Celebrities and the Law

I'm kind of surprised that the Harvey Weinstein stuff is finally hitting the regular news (they were even talking about it on NPR last evening). The celebrity blogs/message boards (yay, Snarkfest!) have talked about it for years, but I figured the guy was Teflon.

Tabby wrote:I'm kind of surprised that the Harvey Weinstein stuff is finally hitting the regular news (they were even talking about it on NPR last evening). The celebrity blogs/message boards (yay, Snarkfest!) have talked about it for years, but I figured the guy was Teflon.  

I know, right? Every time there is a new 'revelation', I keep commenting to DH about how surprised I am that everyone is acting shocked. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS AND HAS KNOWN FOR FIFTEEN YEARS AT LEAST. Why is this suddenly a story now? Something must have happened to make Weinstein professionally vulnerable, so that suddenly the personal stuff can stick. I have no idea what, though.

Ronan Farrow just published a meticulously researched and documented article about HW in the New Yorker, which he'd been working on for the better part of a year. Ronan has strong feelings about sexual abuse and harassment and was never going to back down from the story, unlike the NYT did, 10 years ago.

I am following this like glue. My biggest takeaway (beyond the sexual abuse) is the instantaneous righteous indignation of people who think HW could have been stopped. Shaming celebs, or worse, victims of his abuse for not speaking up is appalling to me. There was literally no one who could take him down. He was the Pope of his world.
There was no voice, no actor, nothing that could bring him down as long as he was the one who could distribute the content worldwide. The only thing that could have stopped him was unity but how would that have worked? "Sure, I got a $10 million deal with Miramax but I just feel so strongly about people who aren't making me money, I just can't accept it? That's not how it works anywhere.

I think the turning point of all of this is very simply explained by nature. When penguins need to feed, they huddle at the edge of an iceberg. They don't know if there's a predator in the waters so no one wants to be the first penguin in. They crowd and jostle each other until one unfortunate drops. If that one doesn't get eaten they jump in. I'm seeing similarities here.

wenchsenior wrote:

Tabby wrote:I'm kind of surprised that the Harvey Weinstein stuff is finally hitting the regular news (they were even talking about it on NPR last evening). The celebrity blogs/message boards (yay, Snarkfest!) have talked about it for years, but I figured the guy was Teflon.  

I know, right?  Every time there is a new 'revelation', I keep commenting to DH about how surprised I am that everyone is acting shocked.  EVERYONE KNOWS THIS AND HAS KNOWN FOR FIFTEEN YEARS AT LEAST.  Why is this suddenly a story now? Something must have happened to make Weinstein professionally vulnerable, so that suddenly the personal stuff can stick. I have no idea what, though.

I was talking to my colleagues at work and they had no idea. I mentioned Rene Zellweger, and a colleague was like "NOOOO I LIKE HER." Which kind of made me mad because don't blame her. BLAME HIM.