Hollywood holds a funeral
Over the course of the next two months, as Tinseltown's group-aggrandizing charlatans gather over and over again to celebrate themselves, I have plans to clean my kitchen tile grout with a toothbrush. No kidding: I'd rather clean grout than suffer through another award show.
Of course, no one can totally escape the "day after" endless rehash, replete with photos of who wore what on the red carpet. This year was somewhat different, given that Hollywood held a funeral, and, in solidarity, mourners (at least these who got memo) donned their designer widow's weeds for the Golden Globes. In case you're still wondering who died, it was Harvey Weinstein, but apparently, he doesn't it know yet. If the irony and hypocrisy of a fake funeral haven't quite sunk in yet, allow me to elucidate.
Remember that Harvey Weinstein has been accused of everything from inappropriate sexual innuendo to raping several women, who were conned into believing that an invite to his hotel room for the purpose of discussing a future movie role meant (at least in Mr. Weinstein's mind) that they would have to "put out" for his promise of a role in his next film. The irony? It's the secret that everyone knows in the movie industry: the infamous casting couch. In fact, the history of the casting couch is endemic to film.
Beginning in the early days of Hollywood (circa 1920), studio barons, movie-producers, and directors expected and were often granted sexual favors in exchange for a movie part, which literally occurred on couches, conspicuously located in the offices of many a Hollywood heavyweight. It was common knowledge that actresses wanting a movie role first had to be auditioned on the couch.
Times change, and so does office décor. While the couch may have disappeared, producers and directors simply relocated themselves to hotel rooms. Couches were exchanged for beds, and auditions continued with regularity. And while the cascade of accusers and wronged women has decreased somewhat, more than 300 women in the film industry recently took up the cudgel and organized themselves into yet another cause célèbre. This is why they chose to wear black at the Golden Globes, in addition to wearing the newly minted "Time's Up" lapel pin.
Their hypocrisy hasn't gone unnoticed.
The Harvey Weinsteins of Hollywood haven't operated in a vacuum – far from it. As a matter of fact and to date, the list of accused serial sexual predators includes morning television show hosts, sportscasters, orchestra conductors, radio show hosts, politicians, actors and musicians, comedians, college professors, and news editors. What's particularly insidious about the film and television industry is the number of abuse victims who have come forward, having all been abused by the same man, over a course of many years. And yet only in the last twelve months have these women come forward (en masse) and publicly revealed their sordid stories.
We're supposed to believe that actresses don't talk among themselves. In Meryl Steep's case, when called out for her hypocrisy on Twitter by Rose McGowan (a rape victim of Harvey Weinstein), Streep defended herself by replying, "I didn't know." Keep in mind that Streep has starred in numerous Weinstein films and went so far as to call him a "god" during her last Academy Award acceptance speech.
Rose McGowan wasn't swayed by the outpouring of actresses in black at the Golden Globes. Tweeting on Sunday, the actress said, "Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @golden globes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You'll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa."
The final insult? Like the casting couch, Hollywood's political bent is no secret. It's a Democrat stronghold – not only for votes, but for massive amounts of political campaign contributions. I have no doubt that Meryl Streep not only voted for Bill Clinton (unrepentant serial sexual predator), but most likely contributed money to the campaign of Hillary Clinton (Bill's enabler). I also have no doubt that many of the women who walked the red carpet in black and proudly wore their "Time's Up" lapel pins at the Golden Globes also voted for Bill and contributed money to Hillary.
As I said, the hypocrisy hasn't gone unnoticed.