Full Measure:
This year’s Academy Awards was the first since a cascade of sexual misconduct allegations against top entertainment moguls. In spite of promises to stick to the movies, the Oscars offered the usual sequel: brave stands that seemed as scripted as the films. It’s an industry that has long aligned publicly with causes that advance and protect women. So for this week’s cover story, we decided to go to LA and dig into Hollywood hypocrisy.
It’s Hollywood, where everybody wants to be a star. Once in a blue moon, a star is born. Sometimes, it turns out, with help from the casting couch.
The casting couch has been a persistent image in entertainment since the early 20th century.
Dancer Agnes de Mille once spoke of the casting couch supposedly operated by Broadway theater pioneers. They ran a brothel, she said. If you didn’t sleep with them you didn’t get the part.
Over the last hundred years, it turns out Hollywood hasn’t really come such a long way. For all of its public posturing with the “#MeToo” movement, critics say the entertainment industry is surprisingly backward in striking respects.
Meg James: How women are portrayed in films. How many women have speaking roles? Women that are in sexualized positions and wearing scanty attire. Hollywood is not innocent in how society treats women.
Meg James covers the business of entertainment for the LA Times.
Sharyl Attkisson: Does the entertainment industry have a double standard when it comes to sexual misconduct?
Meg James: When the Access Hollywood tapes came out, everyone in Hollywood went nuts. They took to Twitter. Everyone was condemning the behavior that Trump, you know, was captured on audio tape talking about. And then Harvey Weinstein happens, and there was, for three or four days, there was just silence. And to me, that struck me as being a double standard.
Watch iconic films today and some find the most memorable scenes cringe-worthy in terms of message. MORE
http://www.yousubtitles.com/1941-611-Movie-CLIP-Wood-Hollis-P-1979-HD-id-425059
You sneaky little bastards ain’t gettin’ doodily shit outta me,
except maybe my name, rank and social security number.
Wood, Hollis P. Lumberjack.
Social security: 1-0-6…
4-3… 2-1-8-5.
Where Hollywood?
– Right here. – What?
You’re lookin’ at him.
– Who? – Hollis Wood.
Where?
I’m right here. Shoot. Can’t ya understand plain English?
– Hollywood? – Huh?
– Where? – Here!
Look. Where Hollywood?
North? South?
Oh. You want me to tell you where Hollywood is.
Well, shoot. That’s easy. Hollywood is right…
Will the casting couch be retired? No. Too many women (and some men) are anxious and willing to use the casting couch to get parts – it’s not the one way street the talking heads make it out to be. Weinstein is a perv, but I’ll bet there were 10o women who came on to him for every female who complained.
The talent is little more than meat, and the rewards for making it big are enormous. Look at professional athletes who know steroids are dangerous – PEDs are a risk, but a $10 million a year contract is life changing for the athlete and his family. The same goes for Hollywood; to many aspiring actors blowing a producer is a way to get a foot in the door for fame and fortune.
No different than an office. Sleep with the boss to get a promotion.
Got it, no complaints.
Don’t get the promotion? Sexual assault.
I’m not saying it’s 100% that way, but I’m sure it’s at least 90%.