Harvey
Weinstein's Hollywood career is over. The fallout from his scandal? That's just
begun.
Every day we learn new, more
shocking, revelations about the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Here’s just two from the last 24
hours:
- Another woman shares an ugly story
of how Weinstein sexually harassed her.
- An A-lister admits she knew Weinstein’s tendencies … and did nothing. (“the stories were everywhere…”)
The film titan and famed Democratic
bundler is no longer head of his own movie studio. And his list of alleged
crimes is growing. So, too, is the stain the scandal is leaving on not just his
fallen empire. Much of Hollywood is either complicit in his behavior or
far too eager to sweep it under the cultural rug.
Are they afraid to attack a
progressive kingpin? Or are other forces at play?
________________
Harvey
Weinstein Has Destroyed Hollywood -- Now What?
By Roger L Simon 
Hollywood will not easily recover
from Harvey Weinstein -- not for a long time. The hypocrisy level has
hit Defcon 1, or 9.9 on the Richter scale.
Hollywood’s politics have always
been a self-serving charade, a liberal masquerade for a rapacious and lubricious
lifestyle. But now, thanks to the Weinstein scandal, we see it more
clearly than ever. And it couldn't be more repellent. (I had always thought
Bill Clinton would have made the greatest studio executive of all time. Now I'm
convinced of it.)
If conservative investors had any
courage, this would be the time to make a hostile takeover of the movie
business. Unfortunately, they don’t. I know this from bitter
personal experience. Wealthy conservatives are delighted to support the
Philharmonic, but when it comes to popular culture they turn away, as if afraid
to get their hands dirty.
That this is a huge mistake should
be obvious. They have abandoned the culture -- and our children -- to
the creepiest people imaginable. What is going on in Hollywood is far
from being just about Harvey. It’s approaching a pandemic. So many previously
silent assaulted or raped women are coming out of the woodwork, it seems like a
long-belated remake of “Cheaper by the Dozen.” No one knows who will be next or
if it will stop at Harvey.
The rot is everywhere, even, perhaps
especially, in the precincts of “high art.” Gwyneth Paltrow says now is the
time to put an end to these attacks on women. But where was she years ago
when Harvey got “handsy” with her? Looking the other way while earning
millions and garnering Oscars.
Meryl Streep claimed she was clueless about
Weinstein’s repulsive antics. Time to award her her greatest Oscar
yet -- for playing someone deaf, dumb, and blind while living as a troglodyte
in the Gobi desert. Either the woman’s a liar or an utter
nincompoop. I’ll go with the former.
As for the great feminist George
Clooney -- the first male star out of the box to condemn Weinstein’s behavior
-- let’s give him the Nobel Prize in virtue signaling. By coming forward, he
was able to ace out his competition -- Howard Zinn-loving Matt Damon, who
disgraced himself forever by covering up for Harvey a decade ago. (For
those who may have missed it in the onslaught of sleazy details, Damon
assured then New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman that Miramax’s
high-paid Italian representative was a genuine “creative film executive” and
not Harvey’s European procurer, as was, evidently correctly, rumored.
Damon is
the same “progressive” movie star who makes films opposing school choice for
the masses while living in a thirty million dollar house and sending his
kids to private school. I take it back -- maybe we should give him the
Nobel in virtue signaling.)
What does this all mean?
Hollywood is worse
than you thought it was, even than I thought it was. And I worked there
for years, observing things close up.
These people -- led by Weinstein as
the local Henry VIII, now decamped for Europe for an Anthony Weiner-style rehab
-- have solidified themselves as some of the biggest hypocritical fakes in
recorded history, deceiving themselves even more, if that’s possible, than they
deceive the rest of us.
Can you imagine how it’s going to be
watching this year’s Oscars as they coop up awards while making political
pronouncements on whatever cause strikes their superficially conventional (but
personally sick) fancies, especially if those causes express veiled contempt
for the morals of those clods in flyover country who are supposed to be their
audience?
Speaking as a member of the Academy since
the 1980s, I won’t be watching. It’s over for me, especially since Joan Rivers
is no longer with us to lend a certain amused cynicism to the vulgar orgy of
self-congratulation. And I suspect I won’t be alone. Hollywood has
become the new NFL. People will soon be turning it off.
Back in the old days of the studio
system, the moguls forbid movie stars contractually from voicing their
political opinions in public. At the same time, ironically, the
movies were better, more likely to be classics and to have a positive impact on
the world at large. Have you seen the likes of Casablanca and Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington lately? Maybe it’s time to go back to the past to
get real progress.
Hello, conservative investors!
Can you hear me?
PJ Media co-founder Roger L. Simon
is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter who has not decided whether he will
bother to vote in the Oscar this year. He is leaning no.
