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Thread: #metoo (An Open Secret: Hollywood - Please Watch)

  1. #16
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    Will Seagal get blackballed like Weinstein/Spacey/et.al.? Or does he even rate?

    Maybe they'll replace Seagal with Christopher Plummer for China Salesman. Too soon?

    Portia de Rossi Claims Steven Seagal Exposed Himself to Her in Private Audition
    4:33 PM PST 11/8/2017 by Patrick Shanley


    Getty Images
    Portia de Rossi

    The actress on Wednesday wrote about the incident on her personal Twitter account.

    Portia de Rossi has accused Steven Seagal of exposing himself to her.

    The actress on Wednesday posted to her personal Twitter account that, while auditioning for a role in a film starring Seagal, the actor "told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants."

    De Rossi then said that she called her agent who was "unfazed" and replied, "Well, I didn’t know if he was your type.”

    Seagal has previously been accused of misconduct and harassment, including allegations by: former actress and Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero, who claims the actor invited her to audition in his private home and conducted the audition in a silk kimono; actress Rae Dawn Chong, who claims that sometime in 1989-90, she was sent by her agent to Seagal's hotel for a 9:30 p.m. audition, during which he exposed himself; and Juliana Margulies, who similarly claims she met with the actor in a private room where he harassed her and was armed with a gun.

    A request for comment from de Rossi was not immediately returned.

    After de Rossi spoke out, wife Ellen DeGeneres took to Twitter to say, "I’m proud of my wife."
    Seagal & Hollywood's Open Secret
    Gene Ching
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  2. #17
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    Melanie Kohler

    More on Ratner

    Brett Ratner Accuser Who Deleted Facebook Post Speaks Out
    8:05 AM PST 11/8/2017 by Jackie Strause


    Courtesy of ABC News
    Melanie Kohler on 'GMA'

    "We're here to send a very strong message that [the lawsuit] is not going to stop Melanie from speaking," says a lawyer for Melanie Kohler, whom Ratner is suing over a social media post claiming he raped her.

    Melanie Kohler says she is willing to tell her story about Brett Ratner in court if it comes to that.

    Speaking on Good Morning America, the Hawaii native who had accused the filmmaker of rape in a since-deleted Facebook post said, "If I have to risk my life and what I've worked so hard for in my life in Hawaii to be the voice that helps other women come forward, then I am prepared to do that."

    More than a week before the Los Angeles Times published an explosive report from six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, claiming they were sexually assaulted or harassed by Ratner, Kohler claimed in an Oct. 20 Facebook post that the Hollywood director-producer "was a rapist on at least one night in Hollywood about 12 years ago" and "preyed on me as a drunk girl [and] forced himself upon me." She later deleted the post.

    During a Wednesday sit-down with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, where she was accompanied by her lawyer, Kohler explained why.

    "I posted on Facebook and was just starting to feel healing about it all, and about an hour and a half after I posted, my cell phone rang," she said. Ratner's lawyer, Marty Singer, told her that if she didn't remove the post, he had authorization from Ratner to sue her for defamation, she said. "I was scared and shocked."

    Correcting what she had said in her initial post about not telling anyone about the alleged incident, Kohler said her best friend did recall her relaying the experience. "It's so embarrassing. It's so humiliating. It's not something that you ever want to relive again and it just felt like there was nothing that I could do," she explained. "I didn't think the police could help me. I didn't know if anyone would be willing to go up against someone so powerful and it just was easier for me to not relive it."

    Ratner then filed a complaint in Hawaii federal court denying Kohler's allegations and categorizing the social media post as libel per se. His lawyer, Eric Seitz, argued that the statements are entirely false, fabricated and fictional and that Kohler published them maliciously. Ratner claims to have suffered emotional distress, worry, anger and anxiety and that his personal and professional reputations have been injured.

    Kohler's lawyer said she felt the lawsuit was not about her client, but was instead filed by Singer and Ratner to "send a message to other women" and deter them from speaking out. "We're here to send a very strong message that it's not going to stop Melanie from speaking and it's not going to stop other women from speaking," said attorney Robbie Kaplan, who added that they are prepared to call "at least three dozen witnesses" and have the resources to fight back if the case proceeds. Amy Kaufman, the co-writer of the L.A. Times report, said on Twitter that the paper is investigating claims from over 45 women.

    Speaking out now because she "can't get through the day without being reminded of it," Kohler said she wants women to feel comfortable speaking out about a person who is "more powerful than you, has more money than you and when everything feels stacked against you."

    In response to the segment, Singer told GMA in a statement, "Brett Ratner vehemently denies the outrageous derogatory allegations that have been reported about him, and we are confident that his name will be cleared once the current media frenzy dies down and people can objectively evaluate the nature of these claims."

    In response to Kaplan specifically, Singer added, "It is nonsense that the defamation lawsuit filed against Ms. Kohler is a tactic of 'trying to silence women.' No such thing is occurring."

    In light of the allegations that have come to light against Ratner, Warner Bros., where Ratner had a first-look deal, severed ties with the producer.
    Natasha Henstridge details day Brett Ratner allegedly sexually assaulted her
    Fox News


    Natasha Henstridge spoke out about director Brett Ratner allegedly sexually assaulting her back in the 1990’s. (Reuters)

    Natasha Henstridge, who was one of the women named in the Los Angeles Times' exposé regarding Brett Ratner’s alleged sexual misconduct, detailed the day the director reportedly assaulted her.

    Henstridge, 43, told the Los Angeles Times Ratner forced her to give him oral sex when she 19 years old in the early 1990s.

    Henstridge said she was trying to leave his apartment in Manhattan when he blocked her from going. “The Whole Nine Yards” actress said Ratner began to masturbate and then forced her to perform oral sex on him.

    “He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “At some point, I gave in and he did his thing.”

    Henstridge told the Daily News the incident occurred near where she lived at the time in New York City.

    "I remember I ran home crying, so it was just within a few blocks,” she told the Daily News.


    Brett Ratner has been accused of sexual misconduct by six women. (Reuters)

    Henstridge said the incident left her feeling “helpless, sad and responsible.”

    "At the time it happened, I was a model, living in that world where there was an emphasis on sex appeal and beauty, and as a kid, part of me felt I was deserving of what happened," she said.

    The actress said she did not consider going to police and instead, pushed the alleged assault to the back of her mind.

    The “Species” actress said she was afraid to reveal her experience with Ratner at first but described the article’s release as “cathartic.”

    "For weeks, I struggled with speaking up. Then at one point, I thought (the article) wasn't going to come out because of legal pressure. And as afraid as I was, I then felt more afraid it wouldn't publish. So I'm feeling relieved in that way," Henstridge said.


    Olivia Munn claimed Brett Ratner sexually harassed her. (AP)

    "I'm sure I will get to that place of peace eventually," she said. "I'm so grateful (to the other accusers). It helps you realize you're not the only one. And there is power in numbers."

    Other women who came out to accuse Ratner of sexual misconduct were actresses Olivia Munn, Jamie Ray Newman, Katharine Towne, Jorina King and model Eri Sasaki.

    Ratner’s lawyer, Marty Singer, said the “Rush Hour” director “categorically disputed” the allegations made by the women.

    "I have represented Mr. Ratner for two decades, and no woman has ever made a claim against him for sexual misconduct or sexual harassment," Singer told the Los Angeles Times. "Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client."

    Following the allegations, Ratner sued a woman who claimed he raped her and “stepped away” from Warner Bros.

    "In light of the allegations being made, I am choosing to personally step away from all Warner Bros.- related activities," Ratner said in a statement. "I don’t want to have any possible negative impact to the studio until these personal issues are resolved."
    I hope he's out for Rush Hour 4...if that even ever happens.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #18
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    The latest from Corey Feldman:



    I've noticed there are still some people who believe that this is all just some big money-making scheme by Feldman. That shows how utterly stupid some people are. NOBODY, especially a guy, says they were molested --- for as many years as Feldman has been putting the word out about it --- as a profit-making scheme. It's also not so easy to come out and name names, especially the names of powerful men, as many people seem to think it is. There are not only legalities involved, but Feldman's own personal safety as well. He's been talking about Hollywood pedophilia FOR DECADES and almost nobody was listening.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 11-09-2017 at 12:58 PM.

  4. #19
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    The next step

    Like I said, politics is worse. Only politicians are generally better at defending themselves against allegations because that's what they do.

    Sex Allegations Against Roy Moore Send Republicans Reeling
    By RICHARD FAUSSET, JONATHAN MARTIN and CAMPBELL ROBERTSONNOV. 9, 2017


    Roy S. Moore, the Republican candidate for United States Senator in Alabama, was accused of making sexual or romantic overtures to teenagers. Credit Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times

    ATLANTA — Republicans in Washington seemed near panic Thursday in the light of a news report in which four women said Roy S. Moore, the Republican nominee for a United States Senate seat in Alabama and an evangelical Christian, had made sexual or romantic overtures to them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, said Mr. Moore should step aside ahead of the Dec. 12 special election if the allegations were true.

    But in Alabama, the fallout was uncertain for a candidate who is considered a hero in some circles for his conservative cultural stances. Mr. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was twice removed from that office for his positions on gay marriage and a Ten Commandments display. On Thursday, he strenuously denied the allegations the women made about him in on-the-record interviews included in the report, published by The Washington Post.

    And it was clear that many in his conservative base were in no mood to desert him in a race for a Senate seat Republicans consider crucial to maintaining their majority in the upper chamber.

    John Skipper, 66, a former chair of the Mobile County Republican Party, declared the allegations “total contrived media garbage.” Mr. Skipper said that he would still support the candidate and that he figured most of the Alabama Republicans he knew would probably do the same.

    “Most of them will not be shocked,” he said, “and will rather be expecting these shenanigans being pulled by the Democrats as standard operating procedure.”

    Whether Mr. Skipper’s prediction proves true remains to be seen. But the report unquestionably introduced new waves of uncertainty and turmoil into a race for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general.

    The women cited in The Washington Post article said that Mr. Moore had pursued them in the 1970s and 1980s when he was a lawyer in his early 30s.

    Mr. Moore was defiant, denying the charges and attacking the news media.

    “These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and The Washington Post on this campaign,” he said in a statement. He later attributed the news to “The Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lap dogs.”

    Judge Roy Moore @MooreSenate
    The Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me I’ve EVER faced!

    We are are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message. (1/4) #ALSen
    3:46 PM - Nov 9, 2017
    9,815 9,815 Replies 7,314 7,314 Retweets 12,926 12,926 likes
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    Brett Doster, an adviser to Mr. Moore, said the candidate would “absolutely not” drop out of the race, calling the charges “a fabricated November surprise.”

    Others in Alabama shrugged at the allegations. “There’s nothing to see here,” said Jim Zeigler, the state auditor and a longtime supporter of Mr. Moore. “Single man, early 30s, never been married, dating teenage girls. Never been married and he liked younger girls. According to The Washington Post account he never had sexual intercourse with any of them.”

    But Mr. Moore’s candidacy appears to be in grave danger. Senate Republicans moved en masse to distance themselves from their nominee almost as soon as the news article was posted.

    A statement from Vice President Mike Pence said: “The Vice President found the allegations in the story disturbing and believes, if true, this would disqualify anyone from serving in office.”

    That statement was repeated by numerous Republicans, including the president who was traveling in Asia.

    “Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in statement from Danang, Vietnam, where the president is attending an economic summit meeting. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”

    “If these allegations are true, his candidacy is not sustainable,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican. Mr. Cornyn said he wanted to know more before withdrawing his endorsement of Mr. Moore.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  5. #20
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    Continued from previous post

    John McCain ✔@SenJohnMcCain
    The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.
    11:44 AM - Nov 9, 2017
    16,877 16,877 Replies 34,977 34,977 Retweets 117,227 117,227 likes
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    The party, already reeling from the election losses they suffered on Tuesday, is defending a two-seat majority in the Senate and faces a handful of difficult elections next year.

    Mr. Moore’s candidacy had already worried party leaders who had embraced Mr. Moore despite his long record of incendiary comments about gays, Muslims and African-Americans.

    Alabama election law indicates, with little ambiguity, that the deadline has passed for candidates to be replaced on the ballot. The state election code says a candidate who wishes to withdraw from a race must do so 76 days before Election Day. The Alabama vote is in little more than a month.

    “It’s too late to substitute a candidate,” said John Merrill, the Alabama secretary of state, a Republican. “Judge Moore will be the candidate on the ballot with this election cycle remaining on the schedule it’s currently on.”

    Republican lawyers and strategists in Washington were engaged in a furious search on Thursday for creative ways around that restriction, seeking a loophole that would allow the party’s leadership in the state to anoint a new candidate. The prospect of a write-in candidacy, for a third candidate, was also under consideration, according to party aides.

    Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, who ran her own successful write-in campaign in 2010, said: “If in fact what I just read is true, he needs to get out of this race immediately. I think it’s pretty clear cut.”

    She called for Senator Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill Mr. Sessions’s seat but lost to Mr. Moore in a bitterly contested Republican runoff in September, to run as a write-in.

    One of the women, Leigh Corfman, told The Washington Post that she was 14 when Mr. Moore, 32 at the time, drove her to his home in Gadsden, Ala. He took off her shirt and touched her bra and underwear while also guiding her hand over his pants, Ms. Corfman told The Post.

    “I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she told the newspaper.

    CNN reported that it had spoken with Ms. Corfman’s stepfather, who said the family “stands by” what was reported in The Post.

    Republican leaders are in a politically perilous situation, saddled with an embattled nominee unwilling to step aside in one of the country’s most conservative states. The charges reignited hostilities between Mr. McConnell’s political allies, who poured millions of dollars into the campaign to stop Mr. Moore, and President Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who rallied support for the former justice.

    “This is what happens when you let reckless, incompetent idiots like Steve Bannon go out and recruit candidates who have absolutely no business running for the U.S. Senate,” said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell aide.

    Mr. Bannon did not immediately reply to text messages or phone calls, but Breitbart posted an article with Mr. Moore’s statement shortly before The Post published its report.

    Steven Law, the head of a McConnell-aligned “super PAC” that led an onslaught against Mr. Moore in the Republican runoff, did not wait for a guilty verdict before he excoriated Breitbart for “defending ‘consensual’ sex between a 32-year-old and a 16-year-old.”

    Private polling by both parties has shown that while Mr. Moore retains a passionate following among conservatives, he is a deeply divisive figure among more moderate Republicans, and some party officials now worry that the charges will convince moderates to stay home or vote for the Democratic candidate, Doug Jones, a former United States attorney.

    The Jones campaign said in a statement that “Roy Moore needs to answer these serious charges.”

    Cleveland Poole, the chairman of the Republican Party in rural Butler County, said those most likely to defect were not ardent Moore supporters but voters who already have doubts. “They are going to be put off by it and might well stay home,” he said.

    In a statement, Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, called the allegations “deeply disturbing,” and said she would withhold judgment until “we know the facts.” Senator Richard Shelby, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, told reporters in Washington that if the charges were accurate “he wouldn’t belong in the Senate.”

    Mr. Doster, the adviser to Mr. Moore, said the candidate’s campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, had talked to members of Alabama’s congressional delegation after the report broke. “Everybody has been supportive,” Mr. Doster said.

    But a Republican familiar with the conversation said the House members on the call had told Mr. Armistead it was imperative that they aggressively respond to the article or risk losing support from the party’s elected officials.

    Randy Brinson, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, said he expected voters would mostly give Mr. Moore the benefit of the doubt.

    “Until I see something different, I would support Roy Moore because of what he says he’s going to do and who he is as a person,” Mr. Brinson said.

    Mr. Zeigler said the account given by Ms. Corfman was “the only part that is concerning.” As Mr. Zeigler described it: “He went a little too far and he stopped.”

    Had the girl been 16 at the time and not 14, he added, “it would have been perfectly acceptable.”

    For Democrats, the prospect of a wounded Mr. Moore was a gift.

    “This is revolting and the Republican Party and everybody’s who endorsed Roy Moore needs to disavow his candidacy right now and ask him to withdraw,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who leads the Senate Democratic campaign arm.

    Until recently, few Democratic officials believed that Mr. Jones could topple Mr. Moore in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992, and Democrats have debated fiercely whether to commit resources to the race. Now many think they have a chance to shrink the Republican majority to a single seat and potentially snatch the majority next year.

    Correction: November 9, 2017
    An earlier version of this article misstated Roy S. Moore’s election track record. He has both won and lost statewide races.

    Richard Fausset reported from Atlanta, Jonathan Martin from Washington and Campbell Robertson from Pittsburgh. Alexander Burns, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting from Washington.
    Want to know why I say worse? Read the next one.
    Gene Ching
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  6. #21
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    Using the Bible to defend statutory rape is worse

    Acts of Faith
    Alabama state official defends Roy Moore, citing Joseph and Mary: ‘They became parents of Jesus’
    By Michelle Boorstein November 9 at 5:52 PM

    An Alabama state official on Thursday dismissed a Washington Post report alleging that GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore had initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl decades ago, saying there was an age gap between the biblical Joseph and Mary. The Post also alleged that Moore had pursued three others when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s.

    “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler told The Washington Examiner. “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

    In the Bible, Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Joseph became her husband. Beliefs about the specific story of Joseph and Mary and Jesus’ birth vary widely in Christian history and across traditions. Mary is referred to in scripture as a virgin, but there is disagreement about what that means. Generally, however, Christians believe that Mary was a virgin when he was born. Joseph is usually referred to as Jesus’ “father” or a father figure.

    The Bible does not state Mary and Joseph’s specific ages, but she is usually understood to be a teenager, and Joseph was an adult.

    Moore is a judge and the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Alabama, one of the most solidly evangelical states in the country. He was twice elected to and twice removed from the state Supreme Court after refusing to follow church-state laws. In 2003, he refused to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building. In 2016, he was suspended after ordering judges to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.


    Alabama’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Roy Moore, speaks with reporters as he visits the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 31, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

    Multiple evangelical leaders slammed Ziegler.

    “Bringing Joseph and Mary into a modern-day molestation accusation, where a 32-year-old prosecutor is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl, is simultaneously ridiculous and blasphemous,” said Ed Stetzer, a pastor and church consultant who holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission and Evangelism at Wheaton College. “Even those who followed ancient marriage customs, which we would not follow today, knew the difference between molesting and marriage.”

    “Women were chattel back then, they were traded — of course they married men who were much older and had multiple wives,” said the Rev. Amy Butler, senior minister of the Riverside Church, a historical and prominent interdenominational church in New York City. “It’s completely ludicrous to equate the sex assault of a minor with an ancient culture. It’s ludicrous . . . It makes me want to rip the church back from these people.”

    The topic is addressed in the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38):

    “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.’”

    Earlier this year, Moore received high-profile endorsements from conservative leaders such as psychologist and radio host James Dobson, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins and National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown.

    In an email to supporters on Thursday, Moore told his supporters: “The forces of evil are on the march in our country. We are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message.”

    Moore, who is a Southern Baptist, has denied the allegations.

    “Their goal is to frustrate and slow down our campaign’s progress to help the Obama-Clinton Machine silence our conservative message,” he wrote in his email to supporters. “That’s why I must be able to count on the help of God-fearing conservatives like you to stand with me at this critical moment.”

    According to the Pew Research Center, 86 percent of Alabama residents identify as Christian, and 49 percent are evangelical. White evangelicals have become much more likely to say a person who commits an “immoral” act can behave ethically in a public role. In 2011, 30 percent of these evangelicals said this, but that shot up to 72 percent, according to a survey published last year by the Public Religion Research Institute.

    Clarification: This piece has been updated to clarify Christians’ beliefs about the virgin birth. The title of the Billy Graham Center has been corrected.
    I've read the Bible. I've read the Gospels several times. There's some pretty shocking stuff in the Bible, but I never got a defense for molesting a 14-year-old out of it.
    Gene Ching
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  7. #22
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    Is this having the same impact on government? Why not? Maybe it's coming...

    Gal Gadot will only be ‘Wonder Woman’ again if Brett Ratner is out
    By Emily Smith November 11, 2017 | 5:04pm


    Gal Gadot and Brett Ratner Getty Images

    “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot is continuing to battle accused Hollywood sexual harasser Brett Ratner by refusing to sign up for a super*hero sequel unless the moviemaker is completely killed from the franchise.

    A Hollywood source tells Page Six that Gadot — who last month backed out of a dinner honoring Ratner, where she was due to present him with an award — is taking a strong stance on sexual harassment in Hollywood and doesn’t want her hit “Wonder Woman” franchise to benefit a man accused of sexual misconduct.

    Ratner’s production company RatPac-Dune Entertainment helped produce “Wonder Woman” as part of its co-financing deal with Warner Bros. The movie has grossed more than $400 million internationally, and Ratner’s company will take a healthy share of the profits. A Warner Bros. insider explained, “Brett made a lot of money from the success of ‘Wonder Woman,’ thanks to his company having helped finance the first movie. Now Gadot is saying she won’t sign for the sequel unless Warner Bros. buys Brett out [of his financing deal] and gets rid of him.”

    The source added of Israeli-born Gadot, “She’s tough and stands by her principles. She also knows the best way to hit people like Brett Ratner is in the wallet. She also knows that Warner Bros. has to side with her on this issue as it develops. They can’t have a movie rooted in women’s empowerment being part-financed by a man *accused of sexual misconduct against women.”

    This past week, Warner Bros. announced it was severing ties with Ratner amid multiple sexual harassment allegations leveled against him by actresses including Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge. Ratner has vehemently denied the allegations through his attorney, Marty Singer.

    Earlier this month, Gadot posted on Instagram: “Bullying and sexual harassment is unacceptable! I stand by all the courageous women confronting their fears and speaking out. Together we stand.

    “We are all united in this time of change.”

    Reps for Gadot and Ratner did not comment.

    A rep for Warner Bros said only, “False.”
    Wonder Woman 2 & Hollywood's Open Secret
    Gene Ching
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  8. #23
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    Sit on my face and tell me that you love me...

    ...I know, Monty Python lyrics are inappropriate here, but it's Monday and it's more Seagal.

    Steven Seagal accused of telling actress to sit on his face
    By Emily Smith November 10, 2017 | 9:07pm


    Steven Seagal Getty Images

    A Hollywood exec has told how she was sexually harassed by Steven Seagal as a budding actress on the set of his 1991 movie “Out for Justice.”

    The exec, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, said Seagal lured her to his trailer for a “costume change,” then propositioned her by phone, crudely demanding, “You are not comfortable sitting on my face for an hour?”

    She alleges that her first day on the set, Seagal insisted that all the new actresses gather for him to “check us all out.”

    The former actress said, “Moments later, a wardrobe assistant led me to Steven’s personal trailer, to his bedroom, and asked me to change into a corset. Then, Steven opened the door [and] tried to barge in. I said, ‘Excuse me, I am changing in here,’ but he insisted, ‘I need to see what you look like.’ I told him that I wasn’t comfortable and began screaming for the wardrobe person. He just smirked and said, ‘It’s OK, I like nice girls, too.’ ”

    The next night, Seagal — who was married to Kelly LeBrock, who’d just given birth to their second child — called the woman at home, saying Gregg Allman had recorded music for the soundtrack. “Steven told me, ‘You should come by and listen to some of the tracks. I’m staying at the [Hotel Bel-Air].’”

    Again, she said she didn’t feel comfortable, and alleges that Seagal responded, “You are not comfortable about coming over and sitting on my face for an hour?’”

    The ex-actress said, “I told him, ‘You’re married,’ and he just said, ‘Ah, you are no fun.’ I worked for two weeks, then they let me go. If I’d gone to the hotel room and slept with him I would have had a much better role.”

    She recounted the ordeal to a fellow actress on the movie, who wasn’t surprised, “ ‘He didn’t give you a pager?’ she asked. ‘He has given them to a few actresses, and when he pages, you have to go immediately to his hotel room, even if it is 3 a.m.’”

    Jenny McCarthy, Portia de Rossi and Julianna Margulies have also accused Seagal of inappropriate behavior.

    His rep didn’t get back to us.
    Seagal & Hollywood's Open Secret
    Gene Ching
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  9. #24
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    I used to think Takei was OK.



    *Continued next post...

  10. #25
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    *Continued from previous post...

    In this recent Howard Steen interview, Takei pretty much admits to such things.

    **Warning: Ribald humor.

    Last edited by Jimbo; 11-14-2017 at 10:31 AM.

  11. #26
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    Meanwhile in Sweden

    No image, but an embedded vid behind the link.

    Alicia Vikander Among Nearly 600 Swedish Actresses Calling Out Sex Abuse in Film, Theater

    10:54 AM PST 11/10/2017 by Scott Roxborough

    Inspired by the #MeToo movement that sprung up in response to the sexual assault and harassment allegations against disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, the letter calls out the Swedish industry for failing to protect women from sexual abuse and for profiting from the work of known abusers.
    Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander has put her name to an open letter signed by nearly 600 Swedish actresses calling out sexual abuse in the Swedish film and theater industry.

    Inspired by the #MeToo movement that sprung up in response to the sexual assault and harassment allegations against disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, the letter calls out the Swedish industry for failing to protect women from sexual abuse and for profiting from the work of known abusers.

    “Directors, you have failed. Producers, you have failed. Production companies, you have failed. Theatre managers, you have failed. Politicians, you have failed,” it reads. “It is your responsibility to ensure that nobody is sexually abused at the workplace.”

    Asserting “zero tolerance against sexual exploitation and violence” the signatories demand that employers, from film companies and theaters to book publishers and Swedish television networks, “stop protecting, hiring and making money on perpetrators” of sexual violence.

    The letter was published in Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet along with numerous anonymous first person accounts of specific incidences of abuse.

    "In one film I acted alongside one of the most prominent film actors, both in Sweden and abroad,” reads one testimony. “At a party he followed me into a hotel room, pushed me hard onto the floor, threw himself over me, held me tight and laughed with a dark look in his eyes. The thought 'he is going to rape me' ran through my head, but somehow I managed to get him off of me and ran.”

    “At one of my first jobs, in the theatre elevator, I was pushed up against the wall by an actor in the same production and told to come to his dressing room at three o'clock, otherwise I would not continue working at the theatre,” reads another.

    A third: "I was 23 years old and laid on a mattress to rest between rehearsals. One of the conductors came in, asking if he could rub my back. I immediately felt that I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t say no. He sat on top of me and started to massage my back. He then took out his ***** and began to masturbate. When he was about to climax he lifted up my shirt and ejaculated on my back. Then he got up and left. Before the show started that night, he took my arm and said that it was nice and it was our secret."

    Alongside Vikander, the signatories to the open letter include such well known Swedish actresses as Sofia Helin, star of the original Swedish version of TV series The Bridge, and veteran actress Marie Goranzon (I Am Curious, Yellow).

    The letter ends with a warning to abusers or those who seek to protect them.

    “We will no longer be silent,” it reads. “We will bring those responsible to account and let the justice system run its course when needed. We will put the shame where it belongs — with the perpetrator and those who protect him. We know who you are.”

    The group has started its own hashtag for supporters of their efforts, #tystnadtagning (#silenceaction in Swedish).
    It's not just Hollywood's Open Secret according to Alicia Vikander of Tomb Raider.
    Gene Ching
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  12. #27
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    We've heard this one before, but maybe now someone will listen.

    Jenny McCarthy Reshares Steven Seagal Harassment Claim
    7:02 AM PST 11/10/2017 by Jackie Strause


    Getty Images
    Jenny McCarthy

    The actress, who first spoke out about her alleged casting-couch experience with the actor-producer in 1998, retold the experience on her Sirius XM radio show.
    Jenny McCarthy has joined a handful of women to come forward and allege they were sexually harassed by actor Steven Seagal.

    The actress and former Playboy model recalled a 1995 audition for Under Siege 2, which Seagal starred in and produced, while speaking on her Sirius XM radio show Thursday — something she had previously told to Movieline in 1998 — adding that "a lot of people" had already heard her tell the story.

    "I stand across from him and he plops onto a sofa that’s near a fireplace," she recalled. "And he points at the sofa cushion next to him saying to me, 'Take a seat. Relax.' I said, 'No, thank you. I’m just really excited to read for this part. And I have so much energy I need to stand.'"

    McCarthy said she wore a loose muumuu outfit so the casting people would "actually look at my face and watch me work," but that her meeting ended up being only her and Seagal.

    She said the actor told her there was nudity in the part and that he couldn't tell what her body looked like in the oversized dress she was wearing.

    “In my head I’m like, 'Okay. here we go. Sound the alarms, this is not a test, this is the real thing, activate all defense systems,'” she said. “But I so wanted to legitimately read for this part that I wasn’t going to give up yet. So I told him, ‘Listen. My agent says there’s no nudity. I specifically asked her and she said no.'"

    She says he told her there was "off-camera nudity," which didn't make sense to her, and asked her to lower her dress. She said she only wanted to read the scene but that he asked again for her to lower the dress “so I can see your breasts."

    She paused, says her eyes filled with tears and then yelled back at him, "Go buy my Playboy video — it’s on sale for $19.99." She said he followed her to her car and instructed her not to tell anybody, "or else."

    “It was so disheartening,” she said of bursting into tears in her car and fearing his words. She said she was disheartened and ready to move back to Chicago at that point. “I was the last girl that day. How many girls had to take off their clothes? How many girls had to do more? It just so grossed me out.”

    Jenny McCarthy's casting couch experience with Steven Seagal

    A rep for Seagal had previously denied the claims to The Daily Beast, saying, “Warner Brothers casting for the film Under Siege 2 has confirmed that Jenny McCarthy never auditioned for a role on Under Siege 2. Her claim is completely false.” THR has reached out for comment.

    McCarthy joins actresses Portia de Rossi and Julianna Margulies in speaking out about Seagal, allegations that come during a shift in the Hollywood climate. Seagal was first accused of misconduct and harassment by Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero, her allegations sparking others, like actress Rae Dawn Chong, to come forward. The allegations are threaded together by stories of a private meeting or audition with Seagal that developed into the actor either allegedly exposing himself or sexually harassing the actress.

    Seagal, along with former Amazon content chief Roy Price, director James Toback, actors Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Piven and Ed Westwick, and, most recently, comedian Louis C.K., have all had allegations leveled against them in wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which broke early October.
    Seagal & Hollywood's Open Secret
    Gene Ching
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  13. #28
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    I was wondering about this...

    After reading Vikander's news above, I was pondering exactly this question.

    Why Do So Many Hollywood Men Self-Pleasure for a Captive Audience?
    11:56 AM PST 11/14/2017 by Rebecca Sun


    Getty Images
    Louis C.K. and James Toback

    Many thought the act was a rare pathology — until the industry scandal. Experts explain this gross epidemic.
    Louis C.K.'s Nov. 9 confession to masturbating in front of multiple women without their consent, following similar graphic allegations against Harvey Weinstein, James Toback and Brett Ratner, shifts the stereotype of the sexual exhibitionist from subway flasher to Hollywood heavyweight. Although the urge to force others to witness sexual acts can be found in individuals at all socio*economic levels (and in all industries), experts say a unique combination of several factors enables that type of predilection among Hollywood's most powerful.

    First, whereas the gratification of basic urges — like lust — is typically checked by social layers, "power basically knocks out those constraints," says UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner, author of The Power Paradox. "Power leads people to take the shortest, easiest path to expressing their desire, no matter what the social consequences. And when men have sexual desires, the most immediate way to gratify those is to masturbate."

    The cutthroat nature of the entertainment industry also serves as a type of natural selection. "If you look at what it takes to have success in politics or the arts, it's so highly competitive that it almost requires lack of empathy and a predatory nature to get to the top," says Alexandra Katehakis, clinical director of the Center for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles. "To throw yourself into the public eye, you've got to have a thick skin, which is often accompanied by some pathology, and that pathology is a narcissistic personality that feels highly entitled. You mix that with power and control, and you've got somebody with antisocial behaviors."

    L.A.-based psychologist Debra Borys agrees that narcissists are overrepresented in Hollywood and adds that the industry's gatekeeping structure lends itself to abuse. "There tends to be less institutionally codified means of rising and getting through a gate," she says, noting that showbiz's nontraditional meeting venues like hotels and trailers also play a role. "Very few people succeed, and they know it. That gives the people in management more power and makes the people trying to succeed more vulnerable."

    OK, but why that act specifically? These factors contribute to "an environment where this may be easier to get away with, or may happen more, for people who already have the proclivity," Borys continues. "But I don't think it creates monsters." In other words, these high-profile incidences may be making headlines, but for these sex experts, it's old hat.

    "It's not like it's happening more often," says San Francisco-based sex-trauma specialist Quandra Chaffers. "Frotteurism and exhibitionism have always existed. People are starting to adopt more language to explain what's happened to them. They have ways to talk about people forcing them to watch." In other words, the real surprise is not that it's happening, but that it's been happening all along.

    This story appears in the Nov. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
    Gene Ching
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  14. #29
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    House & Senate

    House and Senate Are ‘Among the Worst’ for Harassment, Representative Says
    By YAMICHE ALCINDOR and KATIE ROGERSNOV. 13, 2017


    Katherine Cichy says she was harassed by her direct supervisor while working for a Democratic senator’s office in 2013. Credit Mason Trinca for The New York Times

    WASHINGTON — A senior Senate staff member is accused of trying to tug open a junior aide’s wrap dress at a bar; she said he asked why she was “holding out.” A former aide says a congressman grabbed her backside, then winked as he walked away. A district worker said a House member told her to twirl in a dress for him, then gave her a bonus when he liked what he saw.

    As the nation at large deals with lurid stories of sexual harassment, Congress is only beginning to grapple with tales of sexual aggression that have long been fixtures of work life on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the Committee on House Administration will convene a hearing on harassment in Congress, putting the halls of the Capitol under scrutiny alongside the hotels of Hollywood, the kitchens of New Orleans, the board rooms of Silicon Valley and the suites of New York’s media giants.

    In the run-up, about 1,500 former Capitol Hill aides have signed an open letter to House and Senate leaders to demand that Congress put in place mandatory harassment training and revamp the Office of Compliance, the legislative branch’s opaque in-house adjudicator.

    “The Congress of the United States should be the one work environment where people are treated with respect, where there isn’t a hostile work environment,” said Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, who will testify on Tuesday about her efforts to deal with harassment in the Capitol. “And frankly, it’s just the opposite. It’s probably among the worst.”

    In more than 50 interviews, lawyers, lobbyists and former aides told The New York Times that sexual harassment has long been an occupational hazard for those operating in Washington politics, and victims on Capitol Hill are forced to go through far more burdensome avenues to seek redress than their counterparts in the private sector.

    Under federal law, complainants must undergo a confidential process, where co-workers who might be able to provide corroborating evidence are excluded. They often must wait about three months before submitting an official complaint, yet must file one no later than 180 days after the episode. Once filed, victims must submit to up to 30 days of mandatory counseling and complete another 30 days of mediation.


    M. Reese Everson tried to report a member of Congress for flirting with her while she was a fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

    If mediation fails, the person then must wait 30 more days before seeking an administrative hearing or filing a lawsuit in Federal District Court.

    “The system is so stacked,” said Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer who often works on sexual harassment cases. “They don’t want people to come forward.”

    With such rigid policies, even the most dogged complainants may find no avenue for resolution. In one case, a fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, M. Reese Everson, brought a complaint against a House member to the Office of Compliance. But she said the office told her it could not handle her case because, as a fellow and not a full-time employee, she did not fall under its jurisdiction.

    She ended up filing her complaints with the District of Columbia government, where they have languished for over two years.

    Few deny the growing sense that Congress is, for many women, a hostile workplace. Last Thursday, the Senate approved a resolution that would create mandatory anti-harassment training for all Senate employees and interns, and would require training every two years. At least two other pieces of legislation that would make the changes even broader are in progress.

    Kristin Nicholson, a former chief of staff to Representative Jim Langevin, Democrat of Rhode Island, said Congress had not gone far enough. “We think training needs to be in-person to be more effective,” said Ms. Nicholson, who now directs the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, “and we’re asking for reforms to the opaque process for reporting and resolving harassment claims.”

    In interviews, a few who were harassed said they were never even informed of the Office of Compliance’s existence.

    Rebecca Weir, a 39-year-old lawyer in Washington, had never heard of the office in 2001 when she said former Representative Gary Miller, Republican of California, asked her to twirl for him in his Diamond Bar, Calif., office.

    “He said, ‘My God, you look amazing today. Just stunning.’ And he was kind of leering at me, and then he asked me to twirl,” Ms. Weir recalled. “I was stunned, but I was young and dumb and here’s a member of Congress that I’m working for asking me to twirl in his office. So I did.”

    Ms. Weir said Mr. Miller’s chief of staff called from Washington soon after with some news.

    “‘Well Rebecca, I don’t know what you did, but Gary just called me and said you can have a $1,250 bonus, effective immediately,’” Ms. Weir recalled.

    On Monday, a woman who identified herself as Mr. Miller’s wife, Cathy Miller, denied the allegations. “I know my husband,” she said before adding that the claim was “yellow journalism.”

    There also was no mandatory training in place on Katherine Cichy’s 27th birthday in 2013. Ms. Cichy, then an aide for now-retired Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, was walking through Union Station with colleagues when Ms. Cichy’s direct supervisor repeatedly called her “hot.”

    Ms. Cichy reported the episode to her chief of staff at the time, who she said made light of it, saying, “It is what it is.”

    Months later, Ms. Cichy took a job in another office. The man who harassed her stayed in Mr. Johnson’s office, as did his former chief of staff, Drey Samuelson, who said on Friday that he had warned the offending employee, “I would fire him, and it never happened again.” He said that he did not make light of the episode.
    continued next post
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    Continued from previous post


    Laura Murphy, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office, said she endured a number of sexually suggestive incidents as generations of lawmakers cycled in and out of Congress. Credit Al Drago for The New York Times

    “Bottom line,” Ms. Cichy said, “my boss told me I was hot, and I had to sit in a room every day and work with him. And they didn’t do anything about it. Nothing.”

    For female lobbyists, sexual suggestions appear to be part of the price of access.

    In her 40 years on the Hill, Laura W. Murphy, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office, said she endured a number of sexually suggestive episodes as generations of lawmakers cycled in and out of Congress. In the 1980s, a House member, whose name she would not share, tried to kiss her in the produce aisle at a Capitol Hill grocery store. In the early 2000s, she said a lawmaker asked her for a working dinner, then propositioned her for sex.

    “At first it was about work,” Ms. Murphy, 62, said. “But then it devolved into a very blatant overture to have sex.”

    Like many women, Ms. Murphy did not report the episodes in part because she believed her career could be negatively affected and because she was not sure where she could turn.

    All of the women now coming forward are putting pressure on the Office of Compliance, whose processes date back to the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995. Between 1997 and 2014, the United States Treasury paid $15.2 million in 235 awards and settlements for Capitol Hill workplace violations under the office’s byzantine procedures, according to a recent Washington Post analysis of the Office of Compliance.

    Susan Tsui Grundmann, the office’s executive director, said that the office had received an increase in requests for harassment training in the past two weeks, and that the five-member board had repeatedly recommended since 2010 that Congress put in place regular mandatory harassment training.

    Bradford Fitch, president and chief executive of the Congressional Management Foundation, a group that helps lawmakers and staff run their offices, said sexual harassment was vastly underreported in congressional offices.

    This has been the case for decades: In 1989, Alice Cain was 22 and three months into a job as a chief of staff’s assistant for Paul Simon, who was then a Democratic senator from Illinois, when one of his top donors groped her and forcibly kissed her at a fund-raiser held at a Washington hotel.

    Ms. Cain, who is now 50 and works for a nonprofit organization, said that several other women in her office had similar experiences with that donor, whom she declined to name out of respect for his family. But she said it was years before the women spoke to one another about the episodes.

    “If I go into my boss’s office and say, ‘Oh, this guy did this to me’ — I don’t want to lose my job,” Ms. Cain said. “I think all of us made that calculation.”

    She said she decided to share her story belatedly “for the 22-year-olds now.”

    Others are reconsidering past experiences, episodes previously brushed off as playful or not a big deal, that register now as assault.

    Hannah Hudson was in her early 20s and working for a Democratic congressman from Oklahoma in 2009 when she was joined on a work trip by staff members from a Republican senator’s office. At a work outing, she said, a senior aide for that senator tried to tug open her wrap dress, which she had pinned closed, asking, “Why are you holding out on us?”

    Ms. Hudson, who is now 32 and works as a photographer, did not think to report the episode. She said she tried to brush it off because she felt that what had happened to her was not as bad as what had happened to others.

    She does remember feeling grateful when a male colleague who silently witnessed the episode pulled her aside privately to ask if she was all right.

    “How much of a patriarchal society do we live in that the person who came up to me in private and said, ‘Oh, are you O.K.?’ is the hero?” she asked.

    She paused.

    “That’s the nice guy in the story.”

    Kitty Bennett contributed research.
    Back to my point about politics, I'm wondering if we should take the 'Hollywood' out of the title of this thread because it's not at all limited to that. I don't really care to sully our forum with too much politics, but sexual misconduct is such a trending topic now, and I know it's not just me and Jimbo who are concerned about it.
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