The Moral Rot in Hollywood

The sensational scandal involving Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein should not be limited to Mr Weinstein himself. He is just part of a larger picture that has been going on within the film industry almost since its inception. After all, for how long has the expression, “casting couch” been part of our lexicon? It’s just that Weinstein has taken it to new depths with his bizarre proclivities.

It seems every day there is a new revelation of Weinstein’s escapades, which apparently go back decades. Today, we learn of this audio tape  where Weinstein tried to lure an actress into his bathroom to watch him shower. Unbeknownst to him, it seems clear that the lady was wearing a wire. The New Yorker has broken the story.

Not to defend Weinstein in any way, but Hollywood has known about him for decades yet remained silent-at least publicly. Why? Was it fear? Was it a desire to rise in the film industry that kept young actresses silent? How many of them gave in to Weinstein’s odd requests?

And how did this not become public knowledge before now? Where was TMZ? Don’t they thrive on this stuff?

The fact is that Hollywood protected this guy for years because he was powerful, influential, and knew how to make money for everyone around him. The company that bears his name only fired him after the story became public. They didn’t fire him when they learned about it because they obviously knew.

But now that it has gone public, Hollywood acts shocked. Now more women are coming forward. Today we learn about Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. Weinstein reportedly tried his moves on Paltrow when she was 22 years old, not yet established, and was the girlfriend of Brad Pitt, who reportedly paid Weinstein a visit and told him not to do it again. Yet, later on, the three were pictured in a photo arms around each others’ shoulders.

And there is also the fact that Weinstein generously donated to  President Obama and to the Clintons. These people are supposed to pay attention to who contributes money to them. They also are supposed to have expert sources of information. Do you really think they didn’t know about Weinstein’s proclivities? Of course, once we mention the name of Bill Clinton, all those considerations fly out the window. Ditto with Hillary.

And naturally, Gloria Allred, LA’s biggest ambulance chaser, is already holding press conferences and lining up women to come forth and tell their stories. She wants Weinstein to waive the statute of limitations and agree to  civil arbitration hearings in which he can “defend himself”. Never mind that until last week, her own daughter, attorney Lisa Bloom, was on Weinstein’s damage control team.

It’s called conflict of interest.

But let’s get back to Hollywood’s long and sordid history of scandals like this. This is a society that is so full of itself and its glamour that ordinary standards of behavior  do not apply to them. Celebrity marriages, divorces, babies being raised by nannies, and boorish behavior are all the norm. Meanwhile, these people lecture the rest of us on how to live. They scream for gun control, yet for decades upon decades, they have made movies with sickening, gratuitous, and increasingly graphic scenes of gun violence. Have you ever seen “Scarface”? How about “Natural Born Killers”? Go back to those film noirs of the 40s and movies that go back even further. Aside from the violence, all the characters smoked and reached for that decanter of whisky in almost every scene. The public followed suit eager to mimic their heroes.

And remember all the self righteous outrage that erupted over the Donald Trump-Billy Bush tape? Ever since the campaign, Hollywood has been pushing non-stop against Trump, from the non-stop Trump jokes on late night comedy to the indignant speeches at the Oscars. All the while these hypocrites knew about the man out there who was laughing at their jokes and applauding their comments about Trump-Harvey Weinstein. What hypocrisy.

And how about all those actresses that preach to us about women’s issues? How many of them knew about Weinstein all these years? If they object to women being treated as sex objects, I ask how many have appeared in nude scenes? It is Hollywood itself that has taken the lead in making women sex objects.

It is clear by now that people should not look to Hollywood for moral guidance. They should have known it after a young woman named Virginia Rappe was found dead in the San Francisco hotel room rented by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in 1921. Instead, people salivated at the scandals while continuing to go to the movies and idolizing the actors, producers and directors.

So now we are supposed to be shocked by images of Harvey Weinstein  in a bathrobe?