Harvey Weinstein megaproducer and executive ousted over sexual harassment

[Winnipeg]

The thing that surprised me most about Clinton affair was it seemed that the person who suffered the most was the young intern Lewinski..............maybe that should not be a surprise sadly.

 

[caseyedwards]

So much worse than sexual harassment! Title should be sexual crimes now!

 

[Tinami Amori]

Interesting videos by Lana Del Ray… leave different impressions as of last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HrheiLkZcI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bzz5eVReIk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQ0W27aDts

 

[MacMadame]

The thing that surprised me most about Clinton affair was it seemed that the person who suffered the most was the young intern Lewinski..............maybe that should not be a surprise sadly.

I don't think that's surprising at all. The guy skates and woman gets punished for the same (or really lesser since she didn't break her marriage vows) behavior.

 

[FiveRinger]

I don't think that's surprising at all. The guy skates and woman gets punished for the same (or really lesser since she didn't break her marriage vows) behavior.

That has been true since the beginning of time, unfortunately.

 

[susan6]

I don't think that's surprising at all. The guy skates and woman gets punished for the same (or really lesser since she didn't break her marriage vows) behavior.

Yeah....another example of that is, Justin Timberlake is apparently on the short list to do the Superbowl halftime show this year. What happened the last time he did? Something that Janet Jackson got blamed for.

 

[VGThuy]

Yeah....another example of that is, Justin Timberlake is apparently on the short list to do the Superbowl halftime show this year. What happened the last time he did? Something that Janet Jackson got blamed for.

From what I remember, I think Justin was quick to blame Janet for it all and get the heat off of him as well.

 

[MsZem]

The incident has its own Wikipedia entry, which suggests that it really was a wardrobe malfunction - Timberlake ripping off Jackson's top was supposed to reveal her bra, but something went wrong. No idea if this is true.

Also via Wikipedia, this is what Timberlake had to say a few years after it happened:

"In my honest opinion now ... I could've handled it better," Justin admits. "I'm part of a community that consider themselves artists. And if there was something I could have done in her defense that was more than I realized then, I would have. But the other half of me was like, 'Wow. We still haven't found the weapons of mass destruction and everybody cares about this!' "

In retrospect, Timberlake thinks he should have been held more responsible. "I probably got 10 percent of the blame, and that says something about society," he explains. "I think that America's harsher on women. And I think that America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people."

 

[Winnipeg]

Too little too late Justin

 

[MsZem]

Too little too late Justin

He recognized that he'd handled it poorly and that he'd been able to skate by because of his gender and race. What more do you want? Sometimes it takes time for people to understand that they were in the wrong.

At the time, Timberlake was a young person who handled a controversy badly. Unless there's something I'm not aware of, he's not predatory or abusive. He screwed up. He's imperfect. I don't need him to grovel, I want him to learn from what happened and do better in the future.

 

[overedge]

I don't see how hard it would have been for him to accept responsibility for it in the first place. I'm glad that he's recognized his mistake now, but he wasn't being asked to do anything exceptional at the time other than to apologize and take some responsibility for how it happened. And that stuff about being part of a "community that considers themselves artists" - isn't Janet Jackson an artist who cares about her work too?

 

[MsZem]

I don't see how hard it would have been for him to accept responsibility for it in the first place. I'm glad that he's recognized his mistake now, but he wasn't being asked to do anything exceptional at the time other than to apologize and take some responsibility for how it happened. And that stuff about being part of a "community that considers themselves artists" - isn't Janet Jackson an artist who cares about her work too?

The interview is from 2006. I have no idea what statements he made between the Super Bowl incident and 2006, if any, but he did not wait until now. It's not the most elegant statement, but the part about being part of a community of artists struck me as saying that as a member of that community he had a responsibility, and his actions at the time did not reflect that.

If we want people to own up to mistakes and take responsibility when they realize that they have done wrong, I don't see how "too little, too late" is a productive response.

 

[Winnipeg]

It was an observation, nothing more, nothing less. Sounds too much like placating to fans to me after he found out the reaction.

But then again, I am not a Timberlake fan.

 

[PeterG]

He recognized that he'd handled it poorly and that he'd been able to skate by because of his gender and race. What more do you want? Sometimes it takes time for people to understand that they were in the wrong.

Thank you for mentioning that race could have been part of the matter as well. It's telling that the black and female person took the majority of the heat, while the white and male person pretty much got a free pass. Plus it seems that Jackson just took whatever was spewed at her and at the same time chose not to deflect any of that towards Timberlake.

 

[VGThuy]

I did like she poked fun of the situation when she hosted SNL shortly after. There was a skit where she played Condoleeza Rice, who at the time was being questioned by Congress, and Janet as Condi was being told by members of the administration that if she gets in trouble with the questioning to just slip a nip. Janet, who rocked the Condi voice from what I remember, was like I read War & Peace in Russian, I don't have to resort to that. And then they showed her being questioned and was like "um...um..." and then slipped a nip.

 

[MsZem]

Thank you for mentioning that race could have been part of the matter as well. It's telling that the black and female person took the majority of the heat, while the white and male person pretty much got a free pass. Plus it seems that Jackson just took whatever was spewed at her and at the same time chose not to deflect any of that towards Timberlake.

I was just paraphrasing Timberlake's response from the 2006 interview. Today he would have probably said POC and not ethnic people, but the sentiment seems the same - and it is certainly grounded in reality.

 

[Coco]

Regardless of what was supposed to happen, it was extremely vulgar choreography that I don't think anyone would have signed off on if Janet had been replaced by popular white singer. And for THAT, Timberlake has never apologized, nor been asked to apologize for.

Oddly enough, this is the same halftime show where Kid Rock ripped a hole in the American Flag and used it as a poncho. Apparently in rehearsals, he ripped it off and threw it on the ground. Cooler heads prevailed so that in the real show, he ripped it off and threw it, where it was caught by a stagehand.

That whole halftime show was gross. Most of the choreography seemed to be an attempt to simulate S&M scenes. But of course Janet was the only one who flack.

 

[Jenny]

Why is this all on Timberlake? He was a guest in one of her numbers, so I'm assuming that her choreographer put together her performance. It's not like anyone forced her to do choreography she hadn't done before, and hadn't rehearsed for this particular show. The costume was obviously designed and tailored just for her, so she knew in advance what it was about, and even took the time to apply nipple jewelry before the show. She and Timberlake rehearsed the move where he was supposed to expose her bra - so that would indicate that she was fine with it. Some (including her boyfriend at the time, quoted before the show) even say they planned the "wardrobe malfunction" together. It was not the first time they had worked together either.

Sure it was in bad taste for that particular venue, and I get that the backlash (which was WAY overblown IMO) at the time should not have been focused solely on her, but that's doesn't mean it's all Timberlake's fault and he owes the women of the world an apology as seems to be suggested here. It also makes no sense to me to suggest that it would have been different if she were white - there are plenty of white female performers who wear all manner of costumes while performing with or without men on stage, who perform sexually charged choreography etc, long before this happened.

I don't even know why we're having this conversation in this thread - next to Weinstein's decades of sexual harassment and abuse of dozens of women (at least) and the growing revelations of similar behaviour by many others in positions of power in Hollywood, the Super Bowl incident barely registers IMO.

 

[PeterG]

It also makes no sense to me to suggest that it would have been different if she were white...

Could you please quote which comment made you think someone thought that if it were two white performers there would have been no backlash? I'm not sure where you got that from, I didn't get that from anyone's posts.

I don't even know why we're having this conversation in this thread - next to Weinstein's decades of sexual harassment and abuse of dozens of women (at least) and the growing revelations of similar behaviour by many others in positions of power in Hollywood, the Super Bowl incident barely registers IMO.

I think that comparing one person's abuse to another person's abuse is not a good move. Abuse is abuse...period.

 

[skatesindreams]

Lupita Nyong'o speaks:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/opinion/lupita-nyongo-harvey-weinstein.html?_r=0

 

[Jenny]

Regardless of what was supposed to happen, it was extremely vulgar choreography that I don't think anyone would have signed off on if Janet had been replaced by popular white singer. And for THAT, Timberlake has never apologized, nor been asked to apologize for.

Could you please quote which comment made you think someone thought that if it were two white performers there would have been no backlash? I'm not sure where you got that from, I didn't get that from anyone's posts.

Maybe I misread Coco's post?

 

[Coco]

I was saying that no one would have signed off on the choreography (him ripping her shirt off) if she had been white. I didn't discuss the backlash at all.

 

[Jenny]

AFAIK, MTV produced the half time show that year, and given their penchant for controversial live performances, and the opportunity to reach their largest audience ever, I disagree that they wouldn't have signed off on the choreography. I think the show producers and MTV executives would likely have encouraged it.

The NFL is more conservative, but reading back on what happened it sounds like they gave MTV a lot of leeway in an effort to attract a younger audience.

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

Tarantino admits he didn't do enough about Weinstein.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/ne...-more-than-i-did/ar-AAtK6ul?OCID=ansmsnnews11

 

[overedge]

Tarantino admits he didn't do enough about Weinstein.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/ne...-more-than-i-did/ar-AAtK6ul?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Tarantino also needs to look at how women are fetishized and sexualized in his own movies and think about how that contributes to a sexist culture.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Tarantino also needs to look at how women are fetishized and sexualized in his own movies and think about how that contributes to a sexist culture.

Has anyone seen J. Kimmel's "guess what's in my pants"?.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBDYGOzViuI

 

[Japanfan]

Tarantino also needs to look at how women are fetishized and sexualized in his own movies and think about how that contributes to a sexist culture.

ITA and TBH think Tarantino is a pompous a** with a Trump sized ego. Also, think the same is true for the majority of male directors.

I will acknowledge however that I was really impressed with a few bits of Kill Bill Two I watched- don't recall which (couldn't watch it in full). Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu (sp? think it was her?) were great in the sword-fighting sequences, and I remember thinking the wedding sequence in the film was a brilliant satire.

But I might change my mind were I to watch the film today. In recent years I have found it interesting to revisit films that I thought were brilliant when I was younger and found them to be misognystic. The two that immediately come to mind are 'Last Tango in Paris' and 'Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession'. I read an interview with Maria Schnieder in which she said that she felt raped by both Marlon Brando and Bernando Bertolluci in 'Last Tango', and it haunted her for life Even though she fully consented to the scene that was later deemed 'obscene', she was young and vulnerable, and influenced by the belief that the film could be her big break.

So 'Last Tango' went off my list of all-time faves.

Why did those films appeal to me as a young woman, I wonder? I'm guessing because I related to being objectified and sexualized, and did not yet have the knowledge and understanding to be aware of that?

 

[Scrufflet]

Slight tangent here...

Women I Wish Weinstein had Come On To:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Wonder Woman
Xena, Warrior Princess
Helena (Orphan Black)
Wrigley (sp? the one in Alien)

I didn't wish this on real women.

 

[Desperado]

In recent years I have found it interesting to revisit films that I thought were brilliant when I was younger and found them to be misognystic. The two that immediately come to mind are 'Last Tango in Paris' and 'Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession'. I read an interview with Maria Schnieder in which she said that she felt raped by both Marlon Brando and Bernando Bertolluci in 'Last Tango', and it haunted her for life Even though she fully consented to the scene that was later deemed 'esteem', she was young and vulnerable, and influenced by the belief that the film could be her big break.

So 'Last Tango' went off my list of all-time faves.

Why did those films appeal to me as a young woman, I wonder? I'm guessing because I related to being objectified and sexualized, and did not yet have the knowledge and understanding to be aware of that?

I had the same reaction when I recently watched the original Blade Runner. What I had seen as lovely and romantic in the interactions of Deckard and Rachael now looked non consensual. In addition, the two female replicants were killed in a horribly graphic and voyeuristic way.

I gathered a bit of information on the new movie hoping that things might’ve changed, but learned that the lead (played by Ryan Gosling) has a pet female replicant at home catering to his sexual needs and realized they haven’t at all.

 

[Tesla]

Wrigley (sp? the one in Alien)

Ripley