When exactly can one claim that a new initiative is no longer new enough to excuse its lack of functionality with teething troubles? It’s been almost exactly four years since Hollywood hijacked the “Me Too” hashtag and vowed to head in a new direction and become a women-friendly place. It all began with film producer Harvey Weinstein in reports that appeared almost simultaneously in the New York Times and the new Yorker was accused of abuse of actresses and assistants, and Harvey Weinstein is now actually in jail.
The musician Alanis Morissette, meanwhile, complains about a documentary film about her, which makes a name for itself with allegations of abuse, which would be statute-barred even if they named a perpetrator; the discussion about the different fees according to gender has disappeared from the trade journals, and the organization that was supposed to help women in Hollywood to get their rights no longer has a board of directors. So what else happened to the protests?
Festival in Venice: After all, three out of four participating female directors get one of the main trophies
It looks better on the canvases than before “Me Too”. There are actually more women out and about at festivals and award ceremonies, and the public debate has obviously helped. The festival in Venice has just ended – and although only four films by women directors took part in the competition, three of them received one of the main trophies, including Hollywood actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who presented “The Lost Daughter” for it best screenplay, and the New Zealander Jane Campion for a western filmed in the USA, “The Power of the Dog” (the French Audrey Diwan won the Golden Lion). The often repeated assertion by all festival directors that there are no qualified films by women to fill the competitions proves this to be a lie. The Oscar for best director also got a woman this year, only for the second time in almost a hundred years, Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland”.
The look behind the canvases is rather sobering. Not only did the musician Alanis Morissette go public last week because she felt betrayed by the documentary “Jagged” about her, which was shown at the Toronto festival. She complained that the interviews for the film gave her a false sense of security and that there were things in the film that were not true. She didn’t exactly name the locations – but in the film she makes allegations of abuse without saying against whom. If this is the part of the film that bothers you, it is at least indicative of Hollywood’s way of dealing with abuse: headlines are good, diffuse accusations without consequences are even better, but when it comes to structural change, the dream factory has not come very far.
“Time’s Up” wanted a lot, namely to clear up all structural inequalities
Kevin Spacey, for example, who was confronted with allegations of abuse by several men in the course of the “Me Too” debate, is working again – first with Franco Nero in Europe, then he plays in a small American production. One case against him has been dropped, one is still pending. And Rose McGowan, who tripped Weinstein by breaking her confidentiality agreement, railed against Oprah Winfrey on Twitter a few weeks ago – she has a picture of Oprah and Weinstein posted, on which the two sit next to each other at dinner and kiss Oprah Weinstein’s cheek. In the tweet, McGowan alludes to the fact that Oprah Winfrey withdrew from a documentary project last year that included allegations of abuse against record producer Russell Simmons.
An initiative of influential actresses, powerful producers and prominent lawyers wanted to do away with all the structural inequalities in Hollywood that favor the abuse of power. With a lot of hype, they joined forces with the challenge of “Time’s Up” to form an association with the main task of supporting women with a legal aid fund for which many millions of dollars were raised. At the 2018 Golden Globes, members and supporters wore black to the gala. The donors included Steven Spielberg and Mark Wahlberg, the board of directors was actress Eva Longoria and producer Shonda Rhimes, an advisory body to the Global Leadership Board that included stars Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and Reese Witherspoon. What can happen there? For example, there could be a nasty affair in New York.
At the end of August, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned on allegations of abuse, and however you judge them, it was certainly not one of the tasks of “Times’s Up” to get him out of the mess. But in the days leading up to his resignation, it emerged that a lawyer on the Time’s Up board, Roberta Kaplan, had advised Cuomo. And the CEO Tina Tchen had covered that. Both stepped back.
There is an open letter online accusing the organization of having betrayed the victims
In the meantime, there is not much left of “Time’s Up”, the members of the advisory committee were informed of its dissolution in September. They wanted to keep them out of the series of scandals that have been shaking the organization for weeks, according to the industry paper Variety. Of the Hollywood Reporter has since followed up with the Lauren Weingarten case, the employee of the television station CBS had also turned to the legal aid fund after she had reported a rape, but received no useful support, a lawyer she was referred to refused, he had one Conflict of interest.
Conflicts of interest are Time’s Up’s dilemma. The attorney Kaplan, for example, also represented perpetrators. There is also an open letter online with 150 signatories accusing the organization of having betrayed the victims. The accusation against “Time’s up” is always the same: the organization is too closely linked to the powerful in the industry. 2Time’s Up “now wants to reposition itself with a new board. Let’s see whether the dilemma will then be resolved – or whether leaders with connections to the centers of power will be sought again. Power can be abused wherever it is concentrated – including in the boardroom of an organization that was supposed to help women defend themselves against abuse of power.