Predator and Prey: Assault, harassment, and other aggressions in the entertainment industry

[Spartan Girl]

19 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

How many times do we hear we have to teach our daughters what to do to avoid being assaulted?  How about we teach our sons not to assault women?

Or to not send out naked pictures of them as revenge porn, instead of just scolding the women “well, he wouldn’t have had it if you hadn’t given to him in the first place.” 

[GiuliettaMasina]

On 11/7/2022 at 1:00 PM, Notabug said:

Lowe, if anything, confirmed that she was not treated with respect on set.  Lowe admits they were laughing, ogling and behaving like frat boys on set while she was filming a scene where her shirt was removed.  Definitely a**holes.

As a survivor who went back to the man who beat her multiple times before getting out; I don't think Rihanna's opinion of Depp is necessarily based on the truth.  Quite the opposite.

Rihanna has said she has forgiven Chris Brown for beating her and they are friends.  Since their breakup, multiple other women have charged him with assault.  He keeps on beating women and Rihanna says she's his friend.  Rihanna is not a very good judge of people, IMO. 

Her child's father included. And, I like Rihanna. Ugh, so disappointing, but, I agree, not surprising. 

[aradia22]

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/warren-beatty-lawsuit-sex-coerced-1235426029/

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A woman has filed a lawsuit against Warren Beatty, alleging that the actor coerced her into having sex with him in 1973 when she was 14 or 15 years old.

[...] Hirsch, who now lives in Louisiana, alleges that Beatty met her on a movie set, where he paid “undue attention” to her, commented on her looks and gave her his phone number. She alleges that Beatty called her numerous times in 1973, invited her to the hotel where he was living and brought her on car rides.

Representatives for Beatty did not respond to requests for comment.

The suit also states that Beatty — who would have been about 35 at the time — offered to help her with her homework and commented to her several times about losing her virginity.

According to the suit, the defendant “used his position and status as an adult and a Hollywood movie star to coerce sexual contact with Plaintiff on multiple occasions, including oral sex, simulated sex and finally coerced sexual intercourse with the minor child.”

The suit states that Hirsch was “initially thrilled” by the attention and believed she was in a romantic relationship with him.

Hirsch is seeking compensation for psychological, mental and emotional distress. The suit alleges that she has had difficulty interacting with people in positions of authority as a result of the sexual abuse, and has suffered “issues with trust and control.”

Hirsch filed the suit under a 2019 California law that opened a three-year “lookback window” for claims of child sexual abuse that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. That window expires on Jan. 1, 2023.

[BetterButter]

Paul Haggis Found Liable for $7.5M in Rape Lawsuit

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The jury also decided that additional punitive damages should be awarded, but the amount is to be decided later.

[hoodooznoodooz]

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Much like, say, Robert De Niro, who has been phoning it in since mostly since the early 2000s; people still hope to catch a performance where he does a good job.

He still delivers quite often.

[SunnyBeBe]

17 hours ago, BetterButter said:

Paul Haggis Found Liable for $7.5M in Rape Lawsuit

He’s still contending this all was orchestrated by the Church of Scientology, as revenge for him dissing the church.  Apparently, the jury was convinced by the Plaintiff.  I really hate that he would claim that defense if it’s not true.  Ugh….I have huge issues with COS, so…..this is particularly disturbing.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

He’s still contending this all was orchestrated by the Church of Scientology, as revenge for him dissing the church.  Apparently, the jury was convinced by the Plaintiff.  I really hate that he would claim that defense if it’s not true.  Ugh….I have huge issues with COS, so…..this is particularly disturbing.  

It wouldn’t surprise if he is a rapist and that CoS had a hand in the case against him. I always have a moral dilemma with most who leave CoS. I think it’s great they are speaking out, have no doubt they were victims and also have no doubt that most of them victimized others. 

He probably genuinely believes that it was consensual and they are all the women are lying now. Even he admits she seemed “conflicted“ at times which tells me all I need to now about him. He probably thinks he is a good guy who would back off if the woman made it clear they weren’t interested but to who anything short of an obvious red light is seen as a green light. 

[Zella]

From what I have read, nobody has been able to find any valid connection between Scientology and his accusers. I have no doubt that the Scientologists are enjoying his downfall (and they are truly some of the creepiest people I've ever read about--and I read a lot of creepy shit), but I really don't think they have anything to do with it. 

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Zella said:

From what I have read, nobody has been able to find any valid connection between Scientology and his accusers. I have no doubt that the Scientologists are enjoying his downfall (and they are truly some of the creepiest people I've ever read about--and I read a lot of creepy shit), but I really don't think they have anything to do with it. 

I read the same thing. I don’t think they had anything to do with the accusations but I wouldn’t be surprised if they greased the wheels, so to speak, given how much influence they have in Hollywood and how much information they have about their members. Or maybe they just stop protecting him making it more likely a case could go forward. 

[Zella]

8 minutes ago, Dani said:

I read the same thing. I don’t think they had anything to do with the accusations but I wouldn’t be surprised if they greased the wheels, so to speak, given how much influence they have in Hollywood and how much information they have about their members. Or maybe they just stop protecting him making it more likely a case could go forward. 

I can definitely see that, but I think Haggis wants to pretend like they're actually orchestrating the accusations and that he's being railroaded unfairly. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Zella said:

I can definitely see that, but I think Haggis wants to pretend like they're actually orchestrating the accusations and that he's being railroaded unfairly. 

I agree. The fact that was his only defense probably speaks to just how strong the case against was. 

[Vermicious Knid]

The CoS was involved but it would have been to his benefit at the time. Lisa Marie Presley allegedly leaned on an accuser.

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It is alleged that Presley was asked by church officials to persuade Jane Doe #1/Jen B not to report the assault to the police. However, in an interview with the D.A.’s office last week, Presley now says she cannot accurately recall if Scientology asked her to “smooth things over.” In fact, at one point several months ago, attorneys for Presley indicated to prosecutors that their client may take the fifth on the whole matter.

Exiting Scientology almost a decade ago, Presley supposedly contacted Jane Doe #1 in 2014 to say sorry for not being more supportive of her and her claims against fellow Scientologist Masterson almost 20 years ago. That apology would not be allowed to be revealed to the jury under Judge Olmedo’s ruling if Presley had taken the stand.

[SunnyBeBe]

I’m not sure how I missed it, but only recently realized that Masterson is marred, correction married, lol, to Bijou Phillips.  So, they both have quite a story.  This link covers some of it.  
 

https://hollywoodlife.com/feature/danny-masterson-wife-bijou-phillips-4865415/

Edited November 14, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[Blergh]

10 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I’m not sure how I missed it, but only recently realized that Masterson is marred to Bijou Phillips.  So, they both have quite a story.  This link covers some of it.  
 

https://hollywoodlife.com/feature/danny-masterson-wife-bijou-phillips-4865415/

'Marred' is the word. Why members of her so-called family aren't trying to get her OUT of that instead of concocting excuses for his alleged innocence is beyond me!

[SunnyBeBe]

8 minutes ago, Blergh said:

'Marred' is the word. Why members of her so-called family aren't trying to get her OUT of that instead of concocting excuses for his alleged innocence is beyond me!

Just saw that.  I think my auto is messed up.  

There has been so much dysfunction in her family…..where to begin…..

[BetterButter]

“Hiding in Plain Sight”: After Being Fired From ‘Scrubs’ for Misconduct, Alleged Rapist Eric Weinberg Kept Working

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Before he was charged with 18 counts of sexual assault, the scribe spent decades in writers rooms, earning the nickname Weinperv and being dismissed for inappropriate behavior multiple times. Colleagues say a permissive culture allowed him to keep building the résumé he used as a predatory calling card.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, BetterButter said:

“Hiding in Plain Sight”: After Being Fired From ‘Scrubs’ for Misconduct, Alleged Rapist Eric Weinberg Kept Working

But, please, let's hear some more about how poor men's careers and lives are ruined, just ruined, by an accusation.

[SunnyBeBe]

4 hours ago, BetterButter said:

“Hiding in Plain Sight”: After Being Fired From ‘Scrubs’ for Misconduct, Alleged Rapist Eric Weinberg Kept Working

Omg, he was co-executive producer of Californication for almost one season in 2007.  

[FancyRhubarb]

On 11/14/2022 at 12:56 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

Just saw that.  I think my auto is messed up.  

There has been so much dysfunction in her family…..where to begin…..

I used to follow one of his accusers, Chrissy Bixler, on Twitter. Before he was charged she had a lot to say (I'm assuming she's stopped now because of the trial). But I remember she once wrote that Bijou was desperate to get him to marry her and he always refused until she agreed to let him sodomize her whilst she slept. The unknowing/unable to fight was a big thing for him and once she agreed to it they got engaged. I have no idea how she would know that and even to me, who believes the accusers, that seems farfetched. Chrissy is a trip. She is obviously traumatized about her experiences with both Danny and Scientology but some of the things she would accuse them of, like Scientology poisoning 4 of her dogs... Then again, we all know Scientology has those creepy hit squads that stalk people. 

Edited November 16, 2022 by FancyRhubarb
.

[SunnyBeBe]

8 minutes ago, FancyRhubarb said:

I used to follow one of his accusers, Chrissy Bixler, on Twitter. Before he was charged she had a lot to say (I'm assuming she's stopped now because of the trial). But I remember she once wrote that Bijou was desperate to get him to marry her and he always refused until she agreed to let him sodomize her whilst she slept. The unknowing/unable to fight was a big thing for him and once she agreed to it they got engaged. I have no idea how she would know that and even to me, who believes the accusers, that seems farfetched. Chrissy is a trip. She is obviously traumatized about her experiences with both Danny and Scientology but some of the things she would accuse them of, like Scientology poisoning 4 of her dogs... Then again, we all know Scientology has those creepy hit squads that stalk people. 

Man, I hadn’t heard that about Phillips, but lots of other stuff in her history.  
 

I’m looking forward to seeing the movie She Said. I think it opens Friday. It’s based on true story of Weinstein prosecution witnesses.  

Edited November 16, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[Zella]

50 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I’m looking forward to seeing the movie She Said. I think it opens Friday. It’s based on true story of Weinstein prosecution witnesses.  

It's based on a really good book. I vaguely knew it was being adapted but had no idea it was coming out that soon. 

[Bethany]

National feminist organizations break their silence on Amber Heard in an open letter of support

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The vilification and harassment of Heard and her supporters were “unprecedented in both vitriol and scale,” the letter says.

If your "side" is guilty of this you might want to think long and hard about the company you are keeping.

[BetterButter]

Kevin Spacey Facing Seven More Sexual Offense Charges In The UK

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The Crown Prosecution Service has authorized the charges, which are additional to the five he was charged with in June.

[Vermicious Knid]

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I’m looking forward to seeing the movie She Said.

WaPo gives it 3.5 stars, out of 4 and calls it "A new entry in the pantheon of great newspaper movies."

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With the outcomes already so well-known, the value of an on-screen dramatization might be questionable. But “She Said,” adapted from Twohey and Kantor’s book of the same name by screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz and director Maria Schrader, provides an engrossing, even galvanizing answer. At their best, screen versions of recent events can inscribe widely known facts on a deeper, more emotional level; they make the stakes higher and otherwise distant or abstract concepts more granular and human. “She Said” takes a story we thought we knew and gives it new, utterly shattering life....

The cat-and-mouse game of doing battle with one of the film business’s most notorious knife fighters would have made for a suitably intriguing movie. But the power of “She Said” lies in its moments of potent moral clarity, which arrive in revelatory set pieces. A scene involving a former Miramax employee, portrayed with breathtaking vulnerability and steel by Samantha Morton, qualifies as “She Said’s” bookkeeper scene, recalling the gemlike sequence in “All the President’s Men” featuring Jane Alexander as a courageous, unwittingly pivotal source....

“She Said” tells an absorbing story, but more importantly it makes the undercurrents of that story legible and relatable, right up through the tense final moments before a journalist clicks “Publish.” The tools of the trade used to be typewriters and telexes, but the thrill is just the same. So is the terror. “She Said” has earned its place in the pantheon of newspaper movies, if only because the filmmakers understand a fundamental truth: You can’t get the big things right unless you get the little things right, too.

[BetterButter]

Andy Dick Must Register as a Sex Offender Following Sexual Battery Conviction

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The comedian will check himself into the Los Angeles County Jail beginning November 17 to serve his 90-day sentence

[BetterButter]

[Jaded]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall or under the table to hear those deliberations. 

[Jaded]

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

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“I didn’t think it was, ‘OK, you do this for me or you’re not going to get this movie’ … and I never heard any actresses say anything like that. It was just a you know, you know, ‘Just don’t get in the back of a limo with him.’ Again, it was easy. It was easy. It was easy to compartmentalize that to, you know, to some degree.”

He’s flat out lying. If he didn’t hear it’s because he wasn’t listening. He dated Mira Sorvino when it happened to her. She says she told him about the assault. He says she told him but he thought Weinstein was specifically fixated on her (despite also admitting to knowing about Rose McGowan’s settlement). He dated Mira for two years after she believes Weinstein blacklisted her. He just didn’t care. 

[Blergh]

Not that I've ever been a fan of Tarantino's personality or productions, but how tough would it have been for him to have just said that he had made the effort to be willfully ignorant re Mr. Weinstein's criminal behavior possibly to continue to reap financial fringe benefits re the collaborations and he has since realized that he was greedy and had wacked priorities- and would like to publicly apologize to his onetime paramour Miss Sorvino for not having been in her corner back then?

[merylinkid]

Leaving what everyone else said aside, "I thought it was just Mad Men chasing the secretary around the desk."   THAT IS NOT OKAY EITHER.   Just because its not explicit "Sleep with me or I will blacklist you" does not make it LESS of a problem.   

[aradia22]

WTF if it's true the producers got so far with that nonsense

[Anduin]

16 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

WTF if it's true the producers got so far with that nonsense

JFC. Did nobody stop and think for even one second earlier in the process? Like, the first time it came up?

[bluegirl147]

55 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

WTF if it's true the producers got so far with that nonsense

35 minutes ago, Anduin said:

JFC. Did nobody stop and think for even one second earlier in the process? Like, the first time it came up?

I'm really not someone who can separate the artist from their art so I don't think Michael Jackson (even in death) should be celebrated.  But if the AMA's wanted to do that then fine whatever. But for anyone to think Chris Brown was someone who should be doing it shows the producers either didn't think there would be backlash or didn't care.  

[Spartan Girl]

And yet there are some people still defending Chris Brown. Wish I could say I was surprised.

[RealHousewife]

I really recommend the movie She Said to everyone here. Sad it's not doing better, but I thought it was really good.

[RealHousewife]

On 11/8/2022 at 8:50 AM, Spartan Girl said:

Or to not send out naked pictures of them as revenge porn, instead of just scolding the women “well, he wouldn’t have had it if you hadn’t given to him in the first place.” 

I understand the discouragement of sending out naked pics since there are so many untrustworthy, twisted men, but the scolding should absolutely be towards the sickos. What's the punishment for revenge porn? I doubt it's nearly enough as it should be. Also, sometimes women are photographed or recorded without their consent. It happened to a friend of mine. As far as I know he never put the sex tape online, but he did show at least one other person, who is the one who told her. I was so sickened by it. 

[merylinkid]

22 hours ago, Anduin said:

JFC. Did nobody stop and think for even one second earlier in the process? Like, the first time it came up?

They were too busy with the "oh but he deserves a second chance" crap.    And why they decided to honor Michael Jackson at all, even if Thriller was a humongous hit, is also puzzling.   But you know $$$$$ talks.

[SunnyBeBe]

On 11/21/2022 at 8:23 AM, aradia22 said:

WTF if it's true the producers got so far with that nonsense

I am super surprised the act was nixed.  Brown remains relevant in the industry despite his behavior.  It boggles the mind.  And to celebrate Jackson….please.  I can’t separate the music from the man, no matter how much I loved his music. I wonder who came up with the idea of Brown performing Jackson.  🙄

[bluegirl147]

26 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I am super surprised the act was nixed.  Brown remains relevant in the industry despite his behavior.  It boggles the mind.  And to celebrate Jackson….please.  I can’t separate the music from the man, no matter how much I loved his music.

Look how many years it took for people to finally stop wanting to work with Woody Allen.  Twenty years ago Roman Polanski won an Oscar despite still having a rape charge pending against him.  

My question is if Michael Jackson was still alive would they have been celebrating Thriller with him on the stage?

[Trini]

10 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

My question is if Michael Jackson was still alive would they have been celebrating Thriller with him on the stage?

Probably, yes? Like it or not, his legacy as a musician/performer is still bigger than his legacy as an abuser. There would be a lot more backlash today, though.

[Bethany]

11 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

My question is if Michael Jackson was still alive would they have been celebrating Thriller with him on the stage?

I agree with @Trini definitely yes.  Unless in the intervening years there was a trial and a conviction I don't see any way that people would stop celebrating Michael Jackson.  His music still gets lots of airplay on mainstream radio stations and I see him getting positive mentions in the media way more often than I see negative stuff.

[aradia22]

The MJ musical is clearing $1.5 million a week when many other shows can't crack $700k (and many are well below that). And it's in its second year. A lot of people don't believe the allegations or are determined to ignore them. 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses.cfm

[BetterButter]

Kanye West Used Porn, Bullying, ‘Mind Games’ to Control Staff

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Former Yeezy team members claim West showed them explicit images of Kim Kardashian and used fear and manipulation to assert dominance. A scathing open letter to Adidas claims execs "turned their moral compass off”

[Ailianna]

9 hours ago, aradia22 said:

The MJ musical is clearing $1.5 million a week when many other shows can't crack $700k (and many are well below that). And it's in its second year. A lot of people don't believe the allegations or are determined to ignore them. 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses.cfm

It isn't even through one full year yet. It started previews 12/6/21. It is in week 26 for performance gross. It opened 2/6/22, and has had 39 previews and 309 performances. 

https://playbill.com/production/mj-the-musicalneil-simon-theatre-2021-2022

[aradia22]

@Ailianna I stand corrected. I should have said it was a show from last season. Still, it's kicking the asses of newer shows. 

[Vermicious Knid]

Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson ONE has been running since 2013 in Las Vegas. If it wasn't doing well it would not have re-opened after the shutdown.

[BetterButter]

Danny Masterson’s Rape Trial: “Hopelessly Deadlocked” Jury Results in Mistrial

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An L.A. judge declared a mistrial and tentatively set a new trial for March after the jury, which had largely been leaning toward acquittal on the three rape charges, couldn't reach a consensus.

[Ms Blue Jay]

[Blergh]

Miss Rimini is correct: a retrial means that justice will be delayed but it may not be entirely denied here! It also likely means that the judge here believed that there is enough evidence of possible crimes having been committed to proceed with a new trial instead of having this deadlocked mistrial be the end of all possible hope for justice. Of course, where to find 12 new jurors who've never heard of this case nor have any pre-conceived opinions about Mr. Masterson, etc. is much easier said than done but that doesn't mean it CAN'T be done!