The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has decided to expel movie mogul Harvey Weinstein due to the numerous allegations of sexual harassment and rape against him. From The Hollywood Reporter:
Following the meeting, the Academy issued a statement saying the board had voted “to immediately expel him from the Academy. 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.”The Academy went on to say, “What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society. The board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy member will be expected to exemplify.”
The board of governors, which includes 54 members such as Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Whoopi Goldberg, held an emergency meeting on Saturday to vote on fellow member Weinstein.
The Academy’s bylaws explain that “with a two-thirds vote, the board of governors can eject a member ‘for cause.'” This vote exceeded that two-thirds minimum.
About 8,400 people make up the Academy.
However, the Academy still has a few unfortunate souls in it, but Weinstein’s actions may force them to go farther according to The New York Times:
Although largely symbolic, the ouster of Mr. Weinstein from the roughly 8,400-member academy is stunning because the organization is not known to have taken such action before — not when Roman Polanski, a member, pleaded guilty in a sex crime case involving a 13-year-old girl; not when women came forward to accuse Bill Cosby, a member, of sexual assault; and not when Mel Gibson allegedly went on anti-Semitic tirade during a drunk driving arrest in 2006 or pleaded no contest to a charge of battery against an old girlfriend in 2011.Now, the academy may be forced to contend with other problem members.Scott Feinberg, the longtime awards columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, said, “This may well be the beginning of a very tough chapter for the academy. The next thing that is going to happen, rightly or wrongly, is that a wide variety of constituencies are going to demand that the academy similarly address other problematic members.”Mr. Feinberg added that he was speaking of academy members like Mr. Polanski and Stephen Collins, the “7th Heaven” actor who admitted in 2014 that he molested teenage girls in past decades, which resulted in police investigations in New York and Los Angeles but no charges.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) already suspended Weinstein. The Producers Guild of America will meet on Monday to determine Weinstein’s fate with that organization.
The Weinstein Company, which he co-founded with his brother Bob, already fired him.
This all started a few weeks ago when The New York Times published a massive bombshell consisting of allegations from actresses like Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan of sexual harassment against Weinstein. Then more and more spoke out, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. The New Yorker released a report from Ronan Farrow, who worked on it for almost a year, of interviews of women who allege rape and harassment against Weinstein.
Report after report has shown that Weinstein’s behavior was an “open secret” and we all know there are sick perverts in Hollywood. Not listed in the NYT article I quoted above is Woody Allen, who allegedly molested his daughter Dylan Farrow. He also got into a relationship with his then-girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, who he would later marry.
Fact is, people know about this behavior. They knew about Weinstein, Allen, and Polanski. Yet they all salivate to work with them and applaud them at awards shows.
The Hollywood Reporter published an article in May 2016 which had testimonies from actors that found excuses to work with Allen. The main one? These are only allegations. He hasn’t been charged with anything.
But will that now change with Weinstein? From ABC News:
“There is a tectonic shift going on with people having the courage to say, ‘No more,'” said Melissa Silverstein, the founder and publisher of Women and Hollywood, an influential blog that advocates for gender equality in Hollywood. “The climate about the conversation in gender in Hollywood has clearly shifted in recent years.””There’s no going back anymore,” added Silverstein.
But it’s not just about the females. Hollywood has a dark history with child molestation. Back in 2014, the same year that Dylan Farrow aired her allegations against Allen, actor Michael Egan alleged that X-Men director Bryan Singer hosted orgies where men and Singer repeatedly raped him when he was a minor. From TMZ:
The home where the sexually-charged pool parties allegedly occurred was in Encino. It used to be owned by Suge Knight, who sold it Marc Collins-Rector. Suge is not involved in the case, but Egan says Collins-Rector was one of the main perps. Criminal charges were filed against Collins-Rector — he copped a plea to one count of having sex with a minor. Attorney Herman says Collins-Rector has fled the country.Egan says the men at the party would pour liquor down his throat and then sexually assault him. In one case he says Collins-Rector put a gun in his mouth and threatened him.Egan says other minors were also abused, and Herman vows to file 3 or 4 more lawsuits against the alleged perps by next Thursday.Egan went on to say there was a “no swimsuit” rule in the pool, and he was raped numerous times by numerous individuals.
Sources then went to TMZ and confirmed that these type of orgies are common in Hollywood. Author Bret Easton Ellis said he knew all about Singer’s parties with boys and powerful men for years because he dated a man who participated and other gay men told him all about the parties at a dinner party in 2007.
Former child star Corey Feldman has been a powerful voice to bring pedophilia in Hollywood to the forefront. He has not shied away from his unfortunate experiences along with the late Corey Haim. He published a memoir in 2013 that offer graphic details that both of them went through in Hollywood. From New York Daily News:
“Within hours of our first meeting, we found ourselves talking about ‘Lucas,’ the film he made in the summer of 1985, the role I had wanted for myself,” Feldman writes. “At some point during the filming, he explained an adult male convinced him that it was perfectly normal for older men and younger boys in the business to have sexual relations, that it was what all ‘guys do.’“So they walked off to a secluded area between two trailers, during a lunch break for the cast and crew, and Haim, innocent and ambitious as he was, allowed himself to be sodomized.”“So …” Haim told Feldman, according to the book, “I guess we should play around like that, too?”Feldman, still a virgin at that point, told him: “No, that’s not what kids do, man.”The man who abused Haim on the set of “Lucas,” now “walks around, one of the most successful people in the entertainment industry, still making money hand over fist,” Feldman writes, without naming the big shot.
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