The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has expelled disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein from its ranks.
The Academy’s 54-member board of governors — which includes such Hollywood luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Kathleen Kennedy — held an emergency meeting at the organization’s Beverly Hills headquarters today and voted to strip away Weinstein’s lifetime membership.
Following the meeting, the Academy issued a statement saying the board had voted “to immediately expel him from the Academy. We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.”
The Academy went on to say, “What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society. The board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy member will be expected to exemplify.”
The Academy’s action, which comes in response to the dozens of allegations that have now surfaced accusing Weinstein of an ongoing pattern of predatory behavior in which he sexually harassed, assaulted and even raped women, is virtually unprecedented. Or is it?
Read the NY Times article that publicly exposed Harvey Weinstein for the predator that he is.
In the 1970s, Roman Polanski was convited of raping a 13 year old girl in Hollywood. He ran away to Europe, where he has been ever since, before he could be sentenced. All of Hollywood is aware of the fact that he was convicted for raping a child, (and has been accused of raping three more 13-15 year old girls, in the 1970s, as well). However, they not only honored him with a Best Director Oscar in 2004 for the movie The Pianist, when Polanski’s name was announced as the winner, the entire audience at the Oscars rose to their feet and applauded raucously for over one minute.
The hypocrisy in Hollywood is astounding.
