Sunset and Wein: a tale of old Hollywood

[Stavros]

Harvey Weinstein is now being investigated by Scotland Yard in relation to claims of sexual assault. Ben Affleck is being ridiculed as 'Buttman' on social media owing to his finger-popping skills at parties and much else I don't want to repeat, but only point out it is 2017 not 1917.

Louis B. Meyer, in the good-old bad-old days may have been the producer in mind when the Hollywood 'casting couch' scenario was, not so much invented as reported, and it is worth noting I suppose that guys have also been at the wrong end of the stick when it came, or comes, to propositions, if not prepositions.

One thing strikes me about all this: there should be a simple rule, effectively implemented. If a producer, director or whoever wants to interview someone about a role (because it is not a roll), then do it in the company office, not a suite in the Plaza or the Ritz or the hotel of his choice.

Is this just the start of a sequence of exposures?

[broncofan]

I think it must be. The number of women who came forward to point the finger at Weinstein is over 20 already and the things he did were so brazen, as I suppose sexual assault always is, but he did it in a way that seemed like he knew he would not be exposed. Given some of these stories, I'm surprised a district attorney has not looked into pursuing a case against him here as I think the statute of limitations for sexual assault is usually fairly long.

The cases we've heard about have been mostly accusations from high profile actresses...it makes me think it's the tip of the iceberg. If Weinstein was brazen enough to do this to Mira Sorvino, whose father is Paul Sorvino, and Asia Argento, daughter of Dario Argento, imagine how many women he did this to who are not well-known.

There were a lot of people complicit in this through their silence and even actively by arranging meetings with Weinstein as you said in his suite, or with him where they would run out in the middle of a meeting leaving him alone with a young actress. I imagine there must be more.

It's time this is addressed seriously. How many lives have been seriously damaged by these predators??

[filghy2]

It seems that you can't get away with this in the movie business any more, or in the media business (Ailes, O'Reilly), but you can still get away with it in politics.

[fred41]

Given some of these stories, I'm surprised a district attorney has not looked into pursuing a case against him here as I think the statute of limitations for sexual assault is usually fairly long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/n...-decision.html

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...tions-write-in

[Stavros]

I know it is speculation, but I wonder if there is a common problem among men such as Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and the now deceased Jimmy Savile in the UK, and that it is a combination of sexual and emotional inadequacy. I do not mean they have a small penis or something like that, but that they are supreme egotists who only think of their own needs and have no empathy for others, but cannot satisfy themselves sexually because of that. What strikes me about all three is that they appear to have no interest in the responsiveness of their female partner, their focus is only on what they want from the encounter, yet I wonder if they enjoy the moment of ejaculation, assuming it happens.

What is puzzling in Cosby's case is that he is a good looking man who has kept himself in shape, he has intelligence (a PhD in Educational Psychology), wit and charm, and I don't think he would struggle to have an affair with a younger woman, yet the evidence suggests his need for total control of a situation eliminates any genuine response from the partner and that if she is comatose during sex it is because it fulfills a fantasy on the man's part. Weinstein urging a young woman to watch him masturbate again makes himself the point of reference in the encounter, as the woman is merely an assembly of, to put it crudely, 'tits and ass'. Yet I wonder if there is any genuine fulfillment in these encounters, and that because of it, these men constantly go in search of something they cannot have, using their fame/power/influence to seek it. In this sense they become predators in search of a 'kill' to put it rhetorically, rather than claim they are sex addicts.

Hollywood has had its famous womanizers. Gary Cooper in his prime was alleged to have the biggest cock in town and he certainly used it as often as he could with as many women as he could find. Robert Mitchum attracted women like flies to a jam sandwich, and Rock Hudson never had to wonder where his next lay was coming from, all he needed to do was walk out of the house. Did any of them give a 'helping hand' to an aspiring actor? Perhaps, but the contrast is with attractive men who engage in consensual sex and those who manipulate men and women into sexual encounters they do not want.

Somewhere in these people, there is an emotional emptiness, a lack of empathy for others, and so I wonder what causes it, and whether or not, outside of the fame academy, it is one of the key reasons why so many married people confess that however much they love their partner, they are sexually unfulfilled. Most people most of the time never tell the truth about sex, and at a basic level may not be very good at it, but will never admit it. It is a key reason why 'escorts' are part of the world's oldest profession, though it does not mean all escorts are good at their job. But it does mean that while the focus is understandably on Harvey Weinstein and powerful men who abuse their position of power and trust, a deeper issue that concerns sexual behaviour and sexual freedom among all people is being put to one side. The need other men -most of them (notably in the USA) men who claim to be God-fearing Christians- have to control women's bodies with regard to family planning and abortion is surely just an extension of tinseltown's maledictions?

[Aticus100]

With all this justified and correct condemnation of such brazen abusive of position to impose oneself on young women, are half the American voting public thinking to themselves "nobody mention the President, nobody mention the President"

[peejaye]

Harvey who?
Yes; I do watch the daily news bulletins...&...as usual; it's dominated by events in the US!

[Stavros]

Harvey who?
Yes; I do watch the daily news bulletins...&...as usual; it's dominated by events in the US!

Peejaye, do you ever read the headline stories about the plot to oust the Chancellor Philip Hammond, the DUP threatening to vote against the Tories on the issue of women's pension rights, the numerous articles on the Brussels negotiations on Brexit? Maybe one fall-out from the referendum is that following every twist and turn of the negotiations is tedious and not worth the effort.

As for Weinstein, who I don't believe has actually been charged with a criminal offence, not yet anyway, his firm is on the verge of collapse, and he has been expelled from the 'Oscar's Academy', but this only begs questions about the deeper issues related to the way in which powerful men use their position to intimidate women, grope them and (allegedly) much worse.

This article in The Atlantic is useful because it compares two conservative voices on the Weinstein issues, presenting them thus:
As the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein reels from a New York Times exposé that describes years of abusive behavior towards women, many right-leaning pundits are seizing the opportunity to discuss predatory male behavior in the liberal tribe, much as lefty pundits used Bill O’Reilly’s downfall to discuss bad actors on the right.

Many of these efforts offer worthwhile insights. And two contributions are most illuminating when juxtaposed with one another. Their authors approach the subject with some of the same assumptions. Both are appropriately scathing toward awful behavior by prominent Democrats. Yet the first effort represents the best of what American conservatism has to offer the country. And the second reveals odious moral rot.

Comparing them is hugely instructive.

It is quite a long article, but one of the more interesting reads, and few people emerge it from without shame, least of all the groper in the White House.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-house/542427/

[peejaye]

That's life Stavros....
The "Rich & Powerful" treating the fairer sex & the great unwashed like garbage!
I'm sure he will escape any form of severe punishment by having many friends in high places!
Now where have I heard that one before

[Stavros]

That's life Stavros....
The "Rich & Powerful" treating the fairer sex & the great unwashed like garbage!
I'm sure he will escape any form of severe punishment by having many friends in high places!
Now where have I heard that one before

I guess losing a marriage, a business and a carefully honed reputation is severe punishment, even before the law gets involved, if it does.

The real question is whether or not this affair will lead to substantial changes in the entertainment industry with regard to the way in which people are hired for films, to take an obvious example.

If you recall the case of the 'fake sheikh' Mazher Mahmood and the singer Tulisa Contostavlos, she was lured to a hotel on the premise of a Hollywood film proposal in an attempt to entrap her in a drug scandal scam for the benefit of the Murdoch press. The 'sting' was a set-up but almost destroyed her career and indeed, she was at one point suicidal, yet she persevered and it is now Mahmood who is in prison. You could argue that Tulisa or someone on their team should have done her own research -like calling the production company in LA or the agents of Brad Pitt who was also said to be in the frame for the film that never was. The crucial point would be not to meet in a hotel but the designated office of the production company, or some place which is more formal. The same would go for auditions. Why go to the expense of setting up a camera and renting rooms in a hotel when there are film studios where this can be done?

But attitudes are hard to change, and the precarious nature of the film industry makes hiring and firing difficult to regulate, and one is reminded of two famous phrases -'the kid stays in the picture'; and 'you'll never work in this town again'.