Harvey Weinstein wasn’t the only Tinsel Town groper. Actor Ben Affleck also had a case of the grabby-hands. However, Weinstein and Affleck are hardly the first two well-known Hollywood names to be embroiled in a sex scandal. In fact, as noted at The Daily Caller, it’s practically tradition at this point.
But Weinstein is far from alone. The entertainment industry is filled with men accused of sex abuse.
Rapper R. Kelly was accused in July of running an abusive sex cult out of his home. Kelly allegedly made teenage girls sign nondisclosure agreements, before forcing them to be his personal sex slaves.
Legendary film director Woody Allen is still writing and directing star-studded films despite his own sex abuse scandal.
Allen was accused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter when she was as young as seven years old. Allen’s son, Ronan Farrow — who broke the bombshell New Yorker report on Weinstein — wrote a column last year describing the media’s complicity in keeping his father’s alleged abuses out of the public eye. Allen is still welcome among Hollywood elites: his upcoming movie “Wonder Wheel” will star Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake.
The column also mentioned Roman Polanski’s rape conviction.
Hollywood seeks to constantly moralize to Americans, either through their incessant pontificating on politics or through message-fiction films that only preach to the choir. They seem unable to function unless they’re also lecturing us on all the ways ordinary people are guilty of WrongThink.
In a way, the Weinstein revelations give us a golden opportunity: we can stop pretending that Hollywood has anything to say to us about anything.
They have their First Amendment right to speak. That doesn’t go out the window by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, I’m talking about us just ignoring them like we would any other random citizen.
Hollywood actors are people who make their living by pretending to be other people. That’s what they do, and yet people somehow act like their opinions carry more weight simply because they’re famous. They don’t.
They’re no different than your crazy Aunt Mabel or Uncle Joe in that way. They have opinions, and they’re entitled to them; they’re just not entitled to have those opinions respected.
It’s a sad fact that Hollywood is full of sick, disgusting people. This isn’t a secret. Everyone’s heard of the “casting couch” behavior, and yet no one really cared a damn about holding Hollywood accountable for it. Now we see a number of actresses coming forward, talking about Weinstein’s behavior, and we’re hearing big names. Both Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow descend from Hollywood nobility, after all. Ashley Judd also comes from a famous family.
Still, no one said anything.
So, maybe it’s time we stop pretending Hollywood has anything to offer America in terms of lessons in morality. They can’t even keep their own house in order, so there’s no reason to pretend they can solve America’s ills.
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