It has always been true that positions of unchecked power are attractive to sex criminals. This is clearly the case for corrupt governments, paramilitaries and spy services who undoubtedly harbour a large number of paedophiles and rapists.
Hollywood and its ‘casting couch culture’ of the past century has been a corrosive mix. Leaving a trail of broken dreams for young actors and actresses who tried to make it.
With Harvey Weinstein’s outing Hollywood has started to address the elephant in the room and deal with its sordid history. It has done this in a hypocritical manner however. Slamming some for smaller offences whilst letting others off the hook for very serious crimes. This can be seen clearly with Roman Polanski.
Polanski
Polanski (a holocaust survivor) had become renowned as an outstanding director receiving a litany of awards.
In 1969 he received national sympathy after the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, and their unborn son, Paul. This murder transformed Polanksi:
“Sharon’s death is the only watershed in my life that really matters. Before she died, I sailed a boundless, untroubled sea of expectations and optimism.”
Polanski went on to attack and rape young women whilst weaponising the public’s sympathy to avoid jail. In 1978 Polanski pleaded guilty to the charge of “Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a minor”. This title was given to his charge as part of a plea deal. It doesn’t quite encompass the act of drugging and raping a thirteen year old who begged him to stop. When Polanski heard that the judge was not going to be lenient with him he fled to Europe where sycophants welcomed him with open arms.
A life of quiet self-reflection is the least of what people wanted from Polanski but he couldn’t even achieve that. Instead, Polanski promptly returned to the spotlight with new plays and movies. Hollywood in general was still more than happy to work with Polanski.
Adrien Brody: “Life is very complicated. I look to collaborate with artistic people and to go into an endeavour without judgment and to hopefully be treated with the same. It’s an artistic pursuit, and Polanski for instance had a very complicated and difficult life. It would be unfair of me to delve into something as complicated as the past that was brought up in the media.”
To this day Polanski remains flippant about avoiding punishment on the crimes he has committed. Often deflecting towards the press:
“She is a double victim: My victim, and a victim of the press.”
Hollywood Defends a Menace
From the get-go the world’s most famous actors, directors and writers have clambered to defend Polanski:
Meryl Streep “I’m very sorry that he’s in jail.”
Johnny Depp “Clearly, very clearly, and he’s proven this, Roman Polanski is not a predator.”
Whoopi Goldberg “It wasn’t ‘rape’ rape.”
Tarantino “He didn’t rape a 13 year old, it was statutory rape.”
Cate Blanchett even named her son after Polanski. It doesn’t end there though…
The Petition
In September 2009 Polanski was arrested by the Swiss authorities on the behalf of the United States. A petition was set up requesting his release. Embarrassingly, many high ranking Hollywooders signed it including:
- Harrison Ford
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Martin Scorsese
- Natalie Portman
- Wes Anderson
- Tilda Swinton
- Penelope Cruz
- Darren Aronofsky
- Harmony Korine
- David Lynch
- Woody Allen
- Harvey Weinstein
Now I know what you’re thinking, Harvey Weinstein, the man with the soul of a cannibalistic slug and the face of a cannibalistic slug defending unwanted sexual advances? Surely you jest?
It would be harsh to criticise Hollywood stars for signing a petition in support of Polanski. I rarely invest much energy into checking the authenticity of the petitions I sign. I’ve probably put my name on more petitions for and against Israel that I can count!
To their credit some of the stars have since rescinded their support:
Natalie Portman “I very much regret it. I take responsibility for not thinking about it enough. Someone I respected gave it to me and said ‘I signed this, will you too?’ And I was like, sure. It was a mistake. The thing I feel like I gained from it is empathy towards people who have made mistakes. We lived in a different world, and that doesn’t excuse anything. But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live. My eyes were not open.”
Hollywood’s Virus Counter-Attacks
In recent months the #MeToo campaign has brought three more women to the forefront claiming to have been raped by Polanski. Their ages were 15, 16 and 10 at the time of the reported assaults.
Polanski has refused to answer questions on the newer accusations although he has hired a private investigator to look into the matter. Since then one of those women has complained about the investigator harassing herself and her family.
The trend of Hollywood attacking its victims is not isolated to those outside the industry. Famed actor Terry Crews has had his livelihood threatened when he filed a lawsuit against a Hollywood agent, Adam Venit, for sexual assault. WME gave Venit one month unpaid suspension for his behaviour after which he was allowed to come back to work. Crews was pressured to remove his case:
“Management got a call last week from Avi Lerner producer of Expendables 4 saying I could avoid any ‘problems’ on the sequel if I dropped my case against WME.”
For those unfamiliar with the Expendables franchise, it’s an effects heavy action ensemble with Sylvester Stallone as the lead.
“Guess who’s Sylvester Stallone’s agent? Adam Venit.”
Prosecutors have since decided to drop Crews’ case because there was a layer of clothing between Crews’ groin and Venits groping fingers. And no, I am not making that up.
Crews is far from the only one. Brendan Fraser alleges he was groped by Hollywood Foreign Press Association president, Philip Berk. And that his hostile reaction to the groping led to Fraser’s declining career.
Hollywood’s closely tied, yet powerful, industry makes it possible for careers to be crushed easily and none of the star players are providing a cure for this imbalance. Instead they are conspicuously quiet when it comes to challenging actual powerful figures. Remember Harvey Weinstein didn’t get taken down until the Weinstein Company had financial difficulties. Before that, no one dared challenge him.
In Summary
If Hollywood’s senior figures cannot accept that they were wrong in assisting a convicted, admitted paedophile then this industry will be tainted with their inadequacies until the current rank and file retire or die. The will for change is there but the structures that allow sexual violence to prosper remain. Any panaceas that have been proposed so far are weaker than a homeopathic remedy. They’re just hot air.