"Ccs only spoke up now and were gonna let him continue this behavior" do you have any fucking understand how manipulative people work, you ignorant cunt?

Not to mention most of those who are speaking out were fucking children when they met him

https://gallery30south.com/kelton-phoenix/

Kate Kelton: PHOENIX

JANUARY 2023

Seeking to elevate brave Silence Breakers who’ve come forward during the #MeToo movement, Kate Kelton’s portraiture combines their oft familiar faces with elements of her family’s Czech architecture. Her portraits are cloaked in the garb of statues that Ladislav Šaloun sculpted onto the central train station that her great- grandfather, Josef Fanta, designed for Prague between 1901 – 1909. Sampling and mixing her own lineage, Kate has transformed a historical body of work, itself a thing of lasting beauty, exchanging granite for graphite; plaster for paint.

Headdresses and crowns deify Kate Kelton’s subjects. She uplifts the Unsung Sheroes & Heroes, Patriarchy Smashers, Warrior Survivors, Silence Breakers, Philosophers, Truth-Tellers, Whistle Blowers and Thought Giants. She paints portraits cloaked in the garb of statues Ladislav Šaloun sculpted onto the train station that her great-grandfather, Josef Fanta, designed for Prague in 1901 – 1909.

Apotheosis through a reclaimed, reapplied Art Nouveau.

Kate’s recent work is a matter of expansion through contrast – she is as ephemeral as her subjects are concrete architecture; she is structural when her subjects should slip through your fingers like too-fine sand. Taken as a whole, the works in her magnificent series Phoenix are incredibly intelligent, but when looked at individually, you come to understand that these are statements of life beyond themselves. The series take embellishments of a Prague train station designed by her great-grandfather, Josef Fanta, and combines these with portraits of men and women who have stood against the sexual harassment and assault rampant in Hollywood –particularly those who have testified against Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly, and Bill Cosby, and made allegations against Franco Zeffirelli, Donald Trump, Russell Simmons, Max Landis, Michael Jackson, Nick Carter, Luc Besson, and others. These women, like Kate herself, have suffered in the era where powerful men, every bit as immovable as the train station, wielded their power without check. The portraits emblazoned on architectural elements, they are marked against the edifice, every bit as permanent, and perhaps even more defining. If you approach those as portraits, you’re taking the moment but missing the permanence. If you take them as statuary, you’re missing the fact that they are, in fact, alive within those gazes. It’s really incredible how much a shift of the light, a dart of the eye, can turn each of them from a memorial into a promise. This is not an exhibition about tragedy. This is a monument to courage, survival and empowerment.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kate Kelton was born in the south of Germany, after her parents escaped Czechoslovakia. Her early years were spent in a VW bus traveling Europe with her mother, an abstract painter. Settling in Toronto, Canada at age seven, Kelton attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts as a Visual Arts Major, and received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Film, from Ryerson University. Her father was an architect. His grandfather, and namesake, was Josef Fanta: renowned Art Nouveau architect, engineer and sculptor, who worked closely with Alphonse Mucha. Photographer Dagmar Hochová is Kelton’s great aunt, on her mother’s side. Kelton also had a recurring role on Stephen King’s Haven on the Syfy Channel. When the illustrated re- edition of the book it’s based on, The Colorado Kid, was published, she illustrated the front and back inside covers. Her first lead role on tv was opposite Eric Roberts and Eddie Izzard, in the Independent Film Channel’s Bullet In The Face. Alex Maleev illustrated her for the poster. Her first feature film, Deepa Mehta’s The Republic of Love, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her film credits include cult classics, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and American Psycho II. Did you also spot her in music videos, like Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me?” Almost as good as googling her as “the Tic Tac girl.” ;} Kate has exhibited her artwork internationally for decades, at, among others: the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery in the UK; Gallery 1988 in New York, Venice, and West Hollywood; Gabba Gallery, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, and Durden & Ray in Los Angeles; Art On Scene in Beverly Hills; Galerie F in Chicago; Lawless Concept in Montreal; and The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Her work has toured with Yoko Ono’s Group Show Arising from Zurich, to Portugal, to the UK and Germany.

Yup, 1928 was the watershed moment for silent films. I think because I'm not sure what a watershed is. At first, I thought it was a flush toilet which certainly revolutionized both enginereing and hygiene. The unfounded rumor is that the flush toilet was invented by John Crapper which is why we say we're going to the "john" to take a "crap".

The Crapper story is an example of a mythological, figurative watershed.

So what is a literal watershed which we can turn into a figurative watershed when we understand what the literal meaning is so we can apply it to the figurative etc.

According to my nephew Mick, who is an engineer, the term watershed comes from an area of land that drains water into a specific river or body of water just like if you are nuts enough to climb to the top of a mountain and dump your canteen in such a way that some of the the water falls on one side of the mountain and the rest falls on the other side it will come to pass that the water on one side although originating from the same canteen as the water on the other side will flow into one watershed where as the other one will flow into a different watershed and thus drain into entirely different rivers or lakes or creeks or whatever.

(Maybe you're familiar with conversing with engineers who try to make things "simple' for us without realizing that heir grasp of "simplicity" is much different than ours.)

Figuratively, then, a watershed moment is an event such as a revolution or a court decision that changes the course of history.

The end of the square wheel for example was the begining of the round wheel although the square wheel is to this day figuratievly recreated in the minds of all of us who are "out of our depth."

Here are a few watershed moments from my lifetime.

The release of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album in 1967, which is often seen as a watershed moment in the history of popular music, as it marked a major shift away from traditional songwriting and album production styles while turning rock and roll into a predominantly "white" art form which in turn inspired the reactionary rise of hip hop in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which not only changed the face of popular music, but also had a significant impact on fashion, language, and cultural norms. Ya feel me?

The introduction of the iPhone in 2007, which revolutionized the way people use and interact with smartphones, and set the stage for a new era of mobile computing. It took me until 2021 to catch up with my phone so as in many instances as the world around us changes some of us, particualrly those of us who are "out of it" miss the boat while ignoring both the writing on the wall and the elephant head on the wall until we are nearly trampled by the inevitable stampede. The launch of the World Wide Web in 1991, which transformed the way people access and share information, and had far-reaching implications for everything from commerce to politics. Human behavior.

The #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 as a response to widespread sexual harassment and assault in various industries, and sparked a larger conversation about power dynamics and gender equality leading to the downfall of Harvey Weinstein and the re-evaluation of the Hollywood Babylon and casting couches that shamefully prevailed in the film industry even before, during and after the watershed of sound.

These watershed moments as far sweeping as they are do not compare to our own personal water shed moments when everything changed in our lives....births..deaths.....marriages...failures...triumphs and on we go

Doot Doo.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically altered the way people live and work, and forced individuals and societies to confront a range of complex ethical, social, and economic issues.

The launch of the World Wide Web in 1991, which transformed the way people access and share information, and had far-reaching implications for everything from commerce to politics and which eventually led us to writing communities like ABC tales and publishing opportunities like KDP. All of which I hope leads you to my books Full Filler and Fill Fuller which represent personal watershed moments for me. The #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 as a response to widespread sexual harassment and assault in various industries, and sparked a larger conversation about power dynamics and gender equality leading to the downfall of Harvey Weinstein and the re-evaluation of the Hollywood Babylon and casting couches that shamefully prevailed in the film industry even before, during and after the watershed of sound.

etc.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically altered the way people live and work, and forced individuals and societies to confront a range of complex ethical, social, and economic issues.

In a social or political context, a watershed moment might be a significant event, such as a revolution, a major election, or a groundbreaking court decision, that fundamentally changes the course of history. In a personal context, a watershed moment might be a life-changing event, such as a marriage or a career change, that alters the trajectory of an individual's life.

[email protected] Can you identify a watershed moment in sports, in muisc, in technology in human behaivour Certainly!

A few examples of watershed moments in different fields are:

Sports:

The 1960 Rome Olympics, where Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) won the gold medal in boxing, marking a turning point in the sport's popularity and cultural significance. The 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey game between the United States and the Soviet Union, which not only represented a major upset in the sport, but also had broader political implications as a Cold War symbol. Music:

The release of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album in 1967, which is often seen as a watershed moment in the history of popular music, as it marked a major shift away from traditional songwriting and album production styles. The rise of hip hop in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which not only changed the face of popular music, but also had a significant impact on fashion, language, and cultural norms. Technology:

The introduction of the iPhone in 2007, which revolutionized the way people use and interact with smartphones, and set the stage for a new era of mobile computing. The launch of the World Wide Web in 1991, which transformed the way people access and share information, and had far-reaching implications for everything from commerce to politics. Human behavior:

The #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 as a response to widespread sexual harassment and assault in various industries, and sparked a larger conversation about power dynamics and gender equality. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically altered the way people live and work, and forced individuals and societies to confront a range of complex ethical, social, and economic issues.

[email protected] How about archiitecture and transportation Sure, here are some examples of watershed moments in architecture and transportation:

Architecture:

The construction of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1997, which is often cited as a watershed moment in contemporary architecture due to its innovative design and use of materials, as well as its role in revitalizing the city of Bilbao in Spain. The completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010, which is currently the tallest building in the world and represents a major achievement in engineering and construction. Transportation:

The invention of the automobile in the late 19th century, which transformed the way people travel and interact with their environments, and had profound impacts on urban development, energy consumption, and social norms. The development of commercial aviation in the 20th century, which revolutionized long-distance travel and enabled unprecedented levels of global connectivity and mobility.

[email protected] what wqas the watershed moment for slavery The watershed moment for slavery was the abolitionist movement, which gained momentum in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and ultimately led to the legal abolition of slavery in many countries around the world.

In the United States, one of the key watershed moments for slavery was the Civil War (1861-1865), which was fought in part over the issue of slavery and ultimately resulted in the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.

In Britain, the abolitionist movement gained traction in the late 18th century and led to the passage of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which prohibited the British slave trade. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 then abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, including in its colonies and territories.

Other countries and regions around the world also had their own watershed moments for slavery, including the Haitian Revolution in 1791-1804, which led to the establishment of the first independent black-led nation in the world and the abolition of slavery in Haiti, and the Dutch abolition of slavery in their colonies in 1863.

[email protected] What was the watershed moments for Napoleon, Hitler, Cleopatra, JFK and Marilyn Monroe Here are some watershed moments for each of the individuals you mentioned:

Napoleon:

The Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, which is widely regarded as Napoleon's greatest victory and solidified his power as emperor of France. Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, which marked the end of his reign and led to his exile to the island of Saint Helena. Hitler:

Hitler's appointment as chancellor of Germany in 1933, which allowed him to consolidate power and begin implementing his policies of Nazism and anti-Semitism. Germany's surrender in 1945 and Hitler's subsequent suicide, which marked the end of World War II and the downfall of the Nazi regime. Cleopatra:

Cleopatra's alliance with Julius Caesar in the mid-1st century BCE, which allowed her to maintain her power as queen of Egypt and expand her territory. Cleopatra's defeat by the Roman general Octavian (later known as Augustus) in the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, which led to her suicide and the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. JFK:

JFK's election as president of the United States in 1960, which represented a generational shift in American politics and ushered in a new era of American leadership. JFK's assassination in 1963, which shocked the world and had far-reaching impacts on American politics and culture. Marilyn Monroe:

The release of Monroe's breakthrough film, "Niagara," in 1953, which established her as a major Hollywood star and sex symbol. Monroe's death by overdose in 1962, which marked the end of her career and cemented her status as an enduring cultural icon.

[email protected] watershed moment for Elvis and professional wrestling Here are some watershed moments for Elvis Presley and professional wrestling:

Elvis Presley:

The release of his first single, "That's All Right," in 1954, which introduced his unique blend of rockabilly, blues, and country music to a wider audience and launched his career as a recording artist. Elvis's appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1956, which was his first national television appearance and helped him gain even more popularity with young audiences. Professional wrestling:

The formation of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1948, which unified various regional wrestling promotions and established a standardized set of rules and procedures for matches. The creation of WrestleMania by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1985, which brought together top wrestling stars from around the world for a massive, pay-per-view event and helped make professional wrestling a mainstream form of entertainment.

Promising Young Women: The Females and Films Taking over Hollywood

It is no secret that Hollywood has been a male dominated industry since its start. In a 2020 report on indie film screenings at U.S. festivals given by Women and Hollywood, nearly 30% of indie films made from 2019-2020 employed 10 or more men on set. Films with over 10 women on set accounted for only 5% of the indie films. Women have been gradually pushing to the frontlines of entertainment over the past couple decades. But in 2017, the “Me Too” movement broke the barriers of the industry and shined a light on some of the dark reasons women have had trouble making a name for themselves in Hollywood.

 In October of 2017, celebrity Ashley Judd was the first actress to go on the record and speak about Harvey Weinstein, a prominent American film producer and co-founder of Miramax who had been assaulting countless women in Hollywood for years. Once Judd came out exposing Weinstein, it opened the curtain to all the other women he had assaulted during his time in Hollywood.

It also opened the curtain on other men who were getting away with the same thing in other places.

            Immediately following the #MeToo movement and Weinstein’s official sentencing for rape and assault, Hollywood began to produce more content exploring the issues of sexual assault and misconduct not only in Hollywood, but in the workplace. Robert Thompson, professor of Pop Culture at Syracuse University, said it best in an article for Reuters, “Hollywood is now becoming its own loudest voice in helping to call out what a bad thing this is.”

Since films require time and care to produce, the effects of the movement on the media began to really show in 2019 and 2020.  Movies such as “The Assistant”: directed by Kitty Green, and “Bombshell”: directed by Jay Roach, were a few examples of these films, and both explore plots where a younger woman is assaulted by a man who has power over her job. Other content was specifically about the media and its place in the movement as well. “The Morning Show”, which explores themes similar to Bombshell, was a direct hit at Matt Lauer’s departure from the “Today” Show, after reports came out about his inappropriate sexual behavior. It was apparent from the similarity in titles the media wasn’t keeping secrets anymore, and time was up.

 “Unbelievable”, a Netflix series released in 2019, uncovers the harsh reality of the justice system, when a woman is raped in her own home and pressured by male detectives to recant her statement when police couldn’t find enough evidence. It isn’t until two female detectives follow evidence from cases years later that the truth behind her story is revealed.

“Promising Young Woman”, directed by Emerald Fennell, centers on a big theme of justice as well when Cassie, played by Carrey Mulligan, is given a chance at revenge from men who assaulted her friend in college.

It is important to note that almost all these pieces were written, developed, and directed by women as well as starring women.  Females are taking the narrative of women in Hollywood into their own hands, because they are the ones that have experienced it.

Ever since the women in Hollywood started to name and point out sexual violence both legally and through the screen, it has exposed sexual violence and years of sexist practices that have continuously forgiven and protected men.

“Naming sexualized violence makes it visible and subject to prosecution,” Said Gloria Steinem, co-founder of the Women’s Media Center. “In the past, what happened to men was political, but what happened to women was cultural. The first was public and could be changed, the second was private, off limits, even sacred. By making clear that sexualized violence is political and public, it breaches that wall. It admits that sexualized violence can be changed.”

The media has a big role to play in shifting the culture, not only the culture behind sexual violence, but the culture of Hollywood in general. After the start of the #MeToo movement, a clear step has been made forward for women, as studies from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative show that women directed 12 of 2019’s top 100-grossing films, an evident increase from years prior. Women still only made up 10.6% of the top filmmakers. A valuable change, but more still must be done.

As Ashley Judd, a founder of the movement has said,

“The world has permanently changed. We are in a new era. It is messy, imperfect, and urgent.” However, it is not over.

Jeffrey toobin zoom video cnn

#Jeffrey toobin zoom video cnn movie

#Jeffrey toobin zoom video cnn code

An additional thrill to do this during a work meeting. Because, for men like him, there is an additional thrill in masturbating when people might catch you. HOW is that not sexual harassment of the highest magnitude? Consider this question: WHY did he choose to masturbate DURING the meeting?” Man (with fame, clout, authority) in work meeting pulls out his dick and masturbates, thinking nobody will notice. He thought his camera & mic were off, but he knew he was in a work meeting,” she wrote. He was aware he was participating in a work meeting - this is not in dispute. “Jerking off DURING A WORK MEETING is deliberate. This thread by on Twitter explains the conundrum well. The issue here really is, why does a guy do this on a work call unless he likes the thrill of getting caught? It’s deviant any way you look at it. So was Harvey Weinstein, who was reported to have sprinkled his house plant in plain view of witnesses. was dragged for engaging in this same activity on phone calls with women. If MeToo has taught me anything it’s that consent matters and if a man exposes himself to anyone without their consent it’s akin to rape. That’s what we’re really talking about here.

#Jeffrey toobin zoom video cnn movie

Fox canceled plans for a movie based on the book after Hearst got through with Toobin.Īnd now Toobin wants the world to accept that he made a “mistake” and “accidentally” sexually harassed everyone in a Zoom call. He’s also already well-known for running afoul of the #MeToo crowd when Patty Hearst blasted him for sensationalizing her rape in his book American Heiress in 2018. Toobin is rabidly anti-Trump as any famous journalist must be. Will you shut up, man? October 20, 2020 I've been working at home for 3 years and an "honest mistake" is farting without hitting the mute button or standing up and everyone seeing your Spiderman pajama pants.

#Jeffrey toobin zoom video cnn code

How does he expect us to believe he did not check this before deciding to whip out wee Willie? And worse, why is that a good excuse for flogging the dolphin during a work call? Do we need congressional intervention to tell us that being an Army of One on a Zoom call is the wrong thing to do? Do we need a new criminal code for 2020 specifying that hoisting your own petard while attending a conference call is offensive to others? It’s sad that humans can’t just self-police. “Other people will weigh in about whether it was appropriate for them to get rid of me, and of CNN to keep me.He claims he thought he had “muted the video” but left it on “accidentally.” But that’s not believable, because when turning the camera off on Zoom, there is an avatar where the video used to be. I assume, I hope, they will be at least mixed,” Toobin said of the reaction to his return to CNN. “Look, I live in the world, I know social media, what the reactions are likely to be. “This was not the straw that broke the camel’s back this was the only incident.” … I thought this punishment was excessive, but that is why they don’t ask the criminal to be the judge in his own case.” He added that he was “incredibly grateful” to CNN for bringing him back.Ĭamerota also asked Toobin about the investigation that led to his firing: “They looked at my entire career at The New Yorker and found that there had been no complaints about me, no issues,” Toobin said. “Above all, I am sorry to my wife and family, I am sorry to everyone on the Zoom call, I am sorry to my former colleagues at The New Yorker, I am sorry to my current and fortunately still colleagues at CNN, and I am sorry to everyone who read my work and watched me on CNN and thought I was a better person than this,” Toobin added.Īsked about his departure from the venerable publication, Toobin said, “I loved The New Yorker, I loved working there. Bernard Shaw, CNN's First Chief News Anchor, Dies at 82

Johnny Depp’s witnesses’ testimonies, part 4.

Travis McGivern, another of Johnny Depp's security guards

When they arrived at the penthouse building, they ran into Heard in the lobby. Ms Lloyd stayed downstairs with the actress, Mr McGivern went upstairs to see Depp. He tells the court that because of "past experiences", he was hoping to get the actor out. Heard had stopped the elevator before and physically tried to stop Depp from leaving, he says.

At one point, he says he "heard and saw a closed fist contact Mr Depp in the left side of his face"

He says he never saw Depp being physically abusive towards Heard at any point during their relationship.

Referring to a witness statement McGivern drafted with an attorney, likely Adam Waldman, in the UK that contradicts the testimony he just gave. Like other witnesses, McGivern is either lying now or he lied then.

Mr Rottenborn asks about Depp throwing racks of clothing over and one down the stairs, which Mr McGivern spoke about witnessing earlier.Heard's lawyer says this wasn't the only time that Mr McGivern learned of Depp causing damage in one of his penthouse apartments. The security guard says he does not recall anything else.

Jack Wigham, a management rep for CAA

He describes Depp as "artistic" and "polite" and "kind of uniquely thoughtful", someone who would ask about family matters and other things. He says he found the actor to be "authentic" and says he had a "genuine kindness".  (lmao)

Mr Whigham is asked if there was a deal with Disney for the upcoming sixth Pirates film."We closed the deal at $22.5m for that film, is my memory," he tells the court, and that Depp was set to play Captain Jack Sparrow once again.(2017)

The agent says he has never seen Depp lose his temper, raise his voice or engage in any violence.

She wants to know why there is no contract or any texts or emails about this. Mr Whigham says he worked on many deals where contracts were "verbal in nature" and that it would be a conversation.He says the discussions surrounding Pirates 6 were "consistent with a lot of the conversations I would have on behalf of big stars".There is some back and forth between Ms Bredehoft and Mr Whigham as she asks him to answer yes or no to whether he has seen a document.

The lawyer tells the agent that The Sun's article, which was published several months before Heard's Washington Post column, refers to Depp as a "wife beater" and that it featured a picture of the actress that shows bruises on her face. The agent is asked several questions about what he remembers from the UK trial - and says he doesn't recall details and that it was his job to concentrate on films and work. 

Richard Marks, works for his own law firm, Richard Marks & Associates

He says he has done lots of research and that his general opinion is that the article "damaged Mr Depp" and created a "cancel situation, if you will".

Mr Marks says the #MeToo movement - which led to disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein being jailed - means that "finally", society is listening to "the victim". Hollywood has changed and morphed over the years, he tells the jury, "but never as quickly" as to the #MeToo movement in 2017.

He conducted legal work on All The Money In The World, starring Kevin Spacey, which had to be reshot after allegations were made against the actor.

Mr Marks says the Washington Post article was "devastating" to Depp.

He agrees there was negative publicity about Depp before the Washington Post article was published, but that this column was "something different".

Amber Heard's lawyer reads headlines about the UK trial and says they show that Hollywood was following the UK case, which Depp lost.He asks Mr Marks if he thinks the actress's Washington Post article - which did not name Depp - is what caused the actor "all his reputational harm".Mr Marks says he doesn't agree that the article isn't about Depp. "Does she have another husband..." he starts to say(then JD team objected to this question and it was crossed out)

Doug Bania, damages expert

He tells the court it is "not correct" to say that he cannot separate how Depp's reputation was impacted by the 2018 op-ed versus when Heard filed for divorce and her allegations were made public in 2016.He is now taken back to his written deposition provided to the case. When questioned at that time, he was asked if he could separate the two, and he said "no". He says this is correct.

Mr Bania says this is because Depp was not named in the article."In my analysis, the op-ed did not come up," Mr Bania says, when asked about searching Google for "Johnny Depp" after December 2018, when the column was published.

Heard's lawyer now looks at positive Q Scores for Depp, saying they dropped from 42 in the winter of 35 in the summer of 2016 - a seven-point drop.The positive scores show a further decrease after the op-ed in 2018 but then do start to increase from 2020. Likewise, the negative scores increase after the op-ed, but then start to decrease.

Erin Boerum, a nurse

Ms Falati is now being taken to notes made in 2015 following Depp and Heard's trip to Australia. She wasn't present in Australia, but says she remembers Depp's finger was injured but doesn't know what caused this.

She told Ms Falati about an argument with Depp and had "bright red blood appearing at centre of lower lip". Heard told her this injury was sustained during the argument and that she had also "lost clumps of hair", the notes say. (December 2015)

The nurse is now being shown pictures of Amber Heard's face which the actress sent her in May 2016 - around the time of her split from Johnny Depp.

Nadeen Ashraf had a burning secret. Earlier this summer, an anonymous Instagram page that named and shamed a man accused of being a notorious sexual harasser at Egypt’s most prestigious university was causing a sensation among her friends. Unknown to them, she was running it.

The experiment started, in a flash of fury, in the dead of night. On July 1 Ms. Ashraf, a 22-year-old philosophy major, was up late to cram for an exam the next morning when she became preoccupied with the fate of a Facebook post that had mysteriously disappeared.

Days earlier, a fellow student at the American University in Cairo had posted a warning on Facebook about a man she said was a sexual predator — a brash, manipulative young man from a rich family said to be harassing and blackmailing women on campus. Now, Ms. Ashraf realized as she stared at her laptop, the post had been deleted without explanation.

Enraged, she set aside her textbooks and created an Instagram page under a pseudonym — @assaultpolice — that identified the man, Ahmed Bassam Zaki, alongside his photo and a list of accusations of misdeeds against women.

“This guy had been getting away with stuff since the 10th grade,” she said. “Every time a woman opened her mouth, someone taped it shut. I wanted to stop that.”

After creating the page, Ms. Ashraf flopped into bed at 6 a.m. and slept through her exam. But when she awoke, she found hundreds of notifications from people who applauded her post, and about 30 messages from women who confided that they, too, had been assaulted by Mr. Zaki. Some said they had been raped.

An Egyptian #MeToo moment was born.

Within a week, Mr. Zaki had been arrested, the @assaultpolice account had amassed 70,000 followers and the page had prompted an outpouring of testimonies from other Egyptian women fed up with being humiliated and violated.

Sexual assault is endemic in Egypt — a United Nations study in 2013 found that 99 percent of women had experienced harassment or violence — but reporting it is notoriously difficult. Police officials are reluctant to register assault cases. Powerful institutions prefer to sweep accusations under the carpet. Even the families of victims, wary of scandal or feeling a misplaced sense of shame, tend to hush it up.

Ms. Ashraf’s bold page offered a new way.

“It was so wonderful,” she recalled, sitting in her family home. “A lot of the girls who got in touch said ‘I can’t believe I’m finally being heard.’ Even though it was a dark time, here they were speaking out. There was a sense of empowerment, of relief.”

On Sept. 1, the authorities charged Mr. Zaki, 21, with three counts of sexual assault against underage women, as well as multiple counts of blackmail and harassment. He remains in detention, awaiting trial.

But then a second high-profile case came to light, also through Ms. Ashraf’s Instagram page, that complicated matters. It promised to be even more sensational — an account of a gang rape by five young men in a five-star hotel overlooking the Nile. In recent weeks, however, the case has become clouded in a murk of counter-accusations and leaked images that threatens to overshadow the progress Ms. Ashraf has made — and possibly even reverse it.

“It’s very worrisome,” she said.

Ms. Ashraf, 22, is not an archetypal Egyptian rebel. She comes from an apolitical family that lives in a gated community in eastern Cairo — a place of manicured lawns and hushed streets lined with luxury vehicles where support for Egypt’s authoritarian leader, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, runs relatively high.

Her father owns a software company, her mother is a nutritionist, and her family stayed in the suburbs during the 2011 uprising that toppled Egypt’s longtime ruler, Hosni Mubarak, and the 2013 protests that ushered in a military takeover and Mr. el-Sisi’s rule.

When the #MeToo movement erupted in the United States in 2017, driven by accusations against the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, she didn’t pay much attention — even if she did have her own experience of assault.

When she was 11 years old, a delivery man carrying laundry approached her as she walked down the street and slapped her bottom. “I had no idea why he was doing this,” she said. “It took me years to realize it was sexual.”

Public outrage over sexual assault has been growing in Egypt for about a decade, driven by high-profile attacks and, last year, harassment accusations against a famous soccer player. Even so, men continue to assault with impunity.

Working-class women run a gantlet of harassment in crowded public buses, Ms. Ashraf said. Among the rich, although dating is tolerated, young men exploit their family connections to misbehave with license, she said, and many parents reflexively blame their daughters when things go wrong.

“The first response is that it’s your fault,” she said. “How did he get your number? Why did you let him in?”

Ms. Ashraf initially shielded her activism from her parents, who thought she was locked into her bedroom to study. When she finally came clean to her father, weeks later, he was alarmed. “He went silent for three minutes,” she recalled. “Then he said, ‘You can’t tell anyone.’”

Ms. Ashraf told him it was a little late for that.

Is her brand of vigilantism open to abuse, or even fair? False accusations are a hazard, she admitted, adding that she tried to confirm the charges against Mr. Zaki through her network of friends. Even so, she had to delete one accusation, from his time as a business student in Spain, after it was found to be untrue.

In a country like Egypt, such methods were necessary, she said. “It’s not like the West. You can’t just walk into a police station.”

The real difficulties started, though, with the second high-profile case.

In late July, Ms. Ashraf posted to Instagram about five men in their 20s, from wealthy families, who were said to have gang-raped a teenage woman in a suite at the Fairmont Nile City hotel after a party in 2014. A video of the assault, made by a sixth man, had been distributed to their friends.

The accusation caused a sensation. Although Ms. Ashraf didn’t identify the accused men, copycat accounts sprang up on Instagram that did. One is the son of a prominent steel tycoon; another is the son of a well-known soccer coach.

Within one week the victim, who said her drink had been spiked by the assailants, approached the police and pressed charges. In late August, Egypt’s prosecutor general announced five arrests — two men in Egypt and three in Lebanon, who have since been extradited to Egypt. At least three other men are being sought.

But the investigation became muddied after investigators moved against several people who had come forward in connection to the case. Two men were accused of “debauchery” — code for homosexuality — based on photos found in their phones that were later leaked to the news media.

They have been detained, as has a woman — a former partner of one of those accused of rape — whose intimate photos have been leaked onto the internet.

Just who leaked those photos is unclear, and the cases are expected to come to court in the coming weeks. But they have already sent a chill through the ranks of Egyptian women who hoped it had become safer to report sexual violence.

“Fairmont has become our case of the century,” Ms. Ashraf said. “But it shouldn’t be a precedent for assault cases. There’s so many other things coming up that prove we are on the side of girls.”

After threats to her security, Ms. Ashraf suspended her Instagram page for 10 days in August. Now it is up and running again, but with a focus on educating women about their rights.

“You use the word consent all the time in English,” she said. “But I’ve never heard its Arabic equivalent — taraadi. So we try to translate these concepts, break them down, explain.”

The only name she’s made public of late is her own. Realizing that her identity was leaking out, and fearing retribution from men who were threatened by the page, she decided it was safest to end her anonymity. “I figured that if the bad guys knew who I was, good people should too,” she said. “There’s protection in that.”

LINK TO TOP TWEET OF THREAD HERE

LINK TO THE EPISODE OF HER PODCAST WITH GLADWELL HERE

Transcription below the cut.

[44-Tweet thread by @amandaknox

Does my name belong to me? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, & story without my consent. Most recently, the film #STILLWATER

/ a thread

This new film by director Tom McCarthy, starring Matt Damon, is “loosely based” or “directly inspired by” the “Amanda Knox saga,” as Vanity Fair put in a for-profit article promoting a for-profit film, neither of which I am affiliated with.

I want to pause right here on that phrase: “the Amanda Knox saga.” What does that refer to? Does it refer to anything I did? No. It refers to the events that resulted from the murder of Meredith Kercher by a burglar named Rudy Guede.

It refers to the shoddy police work, prosecutorial tunnel vision, and refusal to admit their mistakes that led the Italian authorities to wrongfully convict me, twice. In those four years of wrongful imprisonment and 8 years of trial, I had near-zero agency.

Everyone else in that “saga” had more influence over events than I did. The erroneous focus on me by the authorities led to an erroneous focus on me by the press, which shaped how I was viewed. In prison, I had no control over my public image, no voice in my story.

This focus on me led many to complain that Meredith had been forgotten. But of course, who did they blame for that? Not the Italian authorities. Not the press. Me! Somehow it was my fault that the police and media focused on me at Meredith’s expense.

The result of this is that 15 years later, my name is the name associated with this tragic series of events, of which I had zero impact on. Meredith’s name is often left out, as is Rudy Guede’s. When he was released from prison recently, this was the NY Post headline. [Picture of headline reading “Man who killed Amanda Knox’s roommate freed on community service By Lee Brown December 6, 2020]

In the wake of #metoo, more people are coming to understand how power dynamics shape a story. Who had the power in the relationship between Bill Clinton and @MonicaLewinsky? The president or the intern?

I would love nothing more than for people to refer to the events in Perugia as “The murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede,” which would place me as the peripheral figure I should have been, the innocent roommate.

But I know that my wrongful conviction, and subsequent trials, became the story that people obsessed over. I know they’re going to call it the “Amanda Knox saga” into the future. That being the case, I have a few small requests.

Don’t blame me for the fact that others put the focus on me instead of Meredith. And when you refer to these events, understand that how you talk about it affects the people involved: Meredith’s family, my family, @Raffasolaries, and me.

Don’t do what @deadlinepete did when reviewing #STILLWATER for @deadline, referring to me as a convicted murderer while conveniently leaving out my acquittal. I asked him to correct it. No response. [Picture of text from his article reading “The 2007 case of Amanda Knox, the American convicted in an Italian court of murdering her roommate, was the impetus for writer-director Tom McCarthy’s Stillwater, but in the 10 years since beginning, abandoning and starting over, it has evolved into something much more - and much better.”]

And if you must refer to the “Amanda Knox saga” maybe don’t call it, as the @nytimes did in profiling Matt Damon, “the sordid Amanda Knox saga.” Sordid: morally vile. Not a great adjective to have placed next to your name. Repeat something often enough, and people believe it.

Now, #STILLWATER is by no means the first thing to rip off my story without my consent at the expense of my reputation. There was of course the terrible Lifetime @LMN movie that I sued them over, resulting in them cutting a dream sequence where I was depicted as killing Meredith.

A few years ago, there was the Fox series Proven Innocent (@InnocentOnFOX) which was developed and marketed as “What if Amanda Knox became a lawyer?” The first I heard from the show’s makers was when they had the audacity to ask me to help them promote it on the eve of its debut. [Picture of text reading “During the panel, one TV critic wondered if the series sets out to imagine “What if Amanda Knox became a lawyer.” as an exchange student, Knox became a headline when convicted in the murder of a fellow exchange student with whom she was sharing an apartment. Knox later was acquitted by the Italian equivalent of the Supreme Court. Strong acknowledged he’d said virtually the same thing when developing the series, after seeing a documentary about Knox on Netflix. This series is a “very fictionalized version of her story, obviously,” he said.”]

Malcolm Gladwell’s last book, Talking to Strangers, has a whole chapter analyzing my case. He reached out on the eve of publication to ask if he could use excerpts from my audiobook in his audiobook. He didn’t think to ask for an interview before forming his conclusions about me.

To his credit, Gladwell responded to my critiques over email, and was gracious enough to join me on my podcast, Labyrinths. [Link to the episode of her podcast with Gladwell]

I extend the same invitation to Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon, who I hope hear what I’m about to say about #STILLWATER

#STILLWATER was “directly inspired by the Amanda Knox saga.” Director Tom McCarthy tells Vanity Fair, “he couldn’t help but imagine how it would feel to be in Knox’s shoes.” ...But that didn’t inspire him to ask me how it felt to be in my shoes.

He became interested in the family dynamics of the “Amanda Knox saga.” “Who are the people that are visiting [her], and what are those relationships? Like, what’s the story around the story?” I have a lot to say about that, & would have told McCarthy... if he’d ever reached out.

“We decided, ‘Hey, let’s leave the Amanda Knox case behind,’“ McCarthy tells Vanity Fair. “But let me take this piece of the story - an American woman studying abroad involved in some kind of sensational crime and she ends up in jail - and fictionalize everything around it.”

Let me stop you right there. That story, my story, is not about an American woman studying abroad “involved in some kind of sensational crime.” It’s about an American woman NOT involved in a sensational crime, and yet wrongfully convicted.

And if you’re going to “leave the Amanda Knox case behind,” and “fictionalize everything around it,” maybe don’t use my name to promote it. You’re not leaving the Amanda Knox case behind very well if every single review mentions me.

You’re not leaving the Amanda Knox case behind when my face appears on profiles and articles about the film. [Picture of Vanity Fair headline “Stillwater: How much of Matt Damon’s New Movie Was Inspired by Amanda Knox? By Julie Miller” with a picture from the movie below and a picture of Amanda Knox superimposed over it.]

But, all this I mostly forgive. I get it. There’s money to be made, and you have no obligation to approach me. What I’m more bothered by is how this film, “directly inspired by the Amanda Knox saga, “fictionalizes” me and this story.

I was accused of being involved in a death orgy, a sex-game gone wrong, when I was nothing but platonic friends with Meredith. But the fictionalized me in #STILLWATER does have a sexual relationship with her murdered roommate.

In the film, the character based on me gives a tip to her father to help find the man who really killed her friend. Matt Damon tracks him down. This fictionalizing erases the corruption and ineptitude of the authorities.

What’s crazier is that, in reality, the authorities already had the killer in custody. He was convicted before my trial even began. They didn’t need to find him. And even so, they pressed on in persecuting me, because they didn’t want to admit they had been wrong.

McCarthy told Vanity Fair that “Stillwater’s ending was inspired not by the outcome of Knox’s case, but by the demands of the script he and his collaborators had created.” Cool, so I wonder, is the character based on me actually innocent?

Turns out, she asked the killer to help her get rid of her roommate. She didn’t mean for him to kill her, but her request indirectly led to the murder. How do you think that impacts my reputation?

I continue to be accused of “knowing something I’m not revealing,” of “having been involved somehow, even if I didn’t plunge the knife.” So Tom McCarthy’s fictionalized version of me is just the tabloid conspiracy guilter version of me.

By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person.

And with Matt Damon’s star power, both are sure to profit handsomely off of this fictionalization of “the Amanda Knox saga” that is sure to leave plenty of viewers wondering, “Maybe the real-life Amanda was involved somehow.”

Which brings me to my screenplay idea! It’s directly inspired by the life of Matt Damon. He’s an actor, celebrity, etc. Except I’m going to fictionalize everything around it, and the Damon-like character in my film is involved in a murder.

He didn’t plunge the knife per se, but he’s definitely at fault somehow. His name is Damien Matthews, and he starred in the Jackson Burne spy films. He works with Tim McClatchy, who’s a Harvey Weinstein type. It’s loosely based on reality. Shouldn’t bother Matt or Tom, right?

I joke, but of course, I understand that Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon have no moral obligation to consult me when profiting by telling a story that distorts my reputation in negative ways. And I reiterate my offer to interview them on Labyrinths.

I bet we could have a fascinating conversation about identity, and public perception, and who should get to exploit a name, face, and story that has entered the public imagination.

I never asked to become a public person. The Italian authorities and global media made that choice for me. And when I was acquitted and freed, the media and the public wouldn’t allow me to become a private citizen ever again.

I went back to school and fellow students photographed me surreptitiously, people who lived in my apartment building invented stories for the tabloids, I worked a minimum wage job at a used bookstore, only to be confronted by stalkers at the counter.

I was hounded by paparazzi, my story and trauma was (and is) endlessly recycled for entertainment, and in the process, I’ve been accused of shifting attention away from the memory of Meredith Kercher, of being a media whore.

I have not been allowed to return to the relative anonymity I had before Perugia. My only option is to sit idly by while others continue to distort my character, or fight to restore my good reputation that was wrongfully destroyed.

It’s an uphill battle. I probably won’t succeed. But I’ve been here before. I know what it’s like facing impossible odds.

If you’re on @Medium reader, you can find this all here: [link to article shared above]

Top 10 Films of 2020: Part One

2020 was a rough year for a lot of reasons, but even more rough due to the lack of an existent film industry for over half of the year.  Sure, there are small productions happening and movies being released on VOD, as well as some in theatres, but so many great films were pushed back this year—movies I was excited to possibly have on my top ten.  Minari, Promising Young Woman, Zola, The Green Knight, Saint Maud.  Okay most of those are A24 releases but A24 literally released next to none of their slate for this year and it’s one of the most disappointing things to happen in the entertainment industry in my opinion.  

Alas, I still found cinema through streaming, paying $20 for a VOD rental, and those amazing $1.80 rentals from Redbox (remember when they were only a dollar?  because I do).  And honestly?  It was probably the hardest time curating a top ten that I’ve had in a long time; with so much just available through the internet and owning every single popular streaming service, it was both impossible to watch everything I wanted but also since I watched a lot of what i wanted, I ended up loving most of it.  For a year that was so dismal in every other way possible, the films that were released ended up being a shining light more often than not.  Of course, like every other year, a lot of hot garbage came out too, but that isn’t the focus of this—the great, amazing, can’t believe these are real films.  

So let’s start from number ten.  This was my first and only $20 rental this year, starring a man who I personally admire: Pete Davidson.  

10. The King Of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow and written by Judd Apatow, Pete Davidson, and Dave Sirus.  

Judd Apatow is one of the first directors who I watched religiously, and hearing that he was doing a film with Pete Davidson that was essentially based on Davidson’s life meant that I knew I’d have to watch it.  Scott, played by Davidson, is a twenty-something with no direct path in life; he lives with his mother, his sister is going off to college—something he never attempted—and he has no real career.  His father died in a large building structure fire, much like Davidson’s actual father, a firefighter who passed away while responding to the twin towers during 9/11.  Scott is emotionally a wreck, plagued with depression and anxiety, a chronic weed smoker, and dreams of being a tattoo artist that he practices by tattooing his group of rag-tag friends, but none of the tattoos are very great.  

The thing about an Apatow film is they border the line between comedy and drama very well, kind of a complicated little dance.  But, King of Staten Island is very much a drama more than a comedy.  Bill Burr plays Ray, the father of a kid that Scott tattoos earlier on in the film.  Ray comes stomping up to Scott’s mother’s house, and Margie, played by Marissa Tomei, opens the door.  It’s essentially love at first sight.  She hasn’t dated since Scott’s father passed, and to make matters worse, Ray is also a firefighter.  This complicates emotions for Scott, as he loves his mother but also doesn’t know how to deal with the feeling that his mother is finally moving on and may face heartbreak again.  

Davidson puts it all on the table in this film.  It’s poignant and realistic; at the start, Scott is driving down the highway and closes his eyes, way longer than you should.  It sets the tone from the start that this man isn’t okay, but also he’s scared of dying because as soon as he opens his eyes again and sees he may be about to crash, he quickly panics and readjusts his wheel.  This struck a chord with me as most people know that Davidson has struggled with suicidal thoughts in the past.  It’s a beautiful film that memorializes both how much Davidson’s father meant to him, but also the cycles of grief and trauma that last throughout your life.  

9: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), directed by Cathy Yan and written by Christina Hodson.

Suicide Squad is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen period, fact.  Birds of Prey is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen period, fact.  I never, ever, ever thought I’d see a day where a DC movie was in my top ten, but this year anything is possible.  Birds of Prey is a display of feminism, badassery, and all around perfection.  You jump right into the story, hearing Margot Robbie’s classic Harley Quinn voice laid over an animation showing what we missed in her life so far, which means you don’t have to have any previous knowledge of the other films.  Birds of Prey is meant to stand alone from any other movie preceding this one, and that’s just part of why it’s so great.

This film knows not to take itself too seriously.  Margot Robbie is a dream as Harley Quinn, using just the right amount of playfulness to put a little edge on her, while also maintaining the manic-panic-pixie-dream-girl effect.  Perhaps the best scene is when Harley goes and purchases the perfect egg breakfast sandwich, and then she drops it, causing a dramatic slow motion effect that proves she really does love that sandwich more than anything in the world.  Or her realistic apartment, nothing truly fancy, just a little hole in the wall above a rundown Chinese restaurant.  But then she has an amazing ensemble of other women actors around her, which are what really uplift her performance. 

The funhouse fight scene at the end may be the best in superhero movie history.  I mean, I guess, is Harley Quinn really a superhero?  She’s kind of the anti-hero, which is what makes her so great.  She’s somebody who isn’t even close to perfect but she still succeeds and tries to help and uplift the other women on her team.  There’s just something special about this movie that made me smile and laugh the entire time.  It’s a reminder that it’s okay to have fun every once in a while.  

8: The Assistant, directed and written by Kitty Green.

For those who don’t know, I work as an assistant during the day for a small business here in Vermont.  The work is mundane but it’s a job that’s giving me experience for the future.  In The Assistant, Jane, played by Julia Garner, is an assistant to a “powerful entertainment mogul.”  She gets lunch, answers phones, is the first one into the office, the last one out of the office, finds herself overshadowed by her male counterparts and getting the majority of the “grunt” work, and becomes more and more aware of what’s really going on at this office throughout a day in her life.  

What’s interesting about this film is nothing is ever seen; everything Jane starts to feel is just based on intuition.  Her boss is tricky, finding ways to keep his abuse of women out of the public eye, out of the eye of any female employees.  This is obviously in response to #MeToo, Times Up, and the Harvey Weinstein news from the last few years, and it works surprisingly well as a film that just unnerves you and gets under your skin.  

The reality of assault in the film industry is that until it’s widely public and known, nobody is going to know about it.  You can report it to your company, to other women, to other men, to anybody, and nobody will take you seriously until they either experience it themselves or know somebody else who has.  The Assistant hits the ball out of the park with the ending, even if it doesn’t give a vindictive satisfaction to viewers, because it’s simply the truth of the matter.  

7: Tenet, directed and written by Christopher Nolan.

I really don’t know what to say about this one.  It’s really controversial to like it but I absolutely LOVED this movie, it’s pure fucking vibes.  A lot of people are cinema purists, which I am not, and will never claim to be, which was a huge deal with this film.  Personally, this works way better at home than it ever would in a theater.  It’s slightly long, the sound mixing makes it so it can be hard to hear dialogue over loud noises and the score, and it’s the type of movie you may have to rewind  a few times.  

My partner and I watched this in 4K Ultra HD with subtitles on, and let me tell you, it was amazing.  Everything about the acting, the diversity in the film, the fact that Nolan literally has a character say “Don’t try to understand it, just experience it”???? VIBES.  That’s all I can say about it.  Plus, Elizabeth Debicki plays an actual badass who stands against her abuser and that enough is five stars.  A tall queen standing up against her short joker—absolute feminism.  

Sure, no character gets any development, but is that seriously necessary for every film?  It’s an action flick about time and space and none of it makes sense and you can’t force it to.  Why does everything need to make sense in a time where we are literally living through a pandemic?  Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the experience of Tenet.  It’s more fun when you don’t take it seriously.  

6: The Devil All The Time, directed by Antonio Campos and written by Antonio Campos, Donald Ray Pollock, and Paulo Campos.

I never read the book this was based on, but this film made me want to.  I love a film where multiple plot lines converge into one central story and this one did it so well, all with the same theme surrounding every single character: the guilt of sin and how no matter how much you think you can save yourself, you can’t truly save yourself.  I’m not a huge fan of Tom Holland, but he shines as Arvin from beginning to end.  Pattinson brings a creepy southern preacher to life with an accent that he will never be able to match again.  Keough gives a performance you can only sympathize with as you know she’s being manipulated the entire time.  Every character in this is corrupt in their own way but some in worse ways than others.

I don’t know how much to say about this one without spoiling it, either, because the core of this film is on the characters and what leads to their untimely ends, because pretty much everybody ends up dead.  It’s grim and dark but it’s so beautiful and tells the story in a way that keeps you interested throughout the entire run time.  It surprised me but there’s never truly been a Robert Pattinson starring movie that I’ve hated, so am I really surprised?  I’m a TwiHard at heart even at age 22. 

As a wealthy and well-connected Hollywood celebrity, Hammer has been enabled by many, many people, including his “industry” inner circle—whose transgressions Effie has been documenting on her account as well—for years. But I’ve said it on my Twitter, and I’ll say it again here: This is unlike any sex scandal we’ve seen before. 

The difference between Hammer and other famous sexual abusers of the world—in my humble, untrained opinion—is his highly, highly troubling pattern of behavior. Hammer’s alleged behavior is reminiscent of just about every stereotype you’d associate with a budding Ted Bundy prodigy: animal abuse from an early age, fantasies about eating and displacing a woman’s organs, desires to break his partner’s ribs and bones during sex, and more. 

As far as I’m concerned, Hammer isn’t coming back from this—and this isn’t the kind of behavior you can easily rehabilitate, either. But his conduct is not only troubling, it’s terrifying—who would feel safe around him on a movie set going forward? Who would want their loved ones around him in the future? 

Complicating matters is the fact that the online gossip mills have nearly grown louder than the victims’ voices. One rumor that floated around r/ArmieHammerReceipts—before making its way to DeuxMoi, and eventually Page Six—was that Hammer was potentially involved in a missing persons case. “The thing is—I believed the rumors when I first saw them, honestly,” Lorenze told me. “He’s capable and he’s dangerous.” The rumors were quickly debunked, and it was confirmed that Hammer is not, in any way, related to the case. 

But that hasn’t stopped many from wondering what other skeletons may potentially be coming out of Hammer’s closet soon, and the number of anti-Armie sleuths subscribed to the subreddit grows everyday. 

Either way, I can’t help but feel that we appear to be living in a second reckoning comparable to 2017’s #MeToo movement following the bombshell sex crimes and coverups of Harvey Weinstein. There’s Marilyn Manson, and there’s Shia LaBeouf. There’s Joss Whedon, and there’s (maybe) Jared Leto. A clear message has been sent: The time is up for men who skated by the first time and were somehow left unscathed. (In fact, #TimesUpArmie has appeared to become the official social media hashtag in support of the victims.) 

While it’s unclear when exactly Hammer will face any legal consequences that will give his many, many victims the closure they need, one thing is for sure: The public, aka us, has all the power right now. So far, Hammer has been dropped from the romantic comedy Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez, Paramount drama series The Offer, and was also edited out of the promotional materials for his upcoming movie alongside Gary Oldman called Crisis. 

He’s crashing and burning right now. But we need to keep talking about it—because, to me at least, Hammer is a danger to society.

“As long as he’s out and free wherever he is, more women will get hurt,” Lorenze agreed. For every article with a headline insinuating that Hammer’s merely being “kink-shamed,” there’s likely a new 19-year-old sliding into his Instagram DMs telling him that she would love to indulge his kinks. 

In any case, Hammer’s image is forever tarnished, and Lorenze and the rest of the victims have shown unspeakable strength and grace in the face of terrifying-sounding trauma. And if Hammer ever returns from the Cayman Islands, his next Hollywood meeting might just be with a fist. Lorenze admits, “I’m not sure what I would do if I saw him walking down the street in LA or something, but I’d probably throw up and clock him in the face.”

If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, harassment or violence, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or chat online at online.rainn.org. If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or chat online at thehotline.org.

Francoise Gilot painted “Adam Forcing Eve to Eat An Apple” in 1946, the year she moved in with Picasso to become his young muse. In a New York Times article, Alexandra Schwartz quotes Gilot saying that this is no accident. The painting depicts a woman looking at the viewer with an apple forced into her mouth by an angry man with furrowed brows, and the Biblical title implies a sense of lost innocence and hindsight realization of her own unfortunate situation. The description of a “forced” act calls to mind descriptions of sexual assault, a nonconsensual penetration. Gilot is keenly aware of this connection, as she compares Picasso to the monstrous pirate Bluebeard, who 

… didn’t cut the heads [of his wives] completely off… he preferred to have life go on and to have all those women who shared his life at one moment or another still letting out little peeps and cries of joy or pain and making a few gestures like disjointed dolls, just to prove that there was some life left in them, that it hung by a thread, and that he held the other end of the thread. (Schwartz)

Gilot clearly delineates the emotionally manipulative tactics that Picasso used, with his desire to keep all his women at arm’s length. Her description of him keeping his muses “hung by a thread” (Schwartz), which he holds in his hand, shows the way Picasso treated her and others as doll-like objects that he could use however and whenever he wanted, and that he had a sense of entitlement towards their bodies, due to a successful career and an inflated career. Even today Picasso is cited as one of the most famous artists in the world, with Guernica and Weeping Woman being some of his most well-known. It is worth noting that Francoise Gilot was a painter in her own right, and she became a muse in an effort to make connections within the art world that would improve her own career by association. She expected that working with Picasso would bring her artistic opportunities, though likely did not expect the mistreatment she received. And yet she is not famous. The tradition of the muse is named after the Greek goddesses who blessed men with inspiration, but it is most famously used referring to the women who posed for portraits, dating back to the Renaissance when classical-style realistic paintings came back into fashion. The essay “Sexual Violence: Baroque to Surrealist” by John Loughery claims that the proliferation of nearly-nude women in Renaissance painting, so ubiquitous in art museums, comes from a more sinister tradition, describing that the paintings “speak volumes about the power factor inherent in the post-Renaissance tradition of the female nude, and, with their riveting straightforward glance, they point ahead to Manet’s Olympia, Zola’s Nana, and an avalanche of prose and imagery that affirms women’s comfort with their own sexuality, or male projections about that level of comfort” (Loughery 299). This essay sees these centuries-old masterpieces not as ethereal works of art that transcend sexuality, but as works of pornography that were designed to titillate the viewer and bypass the highly religious era they came from with their classical setting. Putting aside the oil brushstrokes, Edouard Manet-- and Pablo Picasso-- are simply depicting the nude body of a young woman. While in many cases this situation may have been consensual, Loughery claims that it would be hard to put aside the inherent power dynamic. Like a high-ranking executive of a film company taking advantage of a young woman, a famous and well-connected artist would certainly hold sway over an ambitious young girl. It would be hard to ignore the age difference between the muse and the artist, the often married man and the often-underage ingenue. Also, the idea that “male projections about that level of comfort” discounts the assumption that the women involved would be comfortable with her depiction. Women are often expected to be beautiful and available, Andrea Pino-Silva argues in the essay “I Believe You, Como Eres”, with their “success determined by the boys we charmed at our quinceaneras, of the lengths we took to prepare ourselves to be wives (Pino-Silva)”. There is a clear gender division, visible in every situation from a muse sitting for a portrait to a girl in a ball gown at a quinceanera. The man is expected to have power, he is masculine, the one who asks the girl to dance, the one who moves his model into the position he wants to paint. The woman is just beautiful and must work to keep herself that way. Not only can the artist use his own power and position to take advantage of the muse, he can choose to make her appear however he wants, like a posable doll-- he can make her look like she deserves whatever attention she gets.

Nowadays, the world of artist-and-muse shows itself differently, as the prominent art forms have shifted with time. The familiar story of a man exploiting a woman for creative gain is now most often associated with the film industry, in particular with director Harvey Weinstein and his actress victims. In the case of Weinstein, this is put in a very sinister light with Salma Hayek, who wanted to star in a movie about the artist Frida Kahlo but was forced to include sexual scenes in order to appease Weinstein’s own sexual desires. The muse and the model are very similar, in age and in public perception-- being a beautiful woman paid to look good and inspire works of art. One such model/muse is Kaori, a sitter for the Japanese photographer Araki Hirohiko. During the time of the #MeToo Movement in 2018 and 2019, when millions of women came out with their stories of sexual harassment and assault, Kaori told her story to the New York Times, describing how the photographer emotionally abused her. She describes Araki as treating her “like an object (Kaori)”, when “he asked [her] to do abnormal things, and [she] did them as though they were normal. (Kaori)” Kaori described an incident in which the photographer took nude photos of her, and then published and distributed them without her permission, as described within the New York Times article . It is clear that Araki has taken advantage of his position of power, both as an elderly man in a patriarchal Japanese culture, and in his successful career as an artist allowing him to take liberties with the normal steps of asking for permission and consulting her. This is an extremely similar scenario to Salma Hayek’s experience with Harvey Weinstein, as along with his sexual harassment, Hayek endured extreme emotional abuse. Hayek states in her op-ed for the New York Times that “the range of his persuasion tactics went from sweet-talking me to that one time when, in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, ‘I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.’” Like Picasso pushing the apple into Gilot’s mouth, and treating her like a poseable doll rather than a real woman, Kaori and Hayek face emotional abuse from creative men. In fact, the distribution of Kaori’s images could be compared to revenge porn, in which images that have been captured with consent of the body depicted are released without permission, usually for spiteful reasons. Revenge porn is considered a Class A misdemeanor in many states and is considered a form of sexual harassment. The fact that this is such a widespread problem, to the extent where it has been banned by Ireland, shows that the idea of distributing non-consensual nude images has evolved far beyond the Victorian boudoir images of young women resting in nothing but a necklace-- the “male projections about level of comfort” that Loughery mentioned, where male pleasure in viewing a woman’s body is more important than her own comfort and consent.

Women throughout history are often disbelieved, ignored, and left to their own anger and rage. Francoise Gilot channeled her anger into her own Cubist paintings, following a tradition started by Artemisia Gentileschi among other underappreciated female artists who suffered from sexual abuse. Gentileschi is best known for the iconic painting Judith Beheading Holofernes, another example of a Biblical motif being used to convey another meaning. In this image, Judith is bent over the man’s helpless body, her sleeves rolled up over her elbows. muscles outstretched to drag the sword through his neck. Blood spurts out gorily, as Judith is attended by her maidservant. Though the woman in the painting is Judith, it is likely Gentileschi as well-- a woman who was raped by her father’s friend as a teenager, and who was subjected to a humiliating rape trial, according to John Loughery’s essay. The story of Artemisia Gentileschi’s life shows how little her life differs from that of a modern-day rape victim, although Judith was finished in 1621. The painting becomes a revenge fantasy, a way for Gentileschi to release her pent-up rage, visible catharsis as Holofernes becomes her rapist, and her maidservant holding the basket for his severed head becomes a metaphor for the women who unite over a shared enemy. Pablo Picasso and Gentileschi’s rapist were both artists who took advantage of their success and power, in addition to their position as creative men-- as art has been considered a feminine pursuit, creative men may compensate for their choice of career by acting with masculine bravado.  Rebecca Solnit writes about the patriarchy’s discomfort with women, and desire to erase feminine attributes among men. 

If emotion must be killed, this is work that can make women targets. Less decent men hunt out vulnerability, because if being a man means learning to hate vulnerability, then you hate it in yourself and in the gender that has been carrying it for you. Girl and pussy have long been key insults used against boys and men, along with gay and faggot; a man must not be a woman. (Solnit 30)

#JusticeforJohnnyDepp: Johnny’s witness statements at a glance (Winona Ryder, Vanessa Paradis & Katherine Kendall)

Things I Cover in this Post:

the nature of how The Sun obtained the quotes from Katherine Kendall

This post will be a bit on the shorter side, as these three witness statements were brief, but the words these women provided are, I believe, important. It helps to illustrate Johnny’s character, along with establishing the less than moral practices of The Sun. I will be providing highlights from the statements of: Katherine Kendall- survivor of Weinstein, prominent figure of the MeToo movement. Winona Ryder- iconic American actress, dated Johnny for 4 years, ending in 1993. Vanessa Paradis- French musician, actress and fashion model, mother of Johnny’s 2 kids and his partner for 14 years, ending in 2012.

Before we get into their statements, please don’t hesitate to sign this petition, which is calling for an official review into the misconduct of the judge from this case, Andrew Nicol. He has a proven family connection to The Sun and a professional connection to AH and her legal team. So straight up, he needs to be fired, just like AH does from Aquaman 2.

To go in chronological order, I’m going to begin with Winona Ryder. Before getting into her statement, I just wanted to address that both she and Vanessa were not actually brought in to provide their statements during the trial. Ultimately, Johnny’s legal team decided against this. But, I wanted to point out how ridiculously significant it is that Winona provided a statement and was willing to vouch for Johnny. She did not have to do this, she and Johnny broke up almost three decades ago, she owes him literally nothing. Taking a look at mainstream media, they want you to believe he is guilty and so, Winona coming out to support him in these legal proceedings, that could only be a detriment to her career, which has suffered its own lows. Arguably, you could say that her career has only gotten back on track with Stranger Things in 2016 (don’t get me wrong, she has been working consistently in Hollywood and she was a fucken standout in 2010′s Black Swan), after being the butt of a lot of jokes or seeming to be unable to step out of the shadows of her own mental health (and legal) issues in the beginning of the ‘00′s.  To side with a perceived abuser was a risk, it could bring a shitton of negative press and even get her removed from projects. But she knows Johnny is innocent, so she knows it’s not a risk. She rocks.

Shocked, confused and upset? Girl, same.

Those sceptical on Johnny’s innocence may want to dismiss her statement altogether - her relationship with Johnny ended in 1993, what relevance does that have to do with the things that transpired in the 2010′s? Couldn’t he have changed since then? Sure, that is definitely a valid argument. But when their relationship ended, Johnny was 30 whole years old, he was a grown-ass man, not a teen with his mind still developing.

But sure, for arguments sake, let’s say that Winona’s experience has nothing to do with the Johnny that Scum married in 2015. To counter that, let’s take a look at the statement from Vanessa Paradis, whom he did not split from until 2012, much more recent to the man he is today.

They were together for fourteen years and she never saw anything even close to the behaviour Scum is alleging.  He was forty-nine whole years old when they split, definitely a grown-ass man who is probably quite set in his ways. It’s so weird how his whole personality would suddenly transform and he would become an incredibly violent man, kinda reminds me of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. It all just came completely out of nowhere, as opposed to Scum, who has previously been arrested for assaulting a partner. I believe a history of violence is prevalent, but it exists for Scum, not for Johnny.

Now to shed light on Katherine Kendell, whose quotes were used in the initial article that the Sun published labelling Johnny as a wife-beater. Katherine was a 23 year old actress when successful-producer and industry-big-wig Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed her, alone in his apartment. She is one of the many brave survivors to lend her famous face and name to the MeToo movement. The Sun weaponised this vital movement in order to cause an immediate emotional response to their article. I believe Scum is doing the exact same thing, they are weaponizing the experiences of other survivors, aiming all of the hurt-fuelled rage that comes in response to hearing about these years of abuse and aiming it to fire at will, at Johnny Depp. It is morally bankrupt, if you ask me. The person who ‘interviewed’ Katherine does not have any empathy for her experiences or struggles. Dan Wootton certainly does not give two shits about Katherine or what she actually went through. 

Stalked and misquoted. Then completely dismissed. They used her, her status as a survivor and her words, then threw her aside - as if this woman hasn’t been through enough in her life. They are completely missing the point of #MeToo. She never should have been included in this article, never should have been dragged into this mess. But that’s just The Sun folks, they will do whatever it takes to get their story. They don’t care how far they stretch the truth, even when it is stretched far beyond recognition. It is soulless and immoral. 

But it’s just another notch on their long list of terrible practices. 

That’s it for Johnny’s witnesses, so next I have to get into Scum’s/The Sun’s, so... yeah, please pray for me and my sanity because that is not gonna be fun.

How do you feel about the HBO show entourage? (If you’ve ever seen it) Bc it’s one of my fav shows and I think was ground breaking in its portrayal of what HW expectations are vs reality. Entourage was also the reason I wasn’t even surprised about Harvey Weinstein during his exposure #metoo movement as the show explored an exaggerated version of him early on. Vincent chase is a prototype of the young indie breakout actor who catapults into superstardom due to superhero role (aquaman).

Yeah I used to watch it. I liked it. The show was pretty accurate with how things go down believe it or not. It’s probably the most realistic portrayal of the business that I’ve seen.

In France’s Delayed #MeToo, Powerful Men Fall, One After Another - The New York Times

Is there actually hope for France? Though young French women told their stories online the country has resisted change since #metoo went global in 2017. Now they are looking to finally take sexual harassment and sexual assault seriously.

Article follows:

PARIS — When Sandra Muller started France’s #MeToo social media campaign in 2017, tens of thousands of women responded to her calls to “#ExposeYourPig.”

But the backlash was overwhelming. Some of the most prominent women in the country, led by Catherine Deneuve, denounced the movement in a letter that came to define France’s initial response to #MeToo. In 2019, Ms. Muller lost a defamation case against a former television executive she had exposed on Twitter, with France appearing immune to the larger global forces challenging the dominance of men.

Last week, Ms. Muller won her appeal. Though there were no new facts, a significant ruling by the appeals court underscored how things have changed in the past two years.

“Before the ruling, I thought there were stirrings,” Ms. Muller said in a phone interview from New York, where she now lives. “Now, I have the impression that there’s been a leap forward.”

Since the beginning of the year, a series of powerful men from some of France’s most prominent fields — politics, sports, the news media, academia and the arts — have faced direct and public accusations of sexual abuse in a reversal from mostly years of silence. At the same time, confronted with these high-profile cases and a shift in public opinion, French lawmakers are hurrying to set 15 as the age of sexual consent — only three years after rejecting such a law.

The recent accusations have not only led to official investigations, the loss of positions for some men and outright banishment from public life for others. They have also resulted in a rethinking of French masculinity and of the archetype of Frenchmen as irresistible seducers — as part of a broader questioning of many aspects of French society and amid a conservative backlash against ideas on gender, race and postcolonialism supposedly imported from American universities.

“Things are moving so fast that sometimes my head spins,” said Caroline De Haas, a feminist activist who in 2018 founded #NousToutes, a group against sexual violence. She described herself as “super optimistic.”

Ms. Haas said that France was going through a delayed reaction to #MeToo after a “maturation” period during which many French began to understand the social dimensions behind sexual violence and the concept of consent.

That was especially so, Ms. Haas said, after the testimony in the past year of Adèle Haenel, the first high-profile actress to speak out over abuse, and of Vanessa Springora, whose memoir, “Consent,” documented her abuse by the pedophile writer Gabriel Matzneff.

“The start of 2021 has been a sort of aftershock,” Ms. Haas said. “What’s very clear is that, today in France, we don’t at all have the same reaction that we did four, five years ago to testimonies of sexual violence against well-known people.”

Last month, Pierre Ménès, one of France’s most famous television sports journalists, was suspended indefinitely by his employer after the release of a documentary that exposed sexism in sports journalism, “I’m Not a Slut, I’m a Journalist.”

Just a few years ago, few criticized him for behavior that they now don’t dare defend in public, including forcibly kissing women on the mouth on television and, in front of a studio audience in 2016, lifting the skirt of a female journalist — Marie Portolano, the producer of the documentary.

“The world’s changed, it’s #MeToo, you can’t do anything anymore, you can’t say anything anymore,” Mr. Ménès said in a television interview after the documentary’s release. He said he didn’t remember the skirt incident, adding that he hadn’t been feeling like himself at the time because of a physical illness.

The list of other prominent men is long and getting longer. There is Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, France’s most famous news anchor, who is being investigated on allegations of raping a young woman and who defended himself on television by saying that he belonged to a generation for whom “seduction was important” and included “kisses on the neck.” He has denied the rape accusations.

There is Georges Tron, a former government minister, who was cleared in 2018 of raping an employee but was condemned in February to five years in prison in an appeals court ruling that, according to Le Monde, reflected the fact that society’s “understanding of consent has unquestionably changed.”

There is Gérard Depardieu, France’s biggest film star, and Gérald Darmanin, the powerful interior minister, also under investigation in rape cases that were reopened last year. Both have said they are innocent.

Olivier Duhamel, a prominent intellectual, and Richard Berry, a famous actor, have both been recently placed under investigation after accusations of incest by family members. Mr. Berry has denied the accusations; Mr. Duhamel has not commented on the charges against him.

Claude Lévêque, the internationally known artist, is under investigation on suspicion of rape of minors and was publicly accused for the first time in January by a former victim. He has denied the accusations.

Dominique Boutonnat, a movie producer whom President Emmanuel Macron named president of the National Center for Cinema last year, was placed under investigation in February on allegation of attempted rape and sexual assault of his godson and has said he is innocent.

“This recent wave in France, it’s a delayed reaction to the Matzneff affair,” Francis Szpiner, the lawyer representing Ms. Muller, said, adding that the downfall of the pedophile writer and of Mr. Duhamel made people realize that powerful men in France were not “untouchable.”

In 2017, in the immediate aftermath of the #MeToo disclosures involving the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, Ms. Muller, a journalist, began #ExposeYourPig — #BalanceTonPorc in French — in France. In a Twitter post, she recounted how during a television festival in Cannes, an executive told her, “You have big breasts. You are my type of woman. I will make you orgasm all night.”

The executive, Eric Brion, did not deny making such comments. But because the two did not work together, Mr. Brion argued the comments did not amount to sexual harassment and sued Ms. Muller for defamation. A ruling in 2019 that ordered Ms. Muller to pay 15,000 euros in damages, around $17,650, was overturned last week.

In 2019, the court said that Ms. Muller had “surpassed the acceptable limits of freedom of expression, as her comments descended into a personal attack.” This time, the judges found that Ms. Muller had acted in good faith, adding that the “#balancetonporc and #MeToo movements had drawn a lot of attention, had been hailed by diverse officials and personalities and had positively contributed to letting women speak freely.”

Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, a leading feminist philosopher, said that it was significant that the men now under investigation were leaders in a diversity of fields. Revelations surrounding them have undermined the myths of Frenchmen as great seducers and of a refined romantic culture where “we, French, in our interplay of seduction, know how to interpret nonverbal signs and we have this art of seduction, a gentle commerce between the sexes,” she said.

“These are men who all embody, in some ways, the old patriarchal order of things — of men of power and men who have used and abused their power to sexually exploit the bodies of others, whether they be women or young men,” Ms. Froidevaux-Metterie said, adding, “Perhaps we are experiencing the first real shock to that system.”

The arrest of the apparent billionaire investor Jeffrey Epstein at a New Jersey airport on Saturday on federal charges for crimes he was accused of during the Bush administration should not be surprising to anyone who has followed the news carefully. He may have escaped in 2008 with a ludicrous one-year stint in a county jail that he was allowed to leave six days a week, but his name has never quite been out of the headlines. Between 2008 and 2015 Epstein reportedly settled more than a dozen lawsuits from Jane Does alleging sexual assault; the youngest of his alleged victims was 14 years old.

The only question is why did it take this long? Why was the ludicrous deal that gave Epstein and his fellow conspirators immunity in exchange for a slap-on-the-wrist jail sentence ever allowed to go through in the first place?

The most obvious answer is, of course, that Epstein knows people. Lots of people. A list of his reported friends, business associates, and legal counselors reads like a #MeToo and Manhattan sleazebag All-Star team, with a few stringers pulled in from the media and both political parties: Woody Allen, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Mort Zuckerman, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Ken Starr, Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, the current president of the United States. The obscene deal that kept Epstein out of what could easily have been a life sentence in prison was negotiated by Alexander Acosta, the current Secretary of Labor, who was then a federal prosecutor in Florida. In 2002, Graydon Carter, the longtime editor of Vanity Fair, removed references to Epstein's sexual activity from a profile, including testimony from alleged victims, according to the article's author. "He's sensitive about the young women," Carter is said to have explained. Won't somebody please not think of the children?

It will be at least another week before 2,000 or so pages of documents related to Epstein's exploits will be released following the order of an appeals court last week. When we finally see them we will likely be able to answer questions about the identities of the "numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well‐known Prime Minister, and other world leaders" who have also been accused of sexual abuse by Epstein's alleged victims. Is one of them a Razorbacks football fan? Who was the "famous prime minister"? Was Trump speaking from personal experience when he said in 2002 that Epstein "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side"?

We should keep all of this in mind the next time we feel inclined to sneer at so-called "low-information voters," especially the kookier sort. You know the people I mean. Wackos. Gun nuts. 8channers. Conspiracy theorists in Middle America who watch InfoWars (one of the few journalistic outlets to discuss the issue of pedophilia regularly) and post about QAnon and "spirit cooking" and the lizard people. The news that a globalized cabal of billionaires and politicians and journalists and Hollywood bigwigs might be flying around the world raping teenaged girls will not surprise them in the least because it is what they have long suspected. For the rest of us it is like finding out that the Jersey Devil is real or turning on cable news and finding Anderson Cooper and his panel engaged in a matter-of-fact discussion of Elvis’s residence among the Zixls on the 19th moon of Dazotera.

Among other things, the Epstein case forces us to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions about the real meaning of "fake" news. There is, or should be, more to being informed than fact-checking formalism. If you have spent the last few years earnestly consuming mainstream left-of-center media in this country you will be under the impression that the United States has fallen under the control of a spray-tanned Mussolini clone who is never more than five minutes away from making birth control illegal. If you watch Fox News and read conservative publications, you no doubt bemoan the fact that Ronald Reagan's heir is being hamstrung by a bunch of avocado toast-eating feminist witches. Meanwhile, Alex Jones's audience will tell you that America, like the rest of the world, is ruled by a depraved internationalist elite whose ultimate allegiance is not to countries or political parties or ideologies but to one another. These people believe in nothing. They will safeguard their wealth and privilege at any cost. They will never break rank. And they will commit unspeakable crimes with impunity, while anyone who dares to speculate openly is sued or hounded out of public life as a kook.

Which of these worldviews is closest to the truth?

Sorry if this question is dumb but I want to ask you about some info about Joaquin: I remember that Joaquin had worked with both Harvey Weinstein and Woody Allen, has he been asked in interviews about these two? Has he said anything about it? Thanks.

No, don’t be sorry, it’s not dumb, don’t say it’s dumb. It’s absolutely not dumb.

Joaquin has been asked about both and his answers are:

In a Spanish interview for You Were Never Really Here promo in November 2017, Joaquin had been asked about Harvey Weinstein’s scandal(the question came from the fact that he just did Mary Magdalene, a Weinstein production, but yeah, he’s worked in Weinstein’s productions for like, probably 4 times in total). The interview is in Spanish, but basically Joaquin said:

“What I can say has already been said. It is always a shame that something so tragic has to happen for people to wake up. But I suppose that any time when people get angry at the news is a good thing. Hopefully there is a change in the way people think about sexual abuse. However I don’t want to be simply a voice of condemnation, this is not worth a statement. You have to educate yourself about these things, look for the organizations that help in these traumas. Make donations.” (It’s google-translated from Spanish so it may seem a bit weird…Correction is welcomed!)

In USA Today’s interview during Sundance film festival in 2018, Joaquin had been asked about Woody Allen since they’d worked together in Irrational Man, Joaquin said:

“When I worked with Woody(Allen), I knew about the stuff that had come up years ago, I know his daughter ended up writing an open letter. I was not aware of that when we worked together. If you were a part of supporting something with someone that did, in fact, cause pain, how the (expletive) would you feel? You’d feel (expletive), I don’t know the specifics. I’m not a person who reads entertainment stuff at all — I avoid it completely, so a lot of times I’ll hear about things when I’m doing press and (journalists will) inform me about things. But if that is the case, then I’d feel (expletive).“ (In this interview, Joaquin also talked about MeToo and how it changes the film industry and the world for the better.)