Them too - The Reckoning thread

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The Democratic attorney general of New York has resigned after it was reported that he beat up several girlfriends. He was a prominent supporter of women's marches and the #MeToo movement.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement, abruptly resigned after The New Yorker published the accusations of women who said he was violent toward them.

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Democrat donor and Women's March supporter Harvey Weinstein; Democrat congressman Anthony Weiner; Democrat president Bill Clinton; Democrat congressman Al Franken; Democrat celebrity Garrison Keillor . . . . Funny, it's almost as if the whole Support-the-Women thing is just a scam.

After a remarkable hearing that featured gut-wrenching statements from 156 of his accusers and an apology that the judge said rang hollow, former Olympic gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison for molesting young girls under the guise of treatment.

"You do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again," Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said in the Ingham County, Michigan, courtroom where Nassar was forced to listen to victims for seven days before learning his fate.

"I just signed your death warrant," she added.

He still faces sentencing in Eaton County for three more counts, and he's already been sentenced to 60 years

The return of Arrested Development on Netflix isn’t without a fair share of drama. Not only are members of the cast upset about the recut version of season 4 and payment they may be owed due to its expanded episode count, but there is also the matter of Jeffrey Tambor. The actor is still in the middle of the harassment controversy that led to his removal from Amazon’s Transparent and left many questioning why he was included in Arrested Development season five.

David Cross and other members of the cast have come in his defense in the past, but now it would seem that creator Mitchell Hurwitz is adding a wrinkle into Tambor’s inclusion by saying the actor couldn’t be cut from the show. According to a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Hurwitz and some of the cast addressed the allegations against Tambor:

Hurwitz tells EW that he discussed the accusations with the actor when they surfaced in November, and that “he was as surprised by it as I was.” He acknowledges that Tambor — with whom he’s worked for 20 years and whom he considers a friend — can be “difficult” and “a grump,” but says that “Jeffrey has never evinced that kind of behavior.” Emphatically stating that “we all stand with victims of sexual abuse,” Hurwitz says that he hadn’t received any sexual-misconduct complaints about Tambor from the Arrested cast and crew, and when he checked with Netflix and the show’s studio, 20th Century Fox Television, they hadn’t either.

But that’s not the only reason Hurwitz decided to stick with Tambor for season five. As it turns out, the show had already been filmed during the period when the allegations came out. It created a tough situation for Hurwitz:

“We were done shooting — there was no version of cutting him out of the show, or there would be no show,” he explains. That said, “Am I going to cut Jeffrey out of the show, based on allegations that he disputes, that Amazon hasn’t shared, and that we have never experienced any complaints about? No, of course I am not going to…. I’m going to support Jeffrey.”

Disgraced chef Mario Batali is being investigated by the New York Police Department for two separate instances of sexual assault allegations, one of which was reported in a “60 Minutes” segment on Sunday.

The second allegation was brought to the NYPD late last year, police sources told ABC News. A woman claims she lost consciousness at a New York City restaurant in 2004 and found the chef on top of her when she woke up.

The unidentified woman featured in the "60 Minutes" piece alleges the 57-year-old chef and former TV star drugged and assaulted her in New York City in 2005.

After drinking wine with Batali at a popular Manhattan restaurant, the woman told "60 Minutes" that things got "completely foggy."

"I remember a moment where I was on his lap, kissing him. Like, he was kissing me," she said. "And then I remember throwing up in a toilet. And that is all. I woke up by myself on the floor. The first thing I think is I've been drugged."

Another thought that crossed her mind: "I've been assaulted," she said. The woman added that she spoke to police after the alleged incident but did not file a report.

Batali responded to the allegations today in a statement to ABC News: "I vehemently deny any allegations of sexual assault. My past behavior has been deeply inappropriate and I am sincerely remorseful for my actions. I am not attempting a professional comeback. My only focus is finding a personal path forward where I can continue in my charitable endeavors - helping the underprivileged and those in need."

Last December four women came forward and told the website Eater that Batali had sexually harassed them.

"I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt. Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong, and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family," Batali said in a statement late last year.

After the Eater piece, Batali was asked to leave ABC's "The Chew" and he offered to step away from the day-to-day operations of his restaurant group. Batali's former organization, the Batali and Bastianich Hospitality Group, told "60 Minutes" that it finds the allegations "deeply disturbing" and that "our partnership with Mr. Batali is ending. We have been actively negotiating with Mr. Batali to buy his interests in the restaurants."

Film producer Harvey Weinstein was expected to surrender to New York police on Friday, months after he was toppled from Hollywood’s most powerful ranks by scores of women accusing him of sexual assault, a person familiar with the case said.

Weinstein’s spokesman Juda Engelmayer and Weinstein’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman both declined to comment. The charging of Weinstein, which was first reported by the New York Daily News, follows a months-long investigation, including by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

A person familiar with the case confirmed the report to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The New York Times and other news outlets also reported Weinstein was expected to surrender.

Weinstein will be charged over an allegation by at least one accuser, Lucia Evans, a former aspiring actress who told the New Yorker that Weinstein forced her to give him oral sex in 2004, the Times and Daily News reported. The exact nature of the charges being brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was unclear on Thursday afternoon.

US film star Morgan Freeman has apologised following allegations of sexual misconduct made by eight women and several other people.

One production assistant accused Freeman of harassing her for months during filming of bank robbery comedy Going in Style, CNN reported.

She said the 80-year-old touched her repeatedly, tried to lift her skirt and asked if she was wearing underwear.

Freeman apologised to "anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected".

"Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy," he said in a statement.

Making women feel uncomfortable was "never my intent", he said.

The production assistant was among eight women to tell CNN they had been the victims of harassment.

She told CNN that during the harassment another actor, Alan Arkin, "made a comment telling him to stop. Morgan got freaked out and didn't know what to say".

Meanwhile a woman who worked on the 2013 film Now You See Me said staff knew "not to wear any top that would show our breasts, not to wear anything that would show our bottoms" or any close-fitting clothes if Freeman was around.

Morgan is also said to have stared at women's breasts and asked women to twirl for him.

CNN also said it had spoken to dozens more people who worked with or for Mr Freeman, some of whom praised Freeman and insisted his behaviour was always professional

Visa is suspending its marketing campaign with Morgan Freeman following a CNN investigation that uncovered a pattern of alleged harassment and inappropriate behavior by the actor.
"We are aware of the allegations that have been made against Mr. Freeman. At this point, Visa will be suspending our marketing in which the actor is featured," the company said late Thursday.

The company has featured Freeman in its commercials and also used his voice in its ads.

Vancouver public transit system TransLink announced on Thursday that it would "pause" its current ad campaign, which features Freeman's voice promoting its Visa credit card and mobile payments on the transit system.

In all, 16 people spoke to CNN about Freeman as part of an investigation, eight of whom said they were victims of what some called harassment and others called inappropriate behavior by Freeman. Eight said they witnessed Freeman's alleged conduct. These 16 people together described a pattern of inappropriate behavior by Freeman on set, while promoting his movies and at his production company Revelations Entertainment.

Reporters generally try to not to become involved in the stories they cover. But CNN said reporter Chloe Melas’ experience with Morgan Freeman led directly to her investigation into his behavior with women.
Melas said that during a junket for his 2017 film “Going in Style,” when she was six months pregnant, Freeman shook and held onto her hand, looking her up and down and saying variations of the words “I wish I was there.” (He was caught on camera saying “Boy, I wish I was there” while sitting a few feet from her.) Melas said Freeman also told her, “You are ripe.”

Chloe’s exchange, part of which was captured on tape, made her wonder if Mr. Freeman’s comments were an isolated incident or part of a bigger story, which she then began reporting,” a network representative told TheWrap.

The decision to employ Melas as both reporter and witness raised eyebrows among some journalism traditionalists, who strive to avoid any hint of potential conflicts of interest. But CNN said Melas’ reporting was completely appropriate, and conducted in coordination with others.

“Her efforts were supported by a robust editorial team, as well as her co-author An Phung, and together they carefully reported this story out over many months. Per CNN standards, it was rigorously vetted by senior editors throughout the process. Their piece is an example of investigative journalism at its finest.”

Margaret Sullivan, a former New York Times public editor and current Media Columnist for the Washington Post called the CNN decision “unorthodox,” but noted that it “can work” if news organizations are transparent about it.

Of the 20 entertainers listed in the survey, allegations against only two — Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K. — drove more people to say their viewership habits would change as a result.

More people said allegations against actor Kevin Spacey would have an impact on deciding whether to watch his work (46%) than have no impact at all (36%).

Conversely, one-third (33%) said allegations against “Arrested Development” actor Jeffrey Tambor would have an impact when considering watching his work, while 40% said there would be no impact.

As for the other 18 men, including 2017 Best Actor Oscar winner Casey Affleck and “Deadpool 2” actor T.J. Miller, the data shows that the allegations appear to have a much lesser impact on viewers’ decision to watch these actors’ work.

The May 10-14, 2018, poll was conducted among 2,202 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Experts disagree on whether studios should be concerned about whether consumers would turn away from actors accused of sexual misconduct.

Danny Deraney, chief executive of the Los Angeles-based public relations firm Deraney Public Relations, which works with actors, said it is a concern if more than one-third say their viewership would be impacted — which could apply to actor Jeffrey Tambor (33 percent said their viewership would be impacted following the allegations).

In those cases, he said, a studio should have a conversation before starting or continuing its relationship with the actor, but he also pointed out that Americans have a short memory in general.

“Time is your best friend,” he said in the May 18 phone interview.

Deraney cited the example of Mel Gibson, whose anti-Semitic and racist rants in 2006 and 2010, respectively, made him box office poison in the eyes of many industry observers. Yet Gibson earned an Oscar nomination for best director last year for his 2016 film “Hacksaw Ridge,” which made more than $67 million domestically and more than $175 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Susan M. Tellem, a partner at the Los Angeles public relations firm Tellem Grody PR Inc., had a different view of the data on Tambor, saying studios have no need to be concerned, noting the other side of the equation: that about 4 in 10 said their viewership of Tambor’s work would not change.

“The American public is pretty forgiving when it comes to bad celebrities,” she said, especially if the actor was a favorite of theirs before allegations surfaced.

Tellem Grody PR has represented major entertainment company executives accused of sexual harassment, as well as individual and union crisis cases affecting entertainment companies.

A lot is weighted in the severity of the allegations, Deraney said, but with time, consumers are going to forget or even become receptive of “your side” of the story.

Notably, when asked generally about shows or films starring unnamed actors facing #MeToo allegations, nearly half (47 percent) of respondents said they were less likely to tune in, while 34 percent said such allegations made no impact on their viewership. Nine percent said they’re more likely to watch. Attitudes became more lax when specific actors and shows were named.

Most respondents (71 percent) said Netflix Inc.’s decision to keep Tambor on “Arrested Development” would make no impact on their viewership or offered no opinion on the matter.

But a nearly identical percent (72 percent) said the same of Amazon Studios’ decision to remove Tambor from “Transparent.” The survey was in the field before The New York Times’ revealing sit-down with the “Arrested Development” cast, in which Tambor’s inappropriate on-set behavior toward co-star Jessica Walter was discussed -— a conversation for which Jason Bateman and other co-stars apologized after their comments were seen by many readers as excusing Tambor’s actions.

“People forget, forgive, or don’t even know” of allegations against these actors, said Tellem.

These results also mean there is a clearly paved road to redemption for many of these actors, experts said.

The range of reported abuses for the 20 men surveyed is also quite wide, and experts said the public may be willing to forgive what they see as less serious incidents. And they reiterated that many of these allegations are just that: allegations.

But there is one subgroup that entertainment officials should be mindful of: frequent moviegoers, or those who go to the theater at least once a month and rent a film at home once a month.

That valuable group tends to be more likely to say than the overall population that the allegations would impact its viewership of the work of each of the 20 entertainers.

But frequent television watchers, or those who watch five or more shows per week, are far less likely than moviegoers to say there would be an impact.