Weinstein and others: Hollywood is sick

“Liar.” “Washed up.” “Crazy.” “Just trying to drum up publicity.” Those are just some of the things people said about Corey Feldman, Elijah Wood, Todd Bridges and Corey Haim for years when they tried to tell people about the pedophilia epidemic in Hollywood.

It took something akin to Zeus falling from Mt. Olympus and being exiled from Valhalla, for people to believe something was rotten in the state of California.  On Oct. 5, 2017, everything changed. That morning, the New York Times reported that uber-movie producer Harvey Weinstein had been paying off women who had accused him of sexual harassment for over 20 years.

So why did this all take so long to come to light?

Sean Hannity of Fox News explained “Everybody in Hollywood knew. This wasn’t a secret.” Well Sean, if everyone knew, why didn’t someone bring this up a long time ago? Why wait until the victim total was at 40? Clearly the victims weren’t ready to speak up, and thankfully they are now. But Sean Hannity and anyone else who knew about this, and said or did nothing. They should be considered just as culpable.

You know who else knew? Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Asia Argento, Cara Delevingne, Claire Forlani, Gwyneth Paltrow, Heather Graham, Kate Beckinsale, Mira Sorvino, Rose McGowan, and at least 30 other women. They knew, and their lives were forever changed. The scandal has become as epic in scope as many of Weinstein’s movies. Unfortunately for these women, the beginning and middle haven’t been so happy. Let’s hope their ending fares better, and they get some vindication.

Just how powerful was Harvey Weinstein? The man launched the careers of Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, many of the aforementioned women, and way too many others to list. This is a man, so revered in his town that he has literally been thanked as often as God at the Oscars.

Three days after the news broke, he was fired from the company he owns and started, at least 40 victims have come out, worldwide Twitter hashtags have spread the word, and dozens of stars, male and female have started to tell their own tales. Maybe we all should have had a hint to his character when he public voiced opposition to filmmaker-and-child rapist Roman Polanski being extradited back to the U.S., even going so far as to allow his company to produce a film that questions whether Polanski’s rape charge should even be a crime.

Now do we all begin to believe the Corey Feldmans of the world, who people have just written off as a nut because he acts a bit eccentric?  Maybe he is a bit off, and that may have something to do with his longtime manager molesting his best friend for years. In “An Open Secret”, a 2014 documentary by Amy Berg ripped the lid off of the long history of child sex abuse in Hollywood. Featured among the many horrifying accounts by the child actors in the film was Feldman’s former manager, Martin Weiss. Weiss was convicted of molesting a then-11-year-old boy and continuing for three more years. The man did a whole eight months in jail and 5 years’ probation. He is still in the business.

 

Maybe instead of blaming the victim, and asking “Why didn’t you speak up sooner?” we should be asking, Who is involved? How can we lengthen the statute of limitations in California? And, What else can we do to ease the torture these women and those children have had to endure?

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