Hollywood’s squandered #MeToo moment

Hollywood has a golden opportunity to shelve politics and go back to what Tinsel Town does best: Make great content and celebrate it via the Oscars and related galas. 

So far, the assembled stars are blowing it. 

{mosads}The Harvey Weinstein scandal did more than fuel the #MeToo movement. It revealed the industry to be a deeply flawed institution. We all knew about the infamous “casting couch” and how actresses over 40 struggle to land the same meaty parts their male peers score. But the situation was far worse than we could possibly imagine.

The fall of Weinstein, arguably Hollywood’s most influential producer, revealed a toxic one-two combination. Sexual abuse and silence thrived behind the scenes. It reached across studios to the very top of the A-list. 

Many either knew, or had their suspicions, about Weinstein. No one called him out until a New York Times expose did the honors.

Other big names soon followed Weinstein out the door, or found their thriving careers in jeopardy. Kevin Spacey. Director Brett Ratner. Louis C.K. Director James Toback. Jeffrey Tambor. Dustin Hoffman. James Franco. 

Suddenly, the standard celebrity speeches about climate change, abortion and Donald Trump seemed secondary. Shouldn’t the industry get its own house in order before wagging its collective figure at the American public? Would you listen to a lecture from this crowd? 

The timing was perfect. Awards season gives stars a chance to stop the lecturing and return the focus to their best and brightest work. More importantly, they could toil behind the scenes to make the system better, more fair and most of all, less dangerous for young actresses. 

In the process, they’d give consumers a break from the nonstop culture wars and remind them why they love movies in the first place. Here’s betting even liberal Oscar telecast viewers wouldn’t mind a return to bipartisan entertainment. 

Instead, we’ve gotten an avalanche of virtue signaling from one awards show to the next. The Golden Globes started it off. Stars donned black to show their support for women in the industry, a gesture akin to wearing the cause du jour ribbon. 

The event became a #MeToo symposium mixed with another round of Trump jabs. The stars certainly had every right to address the Weinstein fallout. What followed was a nonstop empowerment sermon from an industry with plenty of work still left to do. 

The recent Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards telecast, where only female stars served as presenters, offered more of the same. Host Kristen Bell even mocked First Lady Melania Trump during her opening monologue.

Meanwhile is there really progress being made? Why weren’t the women at the heart of the Weinstein scandal (especially Rose McGowan) front and center at the Golden Globes? Why did Steven Soderbergh say he fears some male power players will stop hiring women down the short road? 

This is no time for a victory lap. 

We are seeing some signs of progress, or at the very least forward momentum, within Hollywood. The newly formed Times Up organization offers legal help for women facing Weinstein-sized attacks. It’s ironically funded, in part, by Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

That’s the massive talent agency that, according to The New York Times, had agents leading young starlets into Weinstein’s clutches — knowing what he was capable of doing to them.

Some of the women standing tall for their fellow actresses at recent awards shows, including Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, are still represented by CAA. 

Naturally, the stars are still using every public moment to shove their politics down our throats. Robert De Niro leveraged his podium time at the recent National Board of Review gala to call the president the “Jerkoff in Chief” and other slurs.  

Meryl Streep tried to deflect the “she knew” accusations against her by blasting Melania and Ivanka Trump for not saying more about sexual assaults. 

Does anyone doubt the Oscars telecast, to be held March 4 on ABC, won’t feature all of the above? What a waste. 

This weekend’s second annual Women’s March featured, once again, a gaggle of celebrities betwixt the marchers. Actor and director Rob Reiner, for instance blasted the president as a racist and misogynist rather than defending the industry he’s called home for decades.

We all want Hollywood to clean up its act. That slow, necessary process may be happening in some form right now. We’re also seeing the same tone deaf, bubble dwelling antics that remind us how hypocritical modern Hollywood remains. 

Christian Toto is a conservative film critic and founder of HollywoodInToto.com and the Hollywood in Toto Podcast.