Harvey Weinstein-the start of something?

[Mrs Danvers]

What does everyone think of this? Clearly, it's not remotely surprising and sadly, I am sure that this has been going on as long as there has been a movie industry but it's still fascinating and gratifying to see it unfold. I think Rose McGowan really does deserve a lot of credit for this, it can't have been easy going on record. I wonder if the fact that Ronan Farrow, daughter of Mia and (possible paedo but certainly all round unpleasant guy) Woody Allen who himself is kind of Hollywood royalty, had anything to do with it being published? There are lots of accounts of it being squashed initially by NBC, whom he went to with it first, but who knows? I bet, like with Operation Yewtree, there are a lot of powerful Hollywood execs shitting themselves right now. I also read that Arnie may be next as he is a serial groper. An article on the Guardian said that they contacted loads of male actors, directors and producers and none of them would go on record denouncing Weinstein. Paul Feig subsequently got in touch with them to say he was happy to speak.

I realise this is a bit of a flow of consciousness but I have done little but read about it all day and wanted to know what others thought.

[Topcat]

I thought Clooney, Di Caprio, Colin Firth the boss of Disney and even old boys like Jeff Bridges have all spoken out about it?

Hollywood is grubby, it always has been and even if this is hopefully tidied up, there will be something else equally as grubby waiting in the wings.

[Derek Nimmo]

I think it's about bloody time. I do hate that the more tabloid media are concentrating on this and nothing but, and also using it to draw gleeful comparisons with the "revelations" about Trump's sexual assaults, and 'where are all the lefty liberals now?'.

Right here condemning it just as much as the Trump stuff, thanks.

[Mrs Danvers]

Yes, it could be that it was just The Guardian they didn't respond to, TC. Still not enough have come through, though.

Oh I know, I saw that Derek. What a load of shite. How this is the left's fault when the Republicans and their supporters endorsed and then voted in a man who boasted about sexual assault, is beyond me.

[Kenickie]

I thought Clooney, Di Caprio, Colin Firth the boss of Disney and even old boys like Jeff Bridges have all spoken out about it?

Hollywood is grubby, it always has been and even if this is hopefully tidied up, there will be something else equally as grubby waiting in the wings.

I think this was initially - once it was clear it was a Thing then lots of people (men) felt ok to come forward and condemn.

It's an outage that this goes on, and I hope that this is the start of a sea-change.

[ParisGal]

I'm sure loads of them are like that, but specifically he must be very well-known for it - Seth MacFarlane made a joke about how the supporting actress nominees "no longer had to pretend to be attracted to HW" (I think at the 2013 Oscars).

I just saw a series of tweets from Terry Crews saying it'd happened to him too (a high powered male exec grabbed his genitals at a party) and he didn't come forward at the time to denounce it either.

[Mrs Danvers]

Yes I saw that, PG. He didn't come forward as he thought no one would believe him and that he would be ostracised.

[sally maclennane]

Yes, it could be that it was just The Guardian they didn't respond to, TC. Still not enough have come through, though.

Oh I know, I saw that Derek. What a load of shite. How this is the left's fault when the Republicans and their supporters endorsed and then voted in a man who boasted about sexual assault, is beyond me.

And all that shite about why female stars weren't doing more to condemn him? Because of course, it's always women's responsibility

[Kenickie]

Obviously sexual assault is the fault of any victims who don't manage to stop future acts, not the fault of the perpetrator.

[olive]

Fucking hell, yes. There is a horrible undercurrent of victim blaming going on.

[Kenickie]

This is from the Guardian, to make the issue with the men not speaking out clearer. Leo has really knocked himself out with his statement, hasn't he?

The Guardian contacted representatives of actors who have starred in Weinstein films, including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Colin Firth, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Russell Crowe, George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, along with the directors Tarantino, Russell, Ryan Coogler, Tom Hooper, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael Moore, Rob Marshall, Robert Pulcini, Garth Davis, Doug McGrath, John Madden, Simon Curtis, Kevin Williamson, Martin Scorsese, John Hillcoat and John Wells.

None initially commented, despite the fact that many have been vocal about gender equality in the industry and other social justice causes. Many have directly criticized Donald Trump amid similar accusations of sexual misconduct. On Tuesday, several released statements or responded to the Guardian.

Clooney later told the Daily Beast the alleged acts of sexual misconduct carried out by the film producer were “indefensible”. Miranda tweeted in response to this article: “I’m as appalled and repulsed by the Weinstein news as anyone with a beating heart. And forever in awe of the bravery of those who spoke out.”

Affleck also released a statement Tuesday, saying: “I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades.”

Firth responded to the Guardian on Tuesday, saying in a statement that Weinstein
“was a powerful and frightening man to stand up to”, adding: “It must have been terrifying for these women to step up and call him out. And horrifying to be subjected to that kind of harassment. I applaud their courage”.

Damon and Crowe were caught up in the scandal this week when a former New York Times reporter alleged that when she was investigating Weinstein in 2004, the two actors called her to vouch for a key Weinstein associate, apparently in an effort to discourage her from moving forward with the piece. Representatives for both actors did not respond to inquiries about the allegations from the journalist Sharon Waxman.

Damon on Tuesday defended his “one minute” call to the reporter in 2004, telling Deadline he was vouching for the Weinstein associate, with whom he had “perfectly professional experiences”, and that he had not been aware of harassment allegations and had not been trying to kill the story.

Pulcini, a writer and director, emailed a statement to the Guardian after publication of this story, saying: “I have such admiration for the women who have spoken up. What bravery. There should be zero tolerance EVERYWHERE for this kind of horrifying behavior. I’m honored to offer them a male director’s voice of total support, and appreciate you providing me a forum to do so.”

Coogler, whose first feature film was produced by Weinstein, said in an email Tuesday that he had “no knowledge of this predatory behavior”, but that he saluted the “brave women who came forward”.

“As men we sit in positions of privilege. It is our responsibility to leverage our position, and be allies to the women in our industry. We need to do everything we can to make sure violations like these don’t continue to happen. The first step is to listen.”

DiCaprio published a short statement late Tuesday night that did not name Weinstein but said: “There is no excuse for sexual harassment or sexual assault – no matter who you are and no matter what profession.”

Migdia Chinea, a film-maker and screenwriter, said it was “outrageous” that so few men had been willing to speak up.

“Many of these guys are very well known in liberal circles and they support a very progressive approach to equality and women,” she said. “Here’s an opportunity for these guys to really speak about this issue. All of these powerful men should come forward and denounce sexual harassment.”

[sally maclennane]

Obviously sexual assault is the fault of any victims who don't manage to stop future acts, not the fault of the perpetrator.

Yeah, come on love, speak out against the powerful film guy. No? Not willing to do that? Can't have been that big a deal then

[Kenickie]

Ewan McGregor has now also commented on Twitter:

'Weinstein. It's about time this came to light and he is getting is just deserts. Heard rumours over the years but this is awful. Bye Bully!'

It's a shame that people like him didn't actually do more about the rumours.

[Kenickie]

Also: just deserts.

[Ella]

That's correct. From deserve.

[Dáire]

Ronan seems a top chap. He is no fan of Hollywood's top abusers - I think he spoke out at the same of the accusations around his youngest sister as well.

Honestly I'm feeling really low about it all. It's dredged up a whole lot of stuff for me, mostly seeing the after-effects. The "Well, why didn't you speak up?" and the "Silence is complicity" and the "Where's your sense of humour?" and the "You're just attention-seeking" and the "Well we did you see laugh with the person before and after" and also how the women have put into words things I could never really enunciate well - the fear of what might happen, the fear of being ostracised for being "a gold digging lying whore who isn't even hot anyway", the fear of "Was I to blame? Was it something I said? Did I laugh too much? Was it the outfit's fault?"

I went over it in therapy because those phrases rattled around my head from, say, age 19 to 26ish, and it was like being stuck in a loop. I'm OK - I wasn't to blame, and the things that happened weren't as bad as these things, and it's all packed up and I've moved on, but these phrases over and over - "Well, if it was me I'd fight back! Punch him right in the balls!" and "lol what is 'freezing with fear', like, just turn around and leave duh' - it's like rifling through an old box of photos. It's in the past but still bruised, I guess.

I want to think this kind of abuse is going to become harder to perpetuate. Women know their rights from an early age now. They know it's not just 'banter' or 'the way things are', they have been warned since pre-pubescence in a way, for some of us, our mothers did not warn us ("Silly little girls playing silly little games" was something my mother said while I tried to stammer out an issue at school) I think in this modern era women know now that you might whether a shitstorm if you speak out, but you will also have support. You quite likely will work in this town again. The police should take you seriously. Social media has its ills, but I think one benefit is that news can get around the world, and there'll be no more of the 80s scenarios of "take the money and go home, kid, you won't win this one" when you can't keep "a kid" quiet on Twitter.

But that's Hollywood. You might survive there, but we need the support in middle management of an admin firm in Randomtown too. It needs to start from the ground up - men feeling more able to tell a friend they're being a dick, men quite openly telling a friend their behaviour was unacceptable, not worrying about rocking the boat, just ensuring dickheads don't get to go around being sexually abusive dickheads while their mates uncomfortably look away muttering 'well he's just a bit of a wanker after a few drinks, he's harmless really...' It means workplaces taking allegations seriously and not just trying to work out how "both parties can move on to new departments" or how to make problems go away.

All this transparency is so much better than the 90s and 00s and before. It's amazing that 'open secrets' still exist - they should not, we need to have some kind of amnesty on 'open secrets' - and then after, it's going to be a case of any perv who wants to greet a co-worker in a bathrobe with a bottle of lotion will be on social media in 55 seconds and fired not long after.

[Kenickie]

Oh! Lol. I think I thought he wrote desserts in my head. Poor Ewan.

[olive]

Some of the statements are pure lip service. Jeff Bridges came out with some twaddle about wishing the best for Weinstein - what about his victims? Why not wish them well? He also hasn't ruled out working with him again - well as long as you're alright jack.

I hope Ben Affleck and his slime bag brother get taken out next. When his statement came out denouncing HW someone linked to a time he groped the presenter of a TV show on air.

[Turtle Bean]

I think Ben Affleck is an all round bad hombre. It's a shame as he is a very talented actor.

[Ella]

I think he is too.