuses.

The lady at the lunch table didn't like the "contrary to what you'd expect." That made it a hostile work environment.

tim in vermont said...

It's all there. Kettle logic is the use of several contradictory excuses.

The food was terrible, and the portions so small!

rhhardin said...

You could say the lady at the lunch table threw the kettle.

Unknown said...

Another thing to note: Now, they're all tainted. Can anyone look at say, Heidi Klum, or Alyssa Milano or Jennifer Lawrence, criminy, ANY of them and not wonder, "Did you or didn't you?" Did you know and not tell? Are you compromised? Are you complicit? Especially after hearing about the contract clause. Are we supposed to feel sorry for Georgina Chapman? Who else? Sheesh, if I were any of them, including the Obamas, I'd be furious.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

As the NYT points out, Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby are still members of the Academy.

Neither of whom had anywhere near the power and influence that Weinstein still had. And Polanski's one victim says it's been time to move on and forgive him for decades.

But nice try inserting the usual irrelevance in here.

DanTheMan said...

>>Remember the old Western TV show "Branded"

What? Chuck Connors slept with Harvey Weinstein???

Anonymous said...

"Now I Know! said...

"Ronan Farrow should be in the running for a Pulitzer."

Do they give a Pulitzer for revenge?

Anonymous said...

Michael K: Love your comments in general, but for the record, Fatty Arbuckle was railroaded.

ceowens said...

"voted overwhelmingly". Who voted nea?

Bad Lieutenant said...

The lady at the lunch table didn't like the "contrary to what you'd expect." That made it a hostile work environment.
10/15/17, 5:18 AM


And this surprised you? And you don't get this? And you think you were right?


tim in vermont said...
It's all there. Kettle logic is the use of several contradictory excuses.

The food was terrible, and the portions so small!
10/15/17, 5:36 AM

How is this contradictory? Been to a gulag or concentration camp lately? How was the food?

Larvell said...

Now he should have more time to spend taking on the NRA.

Larvell said...

"As with all academy board meetings, voting was anonymous. Some participants participated via speakerphone."

How do you vote anonymously via speakerphone?