The Hollywood sign is a beacon of hope for some but for others an omen of evil.
Ever since its conception, the American film industry and the culture around it have not just accepted but hidden incidents involving assaults, murder, and misconduct.
The Early Days
In the earliest days of the Hollywood film industry, sexual abuse and manipulation were much more widely known and most perpetrators made no real attempt to hide it.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer co-founder Louis B. Mayer is stated to have had numerous meetings in his office while having the then-teenage Judy Garland seated on his lap while violently groping her chest.
Mayer’s was not an isolated incident, however.
In 1937 another MGM employee. David Ross, a high-ranking MGM sales associate, allegedly raped dancer Patricia Douglas. Ross is reported as saying “I’m going to destroy you” as he assaulted Douglas. However, when Douglas reported the incident, MGM had her blacklisted and ran a smear campaign saying that the injuries and STD she had received during the attack were the result of her being promiscuous.
The man responsible for the smear campaign, Eddie Mannix, once reportedly joked “We had her [Douglas] killed”. Mannix was responsible for several coverups and blackmail incidents involving sexual assault in the film industry. The evidence of his actions was uncovered and featured in the documentary Girl 27 an expose on the abuse culture in Hollywood by David Stenn. In response, MGM released Hail Caesar! a lighthearted comedy musical about Mannix.
In 2016, actress Tippi Hedren claimed in her autobiography that she had been sexually harassed by film director Alfred Hitchcock during the filming of The Birds in 1963 and that he had forbidden other male actors to approach her.
In 2015, the daughter-in-law of actress Loretta Young claimed that the actress confided in her before her death that the birth of her daughter Judy Lewis, widely assumed to have been the result of a consensual relationship with actor Clark Gable, was the result of Young being date raped at the hands of Gable. And had been covered up by the studio to save face.
The “Golden Age” of Hollywood
As the American film industry found its footing the use of scare tactics, coverups, and blackmail became the norm as sexual abuse was not only more common but expected.
The most common form of sexual abuse in Hollywood is known as the “Casting Couch”.
The “Casting Couch” involves when a high-ranked member of a production (Producer, Director, etc.) uses their title to make the young talent do lewd acts for them in exchange for job opportunities.
In 1977, famed Director Roman Polanski was accused of drugging and raping a then-13-year-old actress. Polanski took the girl under the guise of wanting to take pictures of her and make her a star. Sadly, the young Samatha Geimer fell into the trap of so many other young actors and actresses. Polanski drove her to the house of actor Jack Nicholson, drugged her, raped her, and then posed her for pictures. During his sentencing, Polanski fled to Europe and was arrested at Zurich airport in 2003, however, due to being a French citizen could not be extradited to the US.
Another Director Woody Allen has many accusations against him, most of which include his sexual assault on his own children. In 1997, after a rough patch in their relationship, Allen’s partner Mia Farrow discovered Allen and their adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn had been having an affair. The affair allegedly started in 1991, when Previn was 21.
On August 4, 1992, Allen allegedly sexually assaulted another one of his adopted children, 4-year-old Dylan Farrow. This act was allegedly viewed by another child of Allen, 14-year-old Moses Farrow. However, after months of investigation, no solid proof could be found incriminating Allen. Dylan Farrow is quoted in a letter sent in 2014 as saying, “When I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and took me to a dark attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lie on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train. Then he abused me sexually, he spoke to me while he was doing it, whispering to me that I was a good girl, that this was our secret and he promised me that we would go to Paris and I would become a movie star.”
Ronan Farrow, Allen’s oldest biological child, supports Dylan Farrow. Ronan is a journalist who specializes in sexual assault cases and has been instrumental in exposing multiple high-profile abusers. Allen and Soon-Yi were married in 1997. Soon-Yi released a statement supporting her husband and condemning her mother as abusive, however, Farrow’s other children object to these statements.
In 1997, Director Bryan Singer was accused of forcing multiple minors to film nude shower scenes for his film APT Pupil. Multiple other underage boys came forward and accused Singer of filming scenes that were an invasion of privacy, unnecessary, and filmed for Singer’s sexual gratification. In 2014, model and actor Michael Egan sued Singer for allegedly drugging and raping him for two years while attending parties hosted by another sexual offender Marc Collins-Rector. However, before the case could finish Egan was arrested on unrelated charges.
Later in 2014, another case was filed against Singer and another director Gary Goddard for sexually assaulting an unnamed victim. Singer and Goddard allegedly raped the man while he was still a minor. Since then multiple men have come forward alleging that Singer raped them while they were underage.
In 1988, the Director of the cult-classic horror film Jeepers Creepers Victor Salva was convicted of forcing Nathan Forrest Winters, the 12-year-old star of his movie Clownhouse, to perform lewd acts and oral sex on the director. During the investigation, he was also found to be in possession of child Pornography. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison of which he served 15 months. Another controversial director and Salva’s mentor Francis Ford Coppola reportedly told Salva his experience in prison, “would have value and would make [him] a better artist”.
Modern Era
Co-founder of media giant Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, may be the most egregious known example of using power for abuse in Hollywood. Weinstein was accused by more than 80 women of having sexually assaulted them. The accusations ranged from sexual harassment to rape. According to the women’s reports, Weinstein invited young actresses or models to a hotel room or office on the pretext of discussing their careers and then demanded massages or sexual intercourse. Among the actresses who claim to have suffered harassment or rape by Weinstein are Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvino, Paz de la Huerta, Annabella Sciorra, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Another–Italian actress Asia Argento–collated a list of sexual abuse accusations against Weinstein, among others.
Weinstein was been charged with first and third-degree rape. In 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in a maximum security prison. In light of the scandal, others in varying industries have stepped forward to admit they have been sexually assaulted, leading to a conversation about a culture that perpetuates this. Many have begun a larger conversation on the cover-up of the abuses and the nuances that lead to it
Actor Jeffrey Jones was arrested in 2003 after forcing a 14-year-old boy to pose nude for him; Jones did not deny the accusations and was sentenced to 5 years probation and was required to register as a sex offender.
In 2014, multiple allegations emerged that Bill Cosby, an American media personality, had sexually assaulted dozens of women throughout his career. Cosby has been accused by over 60 women of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual harassment.
In 2017, American actor Kevin Spacey faced several allegations of sexual misconduct. Those allegations began after Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey, while appearing intoxicated, made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986, when Rapp was 15 and Spacey was 27.Spacey stated on Twitter that he did not remember the encounter, but that he owed Rapp “the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior” if he had behaved as asserted. Fifteen others then came forward alleging similar abuse. On the same day as Rapp’s allegations against him, Spacey came out as gay when apologizing to Rapp. He said, “I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. His decision to come out via his statement was criticized by many gay celebrities as a ploy to avoid scrutiny and implying a connection between Homosexuality and the sexual assault of children. On December 24, 2018, Spacey uploaded a video titled “Let Me Be Frank”, in which he – while in character as Frank Underwood – appeared to deny the real-life allegations leveled against him. The video was described by Slate writer Daniel Politi as “bizarre” and “stomach-churning”, while drawing derision from actresses such as Ellen Barkin, Patricia Arquette, and Alyssa Milano, the latter of whom called it “creepy”.
Why does this happen?
The Cepsim psychology center in Madrid, Spain described the phycological profile of one of these abusers. “They are men or women with a lot of power who use it with vulnerable people to get what they want. Normally they lack empathy, which is what places us in someone else’s pain and makes us not hurt or be selfish. The Department of Psychology of the University of Málaga added that rapists do not usually assimilate that they are committing a crime, since their minds are usually narcissistic. The abusers in show business also have atypical behaviors, such as pressuring actresses and models to attend castings or sign contracts in unusual places such as hotel rooms or private rooms and force the victims into silence with blackmail. Criminal law lawyer Alicia Ozores explained to the newspaper La Vanguardia that some abusers tried to take refuge under the argument that “they were addicted to sex” because sex addiction is a recognized disorder that could in theory reduce, or nullify their sentence or at least help their image. Victims usually fear being disbelieved and judged by the public opinion. Usually, the society condemns the abuse but in turn questions the reason why the victim did not speak out before Brazilian psychologist Flavia Dos Santos told Colombian newspaper El País “Victims usually feel helpless to know that their abusers are people with media power and as a result can act with impunity”
