Oscar for ignoring rape and paedophilia goes to … Hollywood
Their Vidal! Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, June 16:
(Rozanna) Lilley is the youngest child of the late Dorothy Hewett, the radical left-wing … feminist poet, playwright and novelist … Before … (she) had reached the age of consent … (she) had been assaulted many times … (by her mother’s friends including) Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis. … at a Labor fundraiser … a former party secretary … (said Ellis was) “Our Vidal” … Had Ellis been a right-wing polemicist, his slander, kooky theories and serially inaccurate forecasts would not have been overlooked or dismissed as charming eccentricities. I suspect the same holds for his lechery.
Not their Vidal. John Ferguson and Tessa Akerman, The Australian, May 1:
Cardinal Pell has been committed to stand trial on historical sex charges ….
Vidal. Emma Brockes, The Guardian, September 19, 2013:
Samantha Geimer, aged 13, drugged and anally raped by Roman Polanski at Jack Nicholson’s house, said … (in Hollywood) “my mum and I (were) the monsters” … liars and gold-diggers. Gore Vidal (darling of the left) called her a hooker. “It was terrible and unwarranted, but not shocking.”
Their Bob Ellis. Ellis, ABC’s The Drum, July 4, 2011:
Why are deeds long common at office Christmas parties used by women to ruin good men’s careers? … Roman Polanski … made no more Hollywood films, and despite his evident genius was blocked, harassed and menaced for 35 years and faces jail in his 80s … Are men too harshly treated for what men have always done, trying it on, attempting foreplay, rolling bedroom eyes and murmuring lewdly … should they be ruined … for what, in my day, occurred in drive-in theatres every night … it is not fair.
Their Tarantino. Staff writers, news.com.au, February 8:
(In) Tarantino’s 2003 interview … (he claims Samantha Geimer) was never raped … she “wanted it” … The backlash against Tarantino came after Uma Thurman claimed the director “tried to kill her” … (and) his friend Harvey Weinstein covered it up.
Fawning over rapists? Evgenia Peretz, Vanity Fair, September 2009:
French (leftist) minister of culture Frederic Mitterrand was “dumbfounded” by Polanski’s arrest … (Philosopher) Bernard Henri-Levy posted (a) petition protesting … Among its signees were actresses Isabelle Hubert and Isabelle Adjani … What’s with all the gals fawning over a rapist? It reminds me of all the feminists in the 90s running themselves ragged to defend Bill Clinton … something tells me they wouldn’t be so righteously indignant over the arrest of some doofus NFL player.
The elephant in the screening room. Megan Garber, The Atlantic, May 3:
(Last October, the Academy expelled Harvey Weinstein) “to send a message that the era of wilful ignorance … is over” … The elephant in the screening room … (was) Polanski … (he) has been defended by … Martin Scorsese … Debra Winger … (and) ironically — Harvey Weinstein … (who said) “whatever you think about the so-called crime, Polanski has served his time” … Today, though (the Academy expelled Polanski) … (he) is appealing that tiniest measure of accountability … And … retains that … icon of gilded Hollywood status: his Oscar.