The breeze of change is here and it beginnings with the ouster of Harvey Weinstein from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was of no surprise that he was, expelled but it came out too late since, his womanizing was a public secret. Of course where Harvey really failed was with the P.R he had for the whole issue. His behavior became a public fact, and thus a source of shame for the defacto “governing body of Hollywood”. The fact that the Producer came out and publicly told everyone that he was used to woman offering lose morals for a meaty role was in itself a revelation. Does this mean that other powerful, Hollywood producers are better at P.R than Harvey?
The academy’s 54-member board of governors made the decision at an emergency session after investigations by The New York Times and The New Yorker that revealed sexual harassment and rape allegations against him going back decades.
In a statement, the academy said the vote was “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority.” As justification, it added, “We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues, but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over. What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”
The academy said it would “work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all academy members will be expected to exemplify.” Which is surprising to everyone, because we all know that Hollywood works on lose morals and rave parties that is the epitome of sexuality… How do I know this? just look at the subject matter for a lot of movies about Hollywood…
Mr. Weinstein, who was fired by the movie and television studio he co-founded, the Weinstein Company, has denied rape allegations while acknowledging that his behavior “caused a lot of pain.”
Although largely symbolic, the ouster of Mr. Weinstein from the roughly 8,400-member academy is stunning because the organization is not known to have taken such action before — not when Roman Polanski, a member, pleaded guilty in a sex crime case involving a 13-year-old girl; not when women came forward to accuse Bill Cosby, a member, of sexual assault; and not when Mel Gibson went on anti-Semitic tirade during a drunken-driving arrest in 2006 or pleaded no contest to a charge of battery against an old girlfriend in 2011.
So, I am to understand that the person was not well liked. Or liked at all.
Before Mr. Weinstein — who built two studios on the back of the Academy Awards, securing more than 300 nominations for his movies — only one person was known to have been permanently expelled from the academy. Carmine Caridi, a character actor, had his membership revoked in 2004 for violating an academy rule involving Oscar voting. He got caught lending DVD screeners of contending films; copies ended up online.
The meeting of the board was called on Wednesday. In the days leading up to it, as the industry was grappling with new public accusations against Mr. Weinstein published in The New Yorker, The Times and on social media, some board members spoke among themselves to see if they could reach an informal consensus on how a vote on the mogul’s status would go.
Kathleen Kennedy, an eight-time Oscar nominee, told fellow board members that pushing him out could put the academy on a slippery slope.
In addition to the seriousness and plenitude of the allegations against Mr. Weinstein, the board concentrated on workplace abuse. Mr. Weinstein often used the pretext of meetings — casting sessions, script discussions — to lure women to hotel rooms, The Times and New Yorker investigations found.
The adulation afforded him power — so much power that many women feared reporting his alleged abuses — and gave him the credibility he was able to use as a shield whenever rumors of his behavior started to swirl.
His fall has come hard and fast. The first article to appear in The New York Times on women’s accusations against Mr. Weinstein was published on Oct. 5. While the authorities in New York and London are investigating Mr. Weinstein, no charges have been filed against him.
The Producers Guild of America was also scheduled to meet on Saturday to discuss revoking Mr. Weinstein’s membership. Late Friday, the group abruptly moved the special meeting to Monday. Under that group’s bylaws, Mr. Weinstein will have two weeks to respond to any action. The same guild gave the Weinstein brothers its Milestone award in 2013, citing their “historic contributions to the entertainment industry.”
In a sign of the international nature of the condemnation of Mr. Weinstein, the French government on Saturday said it had started a process that could strip him of his Legion of Honor, the country’s highest civilian distinction; he received it in 2012. A government spokesman had said that France would wait for definitive legal action before considering such a move.
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