The list of stars associated with the horrendous crimes perpetrated by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein seems to be growing on a daily basis. An article released this morning by The New York Times first named actress Gwyneth Paltrow as one of Weinstein’s victims.
The producer allegedlymolested Paltrow when she was 22 years old after she signed to play lead in the adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. Paltrow did not inform anyone of the assault except for her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt.
Following this, Rosanna Arquette, who starred in Pulp Fiction, also had a similar encounter. The story continued by naming Angelina Jolie, and eventually went on to discuss how Weinstein’s methods for luring young women back to a hotel room were the worst kept secret in Hollywood.
Weinstein’s actions play to the typical power-role, where young women at the start of their career are so scared of being rejected that they shut down, making it easier for them to be abused. It’s a disgusting, systematic abuse of power by Weinstein that was allowed to continue for decades.
The actresses were “expected” to keep their ordeals with Weinstein a secret, even after Brad Pitt approached and threatened the producer at a public event.
Weinstein’s admittance of the abuse comes within a short time-frame of similar reports from Republican entertainment personalities Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly.
An article by Heidi Stevens in the Chicago Tribune argued that the actions of Weinstein were worse than those of Ailes and O’Reilly for the simple fact that Weinstein poised himself as the public front of women’s rights in entertainment.
Weinstein attend Planned Parenthood galas, hosted lavish fundraisers for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, championing himself as a man believing in gender equality and women’s rights. He even released the film The Hunting Ground, a devastating film about campus sexual assault, an issue that persists today.
The worst part of all this, unfortunately, may be yet to come. On a daily basis new reports surface about the inherent culture of sexual abuse, abuse of power, and sexual assault in Miramax, all of which was allowed to perpetuate by the staff, many of whom are female.
As an ex-entertainment journalist, and an individual still very involved in the entertainment scene of Los Angeles, it should also be noted that the destruction of Weinstein’s reputation did not come as a shock to most in the industry.
In the cover story of entertainment news outlet Variety’s April (#4) edition “Murdoch’s Mess,” there is reference to further behaviors of sexual abuse and assault within the News International corporation, filtering down into every pie Murdoch has his finger in (though none pertain to the Murdoch’s themselves).
Similar reactions have been held by entertainment community, where the victimization of rising stars has been well-reported, yet under-reacted to.
Even go-to gossip site Blind Gossip reported on Weinstein’s actions over the years, but is only now releasing the truth. Further Blinds are being posted every day, and it’s my guess that everything will come out in drips and drabs over the next 12 months.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know the extent of the abuse in entertainment thanks to the culture of fear that has seemingly seeped into a trend of normality. All we know is that it is no longer the gun-toting Republicans that we can blame, because Hollywood and their liberal fanbase are about to get hit by an earthquake of allegations.
Watch this space.