October 2017

-Wow, I’m in love with Vogue’s latest cover, featuring Daisy Ridley. In the interview, she tearfully remembers Carrie Fisher and talks about fame-induced breakouts.

-Another actress has come forward with a story about Harvey Weinstein, recalling a time when she was forced to kiss him.  Minka Kelly also shared her own creepy Harvey story. So far, 34 women have accused him publicly of inappropriate behaviour, with even more speaking out against other men in power. 

-Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling released a statement, saying he is “deeply disappointed in myself for being so oblivious to these devastating experiences of sexual harassment and abuse.”  Tom Hanks also spoke up, calling Weinstein “an ass.”

-Also, Emma Thompson is being praised for speaking out in this video interview, in which she says “I spent my 20s trying to get old men’s tongues out of my mouth, so I would imagine that happens very regularly. Perhaps this is a moment where we can say to men and women: Open your eyes and open your mouths, and say something.” Ben Stiller tweeted “Emma Thompson is right and all of us men need to get the reality of what it is to be a woman in show business and the world.”

–Oliver Stone (who also has a problematic reputation) defended Weinstein, and his comments are not going over well.

–George Clooney is denying claims from an ER actress that he helped get her “blacklisted” from Hollywood after she complained about harassment on the show’s set.

-I appreciate what Rose McGowan is trying to do with today’s Twitter boycott, but many people have raised the very valid point about how there was no boycott over Twitter’s treatment of Leslie Jones or Jemele Hill.

-In lighter news, Mindy Kaling confirms that Oprah spoiled her baby (girl) news, but it’s ok because hello! It’s Oprah.

-Speaking of surprise baby news, Carey Mulligan has confirmed that she had a second child a while ago.

-I don’t watch Once Upon a Time, but it’s probably a really bad sign that the star and the director filmed the season finale cliffhanger and had no idea what was going on.

-Speaking of actors being left in the dark, The Game of Thrones cast reportedly won’t even receive scripts for the final season of the series.

–Jennifer Aniston gave $1 million to Puerto Rico hurricane relief.

-Did Ben Affleck tag Jennifer Garner in for a little image rehabilitation this week?

-I love that the scene of Armie Hammer dancing in Call Me By Your Name is already going viral.

-This is a really bad look for Jimmy Fallon — and also pretty tone-deaf, considering that Kimmel is killing him in the ratings because he’s not afraid to get political.

-The Riverdale season premiere doubled (DOUBLED!) its ratings from last year, which is pretty stunning considering how broadcast TV is going these days. It’s most likely because everyone caught up with it on Netflix over the summer.

-It’s Friday the 13th, so Netflix dropped a new trailer for Stranger Things 2.

-Oof — am I just jet-lagged or does the trailer for the new X-Men movie look really, really bad?

https://twitter.com/lpolgreen/status/917890143209644032

Man, I take a few days off to go to Italy and Hollywood literally implodes! The long-heard whispers about Harvey Weinstein turned into published articles that ended up being even more explosive than expected, according to the latest reports. It can’t be overstated how much of a power player he is in the industry, and how big of a deal this is. Heavy hitters like Gwyneth Paltrow, Heather Graham, and Angelina Jolie have joined his accusers, while Hollywood heavies like Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Lena Dunham, George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, and Ben Affleck have spoken out against him.  Look at that list. And it’s growing by the hour. This thing is not going away. 

Of course, as great as it is for Hollywood to finally (finally!) speak up, many of those doing so are problematic. Winslet’s next movie is with Woody Allen; Pitt was in a relationship with both Paltrow & Jolie and apparently never came forward; Affleck talked about changing the culture but stays silent on the allegations surrounding his brother Casey (and dated Paltrow after her alleged incident took place but he still didn’t know?); Damon is said to have helped suppress a story about Weinstein in 2004 (which he denies). 

If anything good comes from this (besides Weinstein’s fall from grace), it’s that Hollywood finally seems ready to talk about this stuff. Terry Crews shared a story about being groped by an exec, it came out that Hayley Attwell was defended by costar Emma Thompson after Weinstein allegedly called her “a fat pig” onset, and a writer on The Originals told a story on Twitter about the time Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles protected her from harassment by a powerful agent. If this teaches us anything, it’s that Hollywood (especially its men), can no longer be silent and let this crap happen.