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6 Brutal Lessons from the Weinstein Scandal

Every day we learn new, more shocking, revelations about the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Here’s just two from the last 24 hours:

The film titan and famed Democratic bundler is no longer head of his own movie studio. And his list of alleged crimes is growing. So, too, is the stain the scandal is leaving on not just his fallen empire. Much of Hollywood is either complicit in his behavior or far too eager to sweep it under the cultural rug.

Are they afraid to attack a progressive kingpin? Or are other forces at play?

They Knew. They All Knew.

Meryl Streep’s calculated response to the scandal boils down to one confession. She didn’t know. Yet “Miss Sloane” star Jessica Chastain, a relative newbie to the film industry compared to Streep, says just the opposite. Everyone knew.

Chastain’s confession cast Streep’s mea culpa in a new, unflattering light.

That A-list Conscience Hit an Iceberg

Stars continue to lecture us on a near daily basis. They tell us how to vote, the best ways to interpret the Second Amendment and how to oversee our immigration laws. Yet they can’t keep their own house in order when it comes to sexual harassment.

RELATED: Pamela Anderson Won’t Bow to PC Police on Weinstein

America is watching. They see what’s going on and how the people who claim to care so much didn’t act when their most vulnerable members needed them. Most stars also refused to even address the subject on the record. Others, like George Clooney, took days to do so.

That’s not brave. It’s cowardly.

Kristen Bell recently came to her colleagues’ defense on their political activism. Now is a pretty good time to speak up, no?

The Late Night Team Is Even Worse Than We Thought

Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel all pounce on the latest headlines. Yet they stayed silent last week as the Weinstein scandal broke. The Daily Beast, a reliably liberal outfit, chastized them for their silence.

Finally they weighed in on the subject this week, although Kimmel and Colbert used the scandal to attack both the former movie mogul and President Donald Trump.

Speaking truth to power doesn’t involved being shamed into action. That’s precisely why these Late Night comics finally did the right thing. The so-called moral consciences took a knee at a lousy time.

The Press Is Worse Than We Thought

Bravo to The New York Times for bringing this whole mess to light. Only the paper sniffed around the story years ago and did … nothing. So says Sharon Waxman, now the head of TheWrap.com. The former New York Times reporter says she worked on a huge Weinstein story in 2004 along similarly slimely lines. She dug up some dirt before her editors killed the story.

Why did it get spiked? Could it be because Weinstein himself visited the news room? Or movie stars like Matt Damon and Russell Crowe put pressure on the paper to disavow the story?

That’s what Waxman alleges.

I was told at the time that Weinstein had visited the newsroom in person to make his displeasure known. I knew he was a major advertiser in the Times, and that he was a powerful person overall.

Only she doesn’t come off well here, either. Why didn’t she pursue the story after founding her own entertainment news site? Her rationale doesn’t make much sense.

If “everyone knew” then why didn’t Variety, or Deadline.com or The Hollywood Reporter sniff the story out before now?

‘Saturday Night Live’ Is Worse Than We Thought

Lorne Michaels didn’t dress up like Marie Antoinette for last weekend’s ritualistic show after party. He might as well have, though. A Daily Mail reporter caught him exiting the party and asked why “SNL” didn’t even mention Weinstein’s scandal a few hours earlier.

His response? “It’s a New York thing.”

We also heard conflicting reports that the show DID have a Weinstein joke in the show but didn’t run with it.

RELATED: Streep Tries the Weinstein Defense, Attacks Ivanka Trump

“SNL” long ago ditched its balanced political approach. The show mourned the end of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and sang a tribute to the outgoing President Barack Obama.

Could the show really avoid the Weinstein scandal though, even given his deep Democrat ties? Apparently so.

There’s More Weinsteins Out There

Can anyone reasonably look at Weinstein’s actions, and the industry’s reaction to them, and say with confidence he was a lone wolf? Chances are his indefensible behavior is happening right now with other producers, directors or stars.

Someone, somewhere knows it’s happening but isn’t saying a word.

23 Comments

  1. The late night hosts would desperately jump at the chance to rise from mere hangers on to actually Hollywood players, so you know exactly why they were silent. If the opportunity presented itself they would probably be dropping their pants in a heartbeat.

  2. The “casting couch” has been a staple of Hollywood since its beginning.

    The difference in the last 40-ish years, has been the level of hypocrisy of the Hollywood elites and stars, their outspokenness to impress their “values” on the American voter, when indeed they have now been shown to have no “values” at all, and their overwhelming “power” to mainstream deviant behavior.

    The only “value” they have been shown to have is their outstanding level of hypocrisy.

    Not only is the “casting couch” still alive and well, but pedophilia is rampant.

    Old Bob Hope line, “I’ve just flown in from California, where they’ve made homosexuality
    legal. I thought I’d get out before they make it mandatory.”

    Hollywood needs to clean itself up before it starts lecturing America on how to vote, and especially lecturing Americans on what is “moral”.

  3. “Kristen Bell recently came to her colleagues’ defense on their political activism.”

    They are professional liars.

  4. Weinstein was culled from the herd by entities on the Left for reasons of their own. I doubt that any other changes of any real significance will happen. Business will continue as usual until the women in this business simply refuse, en masse, to go along with it. I know they like to keep substantial roles for women, along with the concomitant fair share of meaningful dialogue, to a minimum (or so the story goes), but the movie and television business would grind to a halt if NO female agreed to participate until real change was enacted in that cess pool. Likewise, if parents refused to allow their children to become tidbits for the pedophiles that are allegedly endemic to Hollywood. This appalling sexual slavery will go on for as long as people go along with it. I fear venality will win in this case. It almost always does.
    Despite having written all that, and believing it for the most part, I hope I’m dead wrong and real change sweeps through Hollywood like a typhoon. I guess we’ll see.

    1. The reason they can do this is there will always be a long line of young ladies more than willing to sell themselves for a shot at the gold. The studios have to be given a criminal justice shot across bow so they will wise up and keep this crap to the fringe. Once the studio bosses see Weinstein and some conspirators sharing a jail cell they might think twice about letting this go on.

    2. Interestingly, there’s a movie that contains a brutal (alleged) caricature of Harvey Weinstein – and it doesn’t feature a single female character: “Tropic Thunder.”

    3. Its an “own goal” we can take advantage of, however.

      Breaking networks of power, influence and finance is always the goal of insurgencies, and Hollywood has been a major nexus in the Progressive networks for decades. Going on the attack lie constantly questioning Dem politicians why they didn’t speak up or why they aren’t returning the money is a good way of attacking the political end, and using this to organize more boycotts of the Hollywood product and hurting the bottom line further is another avenue of approach.

      There is far more to be done (and ramping up the pressure to ask “who else is complicit?” and continuing to attack Hollywood directly is another avenue to be explored).

      And of course, use this moment of weakness to move on other areas like school choice, taxes, sending and deregulation at all levels. The moments of weakness while Hollywood is focused on closing the door on the scandal means their networks are weaker. Take the opportunities opening up before you.

    4. Its an “own goal” we can take advantage of, however.

      Breaking networks of power, influence and finance is always the goal of insurgencies, and Hollywood has been a major nexus in the Progressive networks for decades. Going on the attack lie constantly questioning Dem politicians why they didn’t speak up or why they aren’t returning the money is a good way of attacking the political end, and using this to organize more boycotts of the Hollywood product and hurting the bottom line further is another avenue of approach.

      There is far more to be done (and ramping up the pressure to ask “who else is complicit?” and continuing to attack Hollywood directly is another avenue to be explored).

      And of course, use this moment of weakness to move on other areas like school choice, taxes, spending and deregulation at all levels. The moments of weakness while Hollywood is focused on closing the door on the scandal means their networks are weaker. Take the opportunities opening up before you.

  5. Anywhere there’s the potential for someone to make millions of dollars and be a star, there’s someone who will convince them that all they have to do to achieve that is beat out another potential star to the casting couch and it’s all theirs.

  6. Just remember Weinstein the next time a leftist progressive tries to lecture you on how Democrats hold the moral high ground.

    1. Hypocrisy is not something anyone wears well, so the leftist progressive will desperately try to derail you with a sneering lecture on ‘whataboutism’ and how someone else’s actions don’t take away from the seriousness of what the current accusee just did.

      1. Exactly. “What about” has the emotional maturity of a five year old, but no matter. Rather than acknowledge industry-wide complicity, the Weinstein scandal will be used as a bullhorn through which to shout the misdeeds of conservatives.

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  7. They sold their souls and their bodies for bits of gold. The game is revealed but they’ll find some other Cretin King to rule as long as we let them.

  8. My big (albeit remote) dream is that The Weinstein Company will come under new management…led by a big Conservative in the industry–say…Jerry Bruckheimer, or Joel Surnow, or Don Bellisario…or maybe Clint Eastwood.

    Could happen…maybe? Imagine the grand power overhaul THAT would be! A major coup d’etat of the Hollywood establishment….

  9. Hollywood has been shaken to its core. The truth they hid (intentionally) for so long is out. More careers will be ruined before this is over.

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