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Ben Affleck Seemed to Crack a Joke About Hollywood Sexual Harassment


Another day, another tone-deaf actor.

Ben Affleck seemed to make this apparent during a recent press day with his fellow Justice League cast, when they were all asked by an interviewer at MTV UK which superhero they’d like to one day act alongside in a future film. Women dominated the pleasant conversation — Supergirl and Black Canary are particularly in demand, for instance — until Affleck lustfully comment on the superhero Zatanna’s “fishnets” and then seemed to make an odd and disrespectful joke about Supergirl. “What would you get up to if you had Supergirl joining the team?” the interviewer asked, before Affleck said his response: “Are you following the news at all?” The news, of course, is the onslaught of sexual harassment and assault allegations against various high-powered men in Hollywood. Was Affleck trying to make light of these horrific and harrowing allegations? The Internet sure thinks so.

“The JL cast’s reactions to Ben Affleck dropping a joke about all the sexual assault allegations in Hollywood is like a renaissance painting,” one Twitter user wrote, correctly pointing out how his co-stars, minus Gal Gadot, immediately glared at him when he made the joke. “This is the moment when Ben Affleck made a rape joke … I mean here you can see who is trash and who is not,” another wrote. Added a third, among other tweets: “Ben Affleck is actually making a joke about the recent stories of sexual assault in Hollywood … Nah I’m so shook bc I assume with his mess Warner Bros would be extra careful with interviews but they’re fine with him doing this.”

It should be noted that Affleck was accused last month by actress Hilarie Burton of groping her breast while on TRL many years ago, which he apologized for a few days later on Twitter: “I acted inappropriately toward Ms. Burton and I sincerely apologize.” He was also accused by makeup artist Annamarie Tendler of groping her at a 2014 Golden Globes party. He did not respond to this allegation, but earlier this month, in an interview with the AP, the actor said he’s “looking at my own behavior and addressing that and making sure I’m part of the solution.”

No word yet on how this joke fits into Affleck’s plan to be part of the solution…

More:__ Hilarie Burton Says She Was Groped by Ben Affleck on ‘TRL’





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Hundreds Turn Out for Take Back the Workplace, #MeToo Demonstrations in Hollywood


The #MeToo and “Take Back the Workplace” movements joined forces offline on Sunday as sexual assault, harassment, and abuse survivors took to Los Angeles’ streets in support of each other and the ever-growing list of those coming forward to bring this horrible behavior to light.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the day’s demonstrations began at the Dolby Theatre, which is where the Oscars have been held since 2002. From its location in the Hollywood & Highland Center, marchers wearing “pussy hats” and Wonder Woman T-shirts made their way to the CNN Building on Sunset Boulevard. Later, they headed back toward Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, passing the Walk of Fame—and the stars of alleged assaulters Kevin Spacey and President Donald Trump—along the way.

The day also saw a movement leaders powerfully sharing stories and calling for change.

“We will no longer be intimidated, we will no longer be dismissed, we will no longer be silenced, we will no longer feel alone,” said comedian Tess Rafferty, who co-organized the Take Back the Workplace March. “And if you try and silence or intimidate or discredit one of us, you’re going to have to deal with all of us. We are no longer the ones who have to fear for their jobs, you are.

Tarana Burke, the originator of the #MeToo hashtag a decade ago and an organizer of the #MeToo march, told the crowd, “I don’t want to spend a moment of my time calling names of folks who don’t deserve breath with me. This day is not for them. This day is for us.”

Lauren Sivan, one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers also spoke: “This is 2017, the time is ripe for a reckoning, for a reordering of power. Today we’re here to tell you that you will no longer keep us quiet, you will no longer label us gold-diggers or psychos. That ends now, because we want our daughters and sons to go to a workplace where they will never have to take a meeting with a dude in a bathrobe.”

And, of course, there were signs.

Burke also gave those listening a call to action as she spoke, making the point that Hollywood and the movie industry aren’t islands when it comes to sexual harassment and assault.

“For every Harvey Weinstein, there’s a hundred more men in the neighborhood who are doing the exact same thing,” Burke said. “The conversation around harassment in Hollywood will broaden to include other industries if we force it to. It’s not going to do it on its own.”

Related Stories:
–Activist Tarana Burke Started the ‘Me Too’ Movement 10 Years Ago
–These Are the Women Who Have Accused Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Harassment or Assault
–Gabrielle Union Claps Back at Sexual Assault Victim Shamers





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Irish Actress Maureen O'Hara Was Calling Out Sexual Harassment in Hollywood More Than 70 Years Ago


To say that Hollywood has a sexual harassment problem would be a gross understatement. Following a barrage of reports about producer Harvey Weinstein and director James Toback, more and more women have come forward to share their own stories of sexual misconduct and assault. Making these allegations all the more harrowing is how closely they follow a decades-long pattern of predatory behavior. Case in point: A 1945 interview with Maureen O’Hara—one in which the Irish actress describes being sexually harassed on a film set.

The 72-year-old article was originally published in The Mirror but has made its way into the 21st-century thanks to a tweet posted earlier this month by pianist James Rhodes. O’Hara, who starred in films like The Quiet Man, How Green Was My Valley, and Miracle on 34th Street, says that after rejecting producers’ and directors’ sexual advances she was labeled a “cold potato without sex appeal.”

“I am so upset with it that I am ready to quit Hollywood. It’s got so bad I hate to come to work in the morning,” she said at the time. “I’m a helpless victim of a Hollywood whispering campaign. Because I don’t let the producer and director kiss me every morning or let them paw me they have spread word around town that I am not a woman—that I am a cold piece of marble statuary.”

She continued: “I guess Hollywood won’t consider me as anything except a cold hunk of marble until I divorce my husband, give my baby away and get my name and photograph in all the newspapers. If that’s Hollywood’s idea of being a woman I’m ready to quit now.”

O’Hara was not alone in calling out sexual harassment in old Hollywood. In a recent interview with Vulture, actress Rose Marie described being harassed on a Broadway stage in the 1950s by a producer who wanted to turn the live production into a movie. She called him out for his behavior—”In front of everyone, I said, ‘You son of a bitch, you couldn’t get it up if the flag went by!’” she told Vulture—but said her role in the film became virtually nonexistent after her remarks.

As O’Hara’s interview went viral, Twitter erupted in praise for her decades-old comments—and noted how appalling it is that nothing has changed in the years since.





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38 Women Have Just Accused Hollywood Director James Toback of Sexual Harassment


PHOTO: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

Almost 40 women have come forward to accuse Hollywood director and screenwriter James Toback of sexual harassment in a bombshell L.A. Times story published Sunday morning. Known for movies like The Pick-Up Artist (1987), Love & Money (1982), and Two Girls and a Guy (1997), he would allegedly approach young women wanting to break into the industry or those he just saw in the street, try to impress them with name-dropping actors or producing clips about his work, and then try to arrange a one-on-one meeting with them that “quickly turned sexual,” according to the Times report.

Not just sexual, but “humiliating”: Toback would allegedly ask these women how often they masturbated and how much public hair they had. According to several accounts, he would tell them to take off their clothes, saying if they weren’t comfortable, then they didn’t have the “sexual confidence” for a role. Typically, he would grind his crotch into women’s legs or masturbate in front of them until he finished, alleges the Times, either on them or in his pants. Some women report him asking them to look into his eyes while he masturbated and pinch his nipples before he came.

He allegedly told one woman, 18 at the time and thrilled about a connection to help in her along with her dream of screenwriting, that she had to “be ready to turn yourself completely over to me.” He met with then-As the World Turns actress Terri Conn in Central Park and, she says, told her that “the best way to get to know someone is to see their soul. And the way you can see someone’s soul is to look into their eyes when they’re experiencing orgasm.” He allegedly “began humping her leg”—with people nearby—until he finished in his khakis.

“I was shocked and frozen and didn’t know what to do,” she told the Times. “I thought if I resisted, it could get worse. He could overpower me.”

Toback’s alleged behavior was whispered about enough in Hollywood that his name became a verb: “You got Tobacked.”

Not a single one of the 38 women in the story felt comfortable at the time reporting their alleged incidents to the police. “I felt like a prostitute, an utter disappointment to myself, my parents, my friends. And I deserved not to tell anyone,” said actress Adrienne LaValley in the Times story. Toback had allegedly met with her in a hotel room before trying to grind against her leg. She “recoiled,” and he came in his trousers.

Another actress, Starr Rinaldi, says that there was no good way out in an encounter with Toback, who she says “always wanted her to read for him” in a hotel or his flat: “The horrible thing is, whichever road you choose, whether you sleep with him or walk away, you’re still broken. You have been violated.”

As the Times points out, Toback’s name showed up in “his own special universe” of the #MeToo movement on social media, with many women hashtagging him in their posts last weekend. Even more have included #JamesToback in #MeToo posts since the Times story broke.

Toback, who is 72, denies the allegations in the Times article, and says that this behavior would have been “biologically impossible” for at least the past 22 years due to diabetes and a heart condition. His latest movie, The Private Life of a Modern Woman, starring Sienna Miller, was released September 3.

The L.A. Times story follows, of course, the massive New York Times investigation into decades of alleged sexual harassment and assault carried out by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein—whose behavior also allegedly followed set patterns. Like Weinstein, there were rumors and whispers. It’s yet another tale of yet another man (allegedly) abusing his influence and power to prey on the ambition of women. And as long as women keep speaking out, there will be more of them.

Related Stories:
–These Are All the Women Who Have Accused Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Harassment and Assault
–An Explosive Report Alleges Decades of Sexual Harassment by Harvey Weinstein
–Jennifer Lawrence Calls Harvey Weinstein Allegations ‘Inexcusable and Absolutely Upsetting’



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Kate Hudson Opened Up About How Much Harassment Women in Hollywood Face


PHOTO: Jared Siskin/Getty Images

As both a woman in Hollywood and an entrepreneur who runs her own athleisure line, Kate Hudson has seen firsthand how often women face harassment at work.

Cohosting the launch of Bumble Bizz—a networking app brought to by the makers of the female-first dating app—on Thursday night, the actress spoke to Glamour about the myriad challenges women face in their professional lives. When she was growing up, Hudson watched as her mother, Goldie Hawn, fought to navigate the film industry but didn’t comprehend how many challenges Hawn faced until Hudson herself made the leap into acting.

“As a woman in Hollywood, you are a woman in a man’s world,” she said. “The people in powerful positions are predominantly men. It’s changing rapidly, which is amazing, but it’s definitely [mostly] men.”

She’s experienced a similarly male-dominated world in launching Fabletics and has seen a shift in her own behavior—one where she may feel less comfortable, or less confident—upon entering a meeting that has eight men for every woman seated at a table.

But beyond these boys’ club, Hudson spoke critically of the extensive harassment women in acting are subjected to almost as soon as they enter the public eye.

“Women are constantly harassed,” she said. “There are men with telephoto lenses trying to get up your skirt. That’s absolutely harassment. I walk out of my house, and I’m scared the wind will blow [my skirt] up because then [photos] would be everywhere, my children would see it, and I’d be embarrassed and humiliated. That to me is a form of harassment.

For Hudson, fear of these types of invasive photographs is a constant source of anxiety for her—one that consistently impacts her day to day life. She recalled filming a movie recently, one that required her to stick her head into a trash can—while wearing a skirt, of course—for one particular scene. She told the crew that she was concerned a photographer would snap a photo from underneath skirt. Sure enough, the next day a tabloid published a photo of Hudson filming the scene complete with a callout saying she “bares too much.”

As Hudson noted, there’s little protection for women in Hollywood when it comes to this kind of invasive treatment, but that needs to change, and women need to keep speaking out, openly and honestly, about their experiences.

“These are things that do need to be talked about. You do need to be really blunt about them,” Hudson said. “All women are tired of eyes being rolled as if we’re being sensitive. We’re not being sensitive. You just might not understand that this is what it is. It feels horrible. It’s degrading. It’s dismissive. So much needs to change.”

Lauren Chan contributed to this report.



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Rose McGowan Says Hollywood "Blacklisted" Her After She Was Raped


PHOTO: Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Charmed actress Rose McGowan has been outspoken on Twitter about Harvey Weinstein following the New York Times‘ bombshell investigation into his alleged sexual harassment and assaults. McGowan also used the platform recently to accuse Weinstein of raping her when she was younger. Now, in an interview published on Saturday by the Observer, she details the fallout from reporting the assault.

In the piece—the interview for which took place back in January—McGowan explains that she didn’t report the alleged assault to the police because a criminal lawyer told her that she was unlikely to win. “Also, I didn’t want his name next to mine in my obituary,” she told the Observer. “His name doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as mine when I’m dead.”

McGowan did, however, tell the studio. On Twitter, McGowan said she went to Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, to report the incident but was told they couldn’t do anything because there was “no proof.” In her interview with the Observer, she elaborated: “They threatened [me] with being blacklisted,” she said. “I was blacklisted after I was raped, because I got raped, because I said something … but only like internally.”

In 1997, McGowan reached a $100,000 settlement with the Weinstein, which she cites in the interview as “an admission of guilt” on Weinstein’s part. She also claims to have had between 150 and 200 people she could subpoena to support her testimony and implied she also had physical proof. “I had three surgeries on my wrist and elbow,” she said. “I think that’s fair enough.”

McGowan also vows that she’s committed to fighting back against those who are “aiding and abetting” sex crimes in the film industry. “They blame the victim, they do all that shit,” she told the Observer. “They are bred to put fear into people and that’s what they do, they’re bred to put fear into the publishers and lawyers and they overreach it, and I’m going to do what I can and come out as hard as I can.”

In the 10 months since the interview took place, McGowan has done exactly that. Since the Weinstein scandal broke, she’s put Amazon’s studio on blast for failing to act (Price is now suspended) and called Ben Affleck a “liar” after he issued a statement claiming that the allegations against Weinstein made him “sick”. Some suspect that the suspension of McGowan’s account was the result of the latter move, though Twitter says she’d tweeted a private phone number, which constituted a violation of terms.

But after celebrities and women boycotted the social media site in solidarity with McGowan, her account was reinstated, and she resumed calling out the hypocrisy of Hollywood. Recently, she’s been throwing shots at men including Weinstein’s brother and the current head of the Weinstein Company, Bob Weinstein; Woody Allen, who has also faced allegations of sexual assault and is reportedly “sad” about what’s happening to Weinstein; and James Cordon, who joked about the scandal while hosting the amfAR Los Angeles Gala on Saturday.

Something tells us this isn’t going to be the last we hear about the gross abuse of power in Hollywood. In fact, we have McGowan’s forthcoming book Brave, which was recently bought by HarperCollins, to look forward to. She told the Observer that 85 percent of it had already been written and promised that it would address many of the incidents and issues she’s been talking about in regard to sexual assault and Hollywood. “It’s not a ‘tell all,'” she said, “It’s a ‘tell it how it is.'”

Related Stories:
–Rose McGowan Accuses Harvey Weinstein of Rape in New Tweets
–Rose McGowan Was Suspended From Twitter After Tweeting About Ben Affleck
–These Are All the Women Who Have Accused Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Harassment and Assault



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