The Weinstein Scandal – Gray Holland
With more coming out of the woodwork seemingly every minute, the dominoes that have tumbled following the Harvey Weinstein allegations should tell us something about the systemic abuse that goes on behind the red velvet ropes and star covered doors of Hollywood.
As a Film Studies student, I have a skeleton of bones to pick with Hollywood and those who run and occupy it. It often feels as if I can’t watch any of my favourite movies any more without being confronted by the realisation that someone in a lead role, or someone involved in production is a serial rapist or sex offender. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the knowledge that, because they are rich and famous (take Woody Allen for example), they haven’t been convicted, really riles me up. I call this the ‘Hollywood excuse panic button’. ‘I’m going to treatment’ they cry; ‘I’m sorry’ they call; ‘It was acceptable then’ their lawyer pleads desperately, as he sees his multimillion dollar wage for sweeping sexual assault victims under the rug disappearing very quickly.
The idea that a Hollywood star can get away with something so heinous as sexual assault and rape when a poor or even middle class person guilty of the same crime would go to jail (though the exact issues surrounding this are their own story, and not my problem), is truly shocking – or is it?
You may have seen in the news that the Weinstein Company – a front runner in Hollywood and the company that owns Miramax, producers of such classics as ‘Good Will Hunting’ – has paid many of Harvey Weinstein’s lawsuit settlements with his victims who have been brave enough to take him to court; they were actually making money through this. Outrageously they were so aware of Harvey Weinstein’s actions that instead of reporting him to the police or the media so this scandal could hit earlier, they fined him for every time that they had to pay out for a settlement. His own company was making money off his sexual assaults.
Thankfully, Harvey Weinstein has been shunned by Hollywood but there were those who initially defended his indefensible actions. Lily Allen for one, claimed on Twitter that he was a nice man who hadn’t done anything to her when she had worked with her when she was a child – so at least he isn’t apparently a paedophile… *cough cough* Kevin Spacey *cough cough* – but this excusing of his actions, simply because she was not affected, is part of the problem.
No doubt more and more will slip out from behind the curtain now that the floodgates have opened. With knowledge of the allegations aimed at Kevin Spacey, which may as well have been confirmed after reading his pathetic, disgusting ‘apology’ in which he told the world he was now ‘living as a gay man’ – a revelation that I guarantee you made the entire gay community sick to their stomachs. Spacey also used the ‘Hollywood Excuse Panic Button’, claiming to be entering himself for treatment. My question is, treatment for what exactly? What treatment is there for being a sleazy paedophile hiding behind the excuse of ‘it was acceptable’ or ‘I was drunk’ or the next piece of nonsense someone will come up with to excuse what is frankly inexcusable. Someone on Twitter described Spacey as a ‘sex pest’, which I’d argue does not capture properly the fact that what these men have committed is criminal. A mosquito is a pest, a serial sex offender is a criminal of the highest order.
The most obvious problem with this issue in Hollywood is that it was an open secret. Hollywood oldies knew, and said nothing. Dozens of actresses, including Emma Thompson, Meryl Streep and many other well respected A Listers, as well as younger, newer actresses like Cara Delavigne, have now come forward to say they have no spoken to their female colleagues and the issue is so wide spread that it reaches a point where they know no-one who has not been affected by some creepy, powerful criminal sitting high up on his horse feeling invincible because he’s rich, famous and controls the work that these actresses receive. The power imbalance in Hollywood allows this to happen and will allow it to continue happening until something big is done about it.
That something big needs to be a coalition. The A List male actors, directors and producers with power and influence need to speak up, speak out and stand WITH, not in front of, the women in their industry to ensure that this behaviour stops and that those guilty of it are punished by the law, not by a slap on the wrist by Hollywood.
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