Harvey Weinstein Embodies Hollywood’s Vacant “Do-As-We-Say” Hypocrisy

The New York Times has done the unthinkable: The Paper of Record has dared to expose Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein as a career sexual predator. In a daring report that details decades of sexual abuse Weinstein had a habit of leveraging his position of power to coerce actresses, and other females in the business, into compromising sexual experiences.

It’s no surprise why — just look at the guy. No female would dare encourage the man to become defrocked, and who can say how many tolerated his corpulent salaciousness for the sake of career advancement. Remove his power as a motion picture gate master and instead, for instance, place him in a nylon sportcoat managing an 8-screen theater in Clovis, New Mexico; nobody would even look at him while complaining about the flat Fanta they bought.

This was the ultimate predatory power move. And it was well known within the power circles of Dream Land. Jake Tapper offered up this nugget about the overexposed studio titan, one of numerous that have been presented after the story broke:

Hollywood producer I know: “Shocked it’s taken so long for a Harvey Weinstein behavior expose. One of the most open secrets in Hollywood.”

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 5, 2017

So the luminary players who preach feminism from the dais of award shows, and with empowering content in scripts, saw fit to excuse the worst type of misogyny, for decades. The same people who are currently tearing into Carolina quarterback Cam Newton for a toss away remark provided cover for a power broker in Hollywood treating actresses like cocktail shrimp. Weinstein’s behavior elicits no surprise. The industry that (after loving itself) loves nothing better than telling you how to live your life has a very hard time following its own lectures. Harvey Weinstein is the very embodiment of this conflicting lifestyle.

Weinstein has made numerous grand gestures publicly to show he is a champion of women’s causes. He hosted campaign events for Hillary Clinton. He has produced a documentary about college sex abuse. He established a faculty chair at Rutgers in Gloria Steinem’s name. And as Andrea Ruth just detailed, he has President Obama’s daughter working for him. But the revelation that he views women as little more than a pelt to mount on the wall actually fits a hypocritical pattern.

A longtime supporter and bundler for Barack Obama he backed many policies of the former President regarding higher taxes and union support. Yet for years Harvey was a fixture in Sacramento, trying to contend with a challenge in the film and television industry of job flight. Weinstein has gone to California politicians to plead for union obligation relief, and tax breaks for productions in the state — what leftists normally demonize as “corporate welfare”.

And the man who typifies “bluster” also weighed in on the gun issue — long before he tried to use it to deflect from his current imbroglio. Harvey declared boldly he was going to produce a film with Meryl Streep that would bring the NRA to its knees. He also pledged to stop producing any films that featured guns. During a visit with Howard Stern he boldly announced this never-to-appear film, and told the host “I don’t think we need guns in this country. And I hate it!” As his interview ended Weinstein left the studio…flanked by his normally present armed security. So, he doesn’t think that YOU need guns.

Even the defense that rose up for Harvey is saddled with those bi-polar mores. Publicly Weinstein has been represented by Lisa Bloom, daughter of legal opportunist Gloria Aldred. Bloom fashioned the asinine argument that Weinstein could not help himself, as he is a product of the 1960s when sexual proclivities were nefarious and accepted, supposedly. Interesting that Bloom offered up no such argument while she was on the attack with Bill O’Reilly, Donald Trump, and Bill Cosby. These are all men of that same era, and she roasted them for engaging in the exact same behavior.

I am curious what has changed. Are women no longer crying out for justice? It has been 30 years of Weinstein rampaging through the entertainment complex, but the prevailing message we are getting is muted concern. So many are trying to diffuse the issue, saying it has been old news, etc. The attempt by many is to acknowledge it took place, but to make it a distaff issue. This is an attempt to sidestep responsibility.

Note the lack of bared teeth and sharpened knives coming out, as they did during the Fox News sex scandal. Note when faced with its own rampant hypocrisy Hollywood has a hard time dealing with it head on. Note when the monstrous behavior is enacted by accepted icons like Woody Allen, or Roman Polanski, suddenly the feminist cause becomes secondary.

Those stern sermons and dire pronouncements are reserved for conservatives and GOP politicians. As always, it is the case of the cultural elite to make demands to listen to their lectures — and ignore it when their own actions counteract.

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