The only way to bring-in better standards of inter-gender interface in the work place is to BEGIN with an agreed-upon list of 'banned terms'... and that with some penalty for the default.
Since the women-factor has been virtually considered on par with the other two 'natural resources' - the land and the gold.. the abuse of that--has also been as common and as the universal abuse of gold and land.
Stipulation of decent and human reference and address terms towards women as 'madam ' as corresponding to 'mr' should be prescribed as a NECESSARY term of reference and interaction. This certainly will ease out the current anxious and ugly state of affairs to quite an extent.
Gear Up Gentleman!!
[A sociologist academic-activist]
This article is about several important things, the #MeToo movement, the push for more inclusion (which is a related but separate issue) and the threat the studios posed by streaming services. But it presents itself as a story of malaise and anxiety at the studios, which it describes in vague terms and with a handful af anecdotes about a couple of studio execs acting antsy over drinks. Don't really think there is anything new to learn from this.
7
Diversity, inclusion, Me Too pc blather mean nothing, nor should they. The film business needs to jettison quota based bizarre radical left social constructs unrelated to the core business of making quality movies with the best talent. Any sort of inclusion, diversity should be completely incidental to the final outcome. Merit is the only legitimate criteria. Outcome based ideology imposed on the industry is the death knell..
21
I hoped against all odds that this article would be written from a neutral standpoint, but of course it wasn’t. This is the Times, after all–a paper I have loved and read most days of the week for over a decade, but which I can no longer trust on issues of social identity and sex.
It is essentially assumed/implied from the outset of this piece that there is nothing wrong with the way #MeToo was conducted. Nothing wrong with destroying careers and reputations based solely on accusations, a fairly small but certain percentage of which are likely to be fabricated or exaggerated in the extreme. Nothing wrong with a movement called #OscarSoWhite. Nothing wrong with forcing filmmakers to staff their productions based first and foremost on satisfying strict quotas demanding the inclusion of women and POC and LGBT people, leaving little to no room for anyone else (AKA white males).
The ONLY thing wrong with all this, it is strongly suggested, is the reluctance of the existing white male (even worse, OLD white males!) power structure to go along with all this, with their tails between their legs and their mouths shut. How dare they voice their opinions? Even if they are completely innocent of wrong doing, the moment they express criticism of the draconian changes being proposed, they are inevitably branded sexists and misogynists. Oh, and racists too, for good measure. Even if they didn’t say anything about race, they were probably thinking it.
17
An industry built on deception, fiction, dishonesty and exploitation struggles to adjust to rebellious equality. They can't handle the Truth!! And, by the way, here comes China.
3
Interesting reading - Brooks and friends contemplating their own navels yet again. Who really cares - (to quote Phil Ochs) "outside of a small circle of friends?"
5
Could it be that the problem of dreck for content is related to lack of diversity? Research has shown time and again that diverse teams (and diverse by all kinds of measures, not just physical but of life experience) produces better work. If the ones selecting the projects right from the beginning aren’t diverse, why would we expect a good product at the end? It gets amplified all the way through the manufacturing chain.
Been in the business for 25 years and only now am I seeing diverse sets. Oh, and it usually is on the shows that perform the best financially and creatively. Go figure.
Happens in every industry. Just go look at financial services and tech. So a crisis is coming to Hollywood. Anyone making the product or a customer for the product should be rejoicing.
7
Hypocrisy in Hollywood?
The rich are always depicted as evil, while everyone in Hollywood is striving to get rich.
And sexism is just starting to out.
Tune in for more laughs.
2
We get so little actual facts from our current news that I cannot be sure, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that even a pig like Weinstein never put a woman in a position that she couldn't just say, "Sorry, I don't trade sexual favors for employment opportunities" and then walk out. I have seen no evidence in any new report to counter that fact.
Would it too be rude to ask how many Hollywood "me too" stars DID trade sexual favors for promotion at some time in their careers?
10
@michael
You make it sound so easy.
Harvey Weinstein is a big ,intimidating and violet man.
He trades in verbal, physical, psychological and sexual abuse. The man is an absolute beast. It is not just women who are afraid of him. He would as soon grab a man by the throat as a woman if he were upset or offended by them.
He has been known to ruin the careers of men as well as women.
13
The best thing we could all do in regards to Hollywood is to just turn off our sets and read a book, or talk to each other. Go out to dinner with friends, family, or neighbors instead of watching another so-called blockbuster piece of recycled trash. Talk with each other instead of sitting in front of a shimmering screen hypnotized by mostly meaningless drivel.
21
It's no wonder, is it?
Take first: the Monopolisation of all studios under one control - AND: IT IS CONTROL! The same control which forced the Boy Scouts to re-admit gay scout leaders - after they had suffered abuse from 1,257 of thjose (as far as known) - and the same trend alreay vey much visible in the latest "family films" from the house Disney.
Take secondly that no man can dare toux=ch any woman, not even shaking hands - without the danger of "accusations" - or even without any hands or other implements: Jist give a film part to another actress - and the same effect.
"Me Too" has just been, from the start a cry for "U want that, too!" that part, that fame, that money! "Me Too" is business.
And where not, it's mere Man Hate. That's why many respected and good writers and actors/actresses have kept away from - or even warned of it.
It's just a re-run of the old N.O.W. parole of their imagined "Rape Culture" and "All Men Are Rapists - and That's All They Are!" The old hate paroles of "wimmin" who think that 'Women' would follow them.
They don't. More than 50% of women voted conservative. That is not "bigot" or "backwards" - it is because they love Love and Men and Children and Family.
This new "progressive" mould is all against that - and, therefore, indeed MOULDY..
7
It is bizarre to me that the commenters below completely ignore the fact that Hollywood is a market-driven industry, and that the studios have a fiduciary duty to make money for their shareholders -- not one of whom buys Time-Warner stock to support money-losing art films -- and the only reliable demographic is young men, who like to see stuff blow up. Every commenter should ask herself/himself how often they go to see a movie the first weekend (when decisions about a movie's future are decided, by theater chains and studios alike), because it was directed by a woman, or a person of color, or because it's a thoughtful adult film about a serious subject. If the answer is, as it almost certainly is for most people, "never," then you are the reason Hollywood does what it does. My 26 year old nephew, who loves these comic-book adaptations, will go to the Thursday midnight showing of one of these, and if he likes it he'll go again on Saturday. So Hollywood works for him, and not for, say, me (I like Asian and European art films for the most part). This conversation is all too similar to conversations about politics in which people complain about all those dumb jerks in Washington: "Where do they people come from?!" we often complain. But the answer is -- we elect them. They're all our fault. We get the politics we vote for, and we get the movie culture we pay for. If you want better movies, go see them, the first weekend. If you want better politics, don't complain, vote.
14
Hollywood needs to be shook, it will be good for it in the future. Reminder diversity is key.
2
PC prudery mood is so sour that it's creating a backlash even in Hollywood, PC central. Wise up, left. More accurately, loosen up.
5
I watch a lot of British TV and the most noticeable thing about it, aside from the great adult oriented quality is how diverse their casting is. White people are married to black people, Muslims are in every workplace and Indian people aren’t just played for laughs. And none of this is considered anything but normal. The US has a way to go in programming.
28
As a minority woman, I don't believe Hollywood needs affirmative action for women and minorities. Hollywood needs less affirmative action for white male privilege, which has been the norm in the film making business since the start, 100 years ago. Creativity and artistic merit can't be filled with quotas. But it can and should be fostered in an environment that nurtures and values diversity and inclusion.
And that process has to happen not only in Hollywood, but in many other industries. One thing I have encountered and observed in various industries is a hesitation amongst people of color and women in higher positions to mentor and nurture other people of color and women under them. It seems as if there's a fear of appearing biased. Considering that white men have so much power across so many industries, demonstrates that is not a major concern for them. And even then, my husband and I have found that our white colleagues and employers have done more to mentor and elevate our careers. Minorities and women should make more of an effort to support more people who have the talent and/or ability that are minorities and women. And that doesn't require excluding white men . Netflix, BBC, and the newer networks like syfy, fx, ect, seem to get that and are experiencing real success.
15
Michael Bey, perseveration of using the same actors, marginalizing women as sex objects, and power over talent wrecked the industry.
There are series--6 hour long arcs of story--that are better written and more mesmerizing than most theater releases.
People who like escapism found in theaters will go to take their kids somewhere on a rainy day, or a first date, but the pleasure of a series beautifully imagined, at your leisure, is hard to beat.
There are film meant to be seen in theaters, Revenant or The Shape of Water come to mind.
Hollywood is where talent went to die, amid bloated ad budgets, product placement, and the same 10 people deciding all.
6
No Mr. Barnes--don't be so quick to let off the hook the unnamed guy you open with. He wasn't just "having a bad day," as that is the way tons of men in that biz and so many others consistently see the world. Not like this dude's comments are unique. THAT is a significant problem, as is the pass that people like you give them--even though he's unnamed. Poor boys in Hollywood all depressed and don't know what to do? Plenty of us do.
9
Hollywood should just go out of business and stay out of business. The actors and actresses should all get REAL JOBS. All actors and actresses live in a fantasy world and the writers are not far behind.
The movies that have been made in and by Hollywood for several decades now are worthless wastes of time, money and human resources.
In a local poll of which movie(s) out of about twelve (12) I wanted to see screened at my local movie house there was ONLY ONE (1).
Of all the things we can do without, movies are among the first.
6
@Reggie
The job of the writers, directors, producers, actors, crew, and exhibitors (in case you did not know, that is the standard name for movie theaters, but you probably knew that) is (for the most part) to create a fantasy world for you, to entertain, and sometimes to inform. But there is nothing of a fantasy in the world they live and work in.
I've served in the military and worked in the entertainment business. The military is less violent.
6
@Reggie What's your definition of a real job?
I glad to see the movie and television people getting a taste of their own medicine. To quote a famous movie line, you can dish it out but you can't take it. The Hollywood community is involved in non-stop Trump bashing. At the same time, their own world is being crushed like it's under a hydraulic press. You entertainment people are getting your own censorship back in spades. Your audience wants either low-budget horror movies or CGI blockbusters. Good luck getting the financing for anything else.
8
Change is never easy. Especially when you are trying to overcome generations of institutional white male leadership.But the bottom line is color blind. New diverse Hollywood leadership will improve the quality of movies and the revenue stream. Shareholders and the movie watching public will be the winners.
5
Dont worry about H-wood -- all is well -- more vehicles/outlets allow for greater creativity for consumers, which can only lift all boats....#notearshere
3
@Bob F
That sounds suspiciously like "trickle down economics" to me
The final product of the entertainment industry has more in common with old-fashioned prostitution than the successes of social workers or missionaries. So the idea that the cheap thrills, dirty jokes and exagerrated brutality that are 80% of the product of modern cinema (and TV) can be produced in a politically correct environment is quite absurd.
13
@Qxt63. And what is wrong with prostitution? Nothing that decriminalization and medical regulation could not cure.
I sit through previews of Hollywood movies, and they all seem to fall into a few types: action flicks consisting mostly of explosions and chases, comedies aimed at 15-year-old boys, kids' animation, gross-out horror flicks, and endless sequels of all these titles.
I'm old enough to remember when serious movies played in first-run theaters and made good money. There has always been mindless brain candy, but there were also films with interesting plots and actual characters.
Nowadays, nearly all my screen viewing is foreign films and TV shows. I see stories I haven't seen before, perhaps countries and cities I haven't seen before, and characters who act and look like real people. These movies stay with me, while I can't even remember the plot of the last action flick that a relative dragged me to.
I wonder if today's Hollywood executives are all business school graduates (therefore, trained but not educated) who grew up on Star Wars and other action franchises and formed their images of ideal movies in that environment.
30
@Pdxtran
I agree with your assessment. Why bother with the expense and hassle of going to the movies to see mediocre films that are mostly geared to adolescent boys. The Hollywood executives are living in their own man-made bubble that has no appeal to intelligent viewers who crave movies that are inspiring and entertaining.
19
Me too! ”Bodyguard”, ”Killing Eve”, ”The Crown” - fascinating and completely un-American shows since they have complex, female leads.
5
I find British and Australian dramas on cable, which use many more women in lead or management roles, much more watchable than the major network television dramas. I like the series that ends after several episode format used rather than the continuous TV dramas on major and cable American networks. I prefer it to movies on screen and on TV. American television has successfully used this format with 'Sinner".
21
Author: I hope you reported the film exec for DUI too after the vodka-martini-xanax cocktail, or better still stopped him getting in his car. We don't need danger on the roads as well as in the studios, and your blasé way of referencing this to "set the scene" without strongly condemning it is part of the narrative of why its a big nonchalant problem in LA.
18
Bigness requires an appeal to the lowest common denominator, ergo; sex, money, violence, and a lot of sophomoric humor. Oh, and romance, which is apparently the niche that Disney has occupied. Publicly traded companies, where growth is the raison d'etre, don't really have much choice but to appeal to, the lowest common denominator.
There are good movies being made, we just don't hear much about them in Big Publications like the New York Times because, well, they have a Big audience, and with a Big audience you have to appeal to...
8
@Bud 1 For many decades Hollywood was able to rake it in even under a code that constrained all content. IMHO, the need to appeal to a broad audience doesn't necessitate a race to the cultural bottom. But the current powers have persuaded themselves that crassness is a virtue, which excuses them from taking the lazy low road. The disinterest in the health of the culture is showing.
6
@Bud 1 This isn't fair to the NY Times. The paper reviews quite a number of small, independent movies. And in recent years, roughly speaking, the Times has given relatively short shrift to blockbusters, franchises and shallow, publicity-driven pictures.
5
The only thing Hollywood doesn't seem to concentrated on is producing good movies instead of humanized comics. Enough of this childish nonsense. Let them start making movies for intelligent people instead of people with 6th grade education. At least Harvey Weinstein made decent films occasionally but he's been driven out of town by feminazis. They may win on politics but destroy Hollywood. This is going to bring untalented people into the business who will make films no one is going to want to watch, and certainly not pay to watch.
6
@Zack Browne
Feminazis? Really Rush? I'm still amazed at how people are just okay with rapists like Weinstein. Being "good" is no a good reason to be an unapologetic serial abuser. The people most okay with it are the ones who are least affected by the damaging behavior.
Fret not because good movies, whatever you consider that to be, are will continue to come out. The business didn't creatively die when these men got bounced. Stop giving them so much credit, no one is indispensable when it comes to creative endeavors, esp. commercial ones.
9
Oh my goodness -- what an "As goes Hollywood so goes the nation" story! Well, not exactly. These frightened men who lament being bumped from life-time board appointments to make room for inclusion are on the wrong side of history. It happens. At one time, women couldn't vote and now look at all of the women in politics taking away men's jobs. If these little boys want me to feel bad for them, because the tables have turned and now they cannot rely on their privilege as entitled white men to further their careers and be permanently of the correct status to feel superior at "the Palm" sipping $20 cocktails, then I won't. Some of us men have had to face the fact of women in our professions doing as well as us or better for decades now. If Hollywood can't handle this, then it's too bad for Hollywood. But the nation will survive without these whiny brats who just was to have their way. Good riddance to them and their oppressive entitled privileges.
32
@TinyPriest
Yeah, I agree. I don't see anything that makes me feel bad for these guys and the privilege they enjoy. My hope is that diversity will continue to march forward, despite the potential backlash of those accustomed to having these unquestioned privileges.
16
Hollywood has been making juvenile dreck for the cineplexes for many years now. The old studios at least gave importance to their "prestige" pictures. Now they don't even bother. Car crashes and comic books. Even in high school I didn't like that garbage. Why should the broader society care about an industry that itself only cares about turning a profit off the lack of taste of the masses?
18
Too much money, too little passion. #metoo has nothing to do with this except for the fact that the people at the top are cold hearted power hungry money men.
21
Ok, let's go over it again for the umpteenth time.
Sexual harassment, predation has been illegal in theory and practice since app. 1980, before that it was de facto legal.
Since then, countless women have come forward complained, sued etc. and won. I know, I saw many in the large corporation I worked in, including some high up.
What not to do is wait 20 yrs. to complain, only complain when the money/raises stop, enable, co depend predators like Weinstein (Hillary, Streep, Dench etc.) or worse start the sexual involvement.
A few brave women came forward now, like many did post 1980, but the feminists have used it as a witch hunt to condemn men for eight million yrs. of existence.
What to do now is to do what countless women have done since 1980 and complain, sue and not do the enabling, co dependent acts that the me too movement has done.
Predators live for that.
9
@Paul
I'm not sure how MeToo does what you say. I see it as putting a spotlight on something that continues to happen. Yes, in the early '80s, after the latest gender based awakening of the '70s, women at least had the right to sue and complain however, you are overlooking the de facto aspect which is that it continued to happen and many were punished for complaining or suing. How many had to leave positions or were blackballed (not just H'wood but others also) when they came forward. That's what made Anita Hill such a landmark moment. Power doesn't concede without demand but that is just the initial step. It takes a lot to break bad habits and when men (just like any group with power) feels like "it's been dealt with" and therefore is no longer an issue is when the real work happens. MeToo (and feminism) has barely begun to get to the heart of breaking men of this overstepping of bounds. I'm not sure what eight million yrs. have to do with it but it sounds like you are still part of that group that believes that this is somehow "natural" when as human beings (and presumably adults) actually have the ability to control ourselves and impulses. The reason it feels like a "witch hunt" is because it still seems normal to you. So, you know, what's the big deal, right?
6
@FDRT- Thank you for your reply. Again, the two things that will almost be guaranteed in the future are predators and enablers and co dependents.
95% of men are not predators but unfortunately a larger number of women are co depend and enabling on this issue. I saw/heard/read about it in the large corporation I worked in. This is not to congratulate the larger group of women in my corporation that did not.
A few brave women in this era did not put up with the predation and harassment a la Weinstein and others. The other enablers and codependents (ie me too movement) flocked to the cause and campaigned/complained....ie me too means I co depended and waited till the right moment came along.
FDRT, you can intellectualize, rationalize, finger point, axe grind, but a small group of men will always be predators. Unfortunately a larger group of women will be enablers and co dependents,
Predators live for them.
The way women stop that is not to co depend or enable the predator.
If the me too movement wants to do something here is what that should do.
1-Instruct women not to do the stuff I have been mentioning in my original post, just like countless other women who did not co depend or enable have done since 1980.
2-Don't condemn men for being men and for eight million yrs. of existence. 95% of men are not predators and cannot help women if they co depend or enable the predator.
3-Be firm and don't wait but insure due process for the accused predator.
7
Instead of being so uptight about the new order, Hollywood should just try to find out what matters to the viewing public. We are the customers, not those in the industry who are demanding identity quotas, or the banishment of people who are often just accused of misconduct (talk about McCarthyism), or rejecting a person who doesn't fit in with the PC culture. Creative types throughout history have frequently faced personal turmoil or engaged in outrageous behavior; it seems to go with the territory. Imagine how sterile the Hollywood output of the future will be if everyone marches in lockstep with rigid codes imposed from the top about how the process must function, what stories are allowed, and what things individuals are allowed to say.
4
@David Godinez Hate to tell you but for much of its history Hollywood operated with "rigid codes imposed from the top about how the process must function, what stories are allowed, and what things individuals are allowed to say". During that time some of its greatest films were made, films now considered to be of high artistic quality, and some made money to boot. Sadly even more meretricious junk was also made, and also made money. More to the point, during that time talented women, people of color, and gay or trans folks in the business were excluded from opportunities to participate in setting these codes or even to question them. Now that these codes are largely gone, to imply that including more women, people of color, or LGBT folks in decision making will somehow undermine artistic quality or creativity in the industry in general, let alone "sterilize" it, tells us nothing about the actual reality of the American movie business or about where talent is found but it does tell us a great deal about your ignorance, fears, and biases.
7
Diversity and Inclusion Riders, while socially relevant, are not necessarily helpful to 'the business'.
Screenwriter William Goldman famously wrote, "nobody knows anything". Respectfully, I disagree. Behind every successful film or TV show, 'somebody knew something', and it absolutely wasn't any of the executives involved.
Creativity is the one element Hollywood has never been able to control, not really.
Trying to legislate where creativity comes from, on whose shoulder that fickle feather will land, is a dubious proposition.
This isn't to say the Hollywood system has regularly produced great films overall. In fact, 'the great film' is actually a rarity. But the financially successful film or TV show, ones that satisfy an audience, we see those all the time.
Not to give a pass to crude and criminal behavior in the mainstream industry, but I would advocate for a parallel industry, government funded, that let's all people who want to train to make films, TV shows, games, and so on. Indeed, why not let everyone do what they want?
We have the sun to power all our needs. All we need to do, is stop being greedy and learn to share.
3
Cinema has had a good century, but things change (especially the technology). When DW Griffith couldn't find work in theater, he decided to 'slum it' and work in the movies, poaching stars like Mary Pickford in the process. Theatre suddenly became 'quaint' and 'niche' ... something only tourists do when they visit New York or Chicago; and movies went mainstream. During that century, the cinema industry got fat and inbred, faking movie reviews to promote dogs, selling bad candy & fake popcorn, and forcing horrid 3D glasses on audiences with no alternative. So here we are today, within every home a big screen TVs (tech championed by Samsung in the 80s because it used a lot of their memory chips) and high-bandwidth Internet. Gone is the need for Hollywood's extravagance: rental of 4000 expensive theatre rooms, $25million release budgets, uncertain audience response and sordid executive excess. On Amazon, Netflix and Apple, movies get produced and run, generate detailed minute-by-minute viewer data to predict their next successful series. From the investor's perspective, there's no more drama; why would they ever invest in a traditional movie production?
2
The PC police vs the Hollywood shallows. It’s hard to know who to root against more.
30
Did anyone expect movie executives to rise to the occasion counseling against rush to judgements without court based evidence?
We're talking about the same kind of spineless males who aquiesced to the hysterics of Mccarthyism!
Did we expect the perogatives of "art" and "talent" and "Creative freedom" to be reasonably and honestly and bravely defended against the blanket hysteria by these scared profit grubbers?
These narcissists and sexually repressed -sexually self entitled weak males who enabled all the female exploitation and rape and plundering in the first case?
"And despite the cheers that greeted Frances McDormand’s best actress acceptance speech at the last Academy Awards, in which she put the contractual term “inclusion rider” into the public consciousness, few stars have been willing to publicly demand them. Inclusion riders are stipulations that might require a cast and crew to, for example, be 50 percent female, 40 percent underrepresented ethnic groups, 20 percent people with disabilities and 5 percent L.G.B.T. people. In failure, studios would be forced to pay fines, to be put into a diversity-minded scholarship fund for student filmmakers."
What about Animals? (and their gender equality) -That will be next along with the post modernism ruining literature.
3
The #metoo movement is not to blame. The men who committed crimes and harassed women are. If they were respectful, they’d still have jobs.
Saying Hollywood is bummed out at men being held accountable is false. Non-sleazy people are thrilled that more interesting voices will finally be heard. And that they won’t have to work in a predatory environment.
60
Read a book.
22
Actually, Amazon and Netflix have very little to do with the problem with Hollywood. They make two movies a year I want to see. I'll watch Casablanca for the 500th time simply because it's still better than anything on the local ciniplexes. The studios are producing movies just good enough to last until the next weekend. I'm spoiled by the likes of Bogart and Bacall, Patty Chayefsky and Dalton Trumbo, so today's Hollywood really doesn't stand a chance.
19
@Richard Mclaughlin
"I'm spoiled by the likes of Bogart and Bacall, Patty Chayefsky and Dalton Trumbo, so today's Hollywood really doesn't stand a chance."
...which is probably the real reason Warner Brothers and their new insect overlords from the mother ship, pulled the plug on FilmStruck.
6
Make better movies - good stories, interesting characters, engaging dialogue- and I suspect this malaise will disappear immediately. More cartoons, more “reboots” will only result in continuing problems. Not a #me too issue. Your product quality is poor.
27
The industry is changing. So what else is new?
7
RE: Many actresses, including Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and America Ferrera wore black to the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards in January in support of people who spoke out about sexual abuse and misconduct in Hollywood.
And people wonder why women are not taken seriously? If the sexual abuse and misconduct are a serious problem these four address it by selecting black for the color of their complimentary (from designers) $10K dresses. Wow such effort.
10
Curious about what you’ve done to further the cause. They started an organization to fund legal services for sexually harassed people. How much time or money have you donated?
14
@Diamond
I love when people try to trash the efforts of those actually making a difference. It just reminds me of the necessity of what these women are trying to accomplish.
10
I've stopped watching the Oscars. I got tired of being lectured at by feminist actresses that seem to have lost touch with ordinary Americans. The entire ceremony is now about women's rights and black rights and immigrant rights. We are told by the rich and famous what we can believe and what we can think. And if we don't agree we are characterized as racists or bigots.
I've had it. Famous actresses feel so entitled. They can accuse a more powerful man of sexual harassment and get endless stories in the NY Times feeling sorry for their predicaments. They are NOT mistreated. They have chauffeurs and butlers and maids. They are lionized for autographs.
Meanwhile the ordinary Americans who they lecture at are dying because they cannot afford health care! Or having the insurance company take their house after a bout of cancer!
Movies are just entertainment. And the American movie industry is chauvinistic.
I'm tired of seeing one measly Oscar devoted to a foreign film. The foreign films have often been the best in the past, films by Godard, by Fellini, by Kurosawa. Films of Japan and Russia and France and Germany and China.
Why can't we just totally dispense with Hollywood and its political correctness which ultimately leads to censorship and just plain bad films.
Ask Netflix and Amazon to provide us with the foreign films INSTEAD of repetitive Hollywood films. Broaden America's experience. There's another world out there which Hollywood has kept hidden.
33
@Jake Wagner: Netflix and Amazon show a lot of foreign content if you know where to look for it. Now that Netflix is in 30 countries, it is making and acquiring movies internationally, and recently I have enjoyed the German "Dark" and "Babylon Berlin," the Norwegian "Occupied," and the Spanish "La Casa de Papel."
Amazon doesn't make that many foreign films, but it shows a lot from the UK, France, Scandinavia, China, and Latin America, and it is the go-to outlet for Eastern European films.
AcornTV specializes in TV and a few films from English-speaking countries outside the U.S., and MHz Choice specializes in TV from Continental Europe and Scandinavia, all shown in the original languages with subtitles.
This is truly a golden age of access to international content.
14
@Pdxtran
I've had the theme song for Babylon Berlin stuck in my head for months and I can't complain.
1
But ordinary Americans are women, blacks, and immigrants.
16
I'll watch the previews of upcoming movies, and then if I'm interested, I sort them into one of three categories. 1) movies I want to see in a theater. 2) movies I'll stream on Amazon. 3) movies to get on Redbox if I am bored with anything else on TV.
2
Do the great movie directors and cinematographers care that their new work will now touchdown in theaters only briefly, if at all, and then be relegated to tablets and other electronic devices that can be held in the palm of your hand? Imagine seeing "Titanic" or "Dr Zhivago" for the first time on your iphone???? How sad.
18
Netflix and Amazon do a better jog at producing movies and series than the Hollywood studios
4
25 or 30 years ago, in these very pages, Aljean Harmetz, the Times' Hollywood correspondent then, essentially pronounced the movie business dead.
12
@Betsy
Yeah, people said that about novels too. The fact is that the nature of commercial art changes because the culture changes. The filmed entertainment business has to change because our world has changed. It's called living. Anything not changing is dead. When people are no longer looking at movies then you can make that pronouncement but that's not happening any time soon.
1
So political correctness is a cancer that kills creativity and causes unnecessary headaches, what else is new?
23
@Gary just like not treating everyone with respect, and only hiring people who share your same gender and race because that is all you are comfortable with and beholden to consider "normal" also kills creativity and causes unnecessary headaches
19
@Gary-
No. It isn’t that. Not at all.
Years ago I read a book about higher education titled “The Closed Corporation, American Universities In Crisis”. If any title could describe the true nature of the Entertainment Business, the opaque corporations and partnerships, the producers, media distributors and talent agencies at the heart of its inescapable center around which everyone and everything orbits — its black hole — it would be those first three words of that old title. Individuals are reduced to helpless supplicants held hostage by it, in thrall to it.
Behold Megyn Kelly. Her sudden fall from grace, bordering on career annihilation, is instructive about The Closed Corporations’ wiles and whims, and its cannibalistic nature. That’s because it’s fundamentally about raw power. Raw power to create and destroy wielded by unseen hands. They use, abuse and ultimately discard individuals.
And behold Leigh Steinberg, pioneer super-agent, and his not-so-sudden fall from grace. One among hundreds.
And behold Trump, our president. Wildly destructive. An executive plucked from its cannibalistic environment. In the the White House, a fish out of water. Beneath the ceaseless relentless investigative media glare the alligator only now discovers that it can’t feast unseen on others weaker than itself as it did before.
There might only be one Trump in the White House, thank God for small favors. But many thousands remain in those dark lagoons, hungry, feasting, or waiting to be fed.
5
@Gary
Hate to tell you but "political correctness" has always been around. Nothing in our human constructed world exists in a vacuum including commercial entertainment. You call what's happening a cancer, I call it a long overdue correction. One in which creativity actually actually can and will continue to thrive.
9
What goes on there, among the preposterously privileged, has no application to the rest of the world.
Rose McGowan stayed quiet for the same reason the men she reproached for silence did: nobody wanted to jeopardize getting paid far in excess of any identifiable talent, and being famous, by speaking out.
A pox on all of them! They don't matter. Anything of value which comes out of the place is despite the powers that be. And those who expect the few actual creative talents to behave like exemplars might want to look at art history -- how many stellar characters do you find?
14
I disagree. This stuff happens everywhere! Anywhere you have a majority of men at the top. I can tell you from personal experience(s).
27
"Based on the box office, studios should be full of people turning cartwheels . . ."
Yeah, based on ever-increasing theater ticket prices.
Unfortunately for Hollywood, the actual tickets sold are DOWN about 300 million per year since their peak in 2002, and the never-ending torrent of junk being produced does not help.
39
There are very few movies made other than the blockbusters (Shoot em ups, special effects, men with claw hands).
Most everything is made for China or teenagers. And at $10 a pop, I'll wait till it gets to cable.
ZZZZZZZZZ- boring.
28
As a former studio exec in the eighties who worked for one of the most cynical heads of production, but a brilliant one, this article shows that nothing has changed in Hollywood. These grossly overpaid whiners get no sympathy. Their plight is unimportant given who is president and how most middle class Americans and the poor are unable to get viable and affordable health care. I'm sure there are more important Hollywood stories than one about nouveau riche poseurs.
62
@g.i.
There may be, as you point out, more important stories, but Hollywood is what, if nothing but escapism entertainment. Thus, its products (including the films, the stories and the actors and their stories, real or imagined) are as good a place as any to run and hide away from world.
@Mark Shyres
"Schindler's List" of "The Godfather" are not escapist films. Thus your logic is somewhat tautological.
1
Profits may be up, but mostly because of superheroes and Children films. For the rest of us who enjoy good story telling and imagery, all these scandals, coupled with the public hypocrisy have turned us off from going to the theater altogether.
38
Hollywood, and the entertainment industry in general, welcomes many talented people (and others, talented or not, who could never achieve the same material success elsewhere. So of course nerves fray during any paradigm shift.
Today, several paradigms are shifting at once -- studio consolidation, the emergence of streaming platforms, the re-definition of acceptable behavioral standards... It's unsettling for long-entrenched figures who functioned within a prescribed environment.
But this isn't new. The popularity of TV in the '50's, the demise of the studio system, the rise of indie filmmaking in the late '60's and early '70's, the adoption of cable and the introduction of video filmmaking also gave industry leaders agita.
This is an odd moment. The glut of content means there's probably more worth watching than ever. And there's also more junk. Survival, though, depends on the same basics as always -- making movies worthy of their audience, at budgets that can be recouped. And whether its a big studio, Netflix or Amazon, or some new film school grad with a good idea and Kickstarter campaign, someone will be out there doing that.
34
Hollywood's money making machine has banked on the glamor and talent of women for decades, while simultaneously paying them less, turning a blind eye to sexual assault and exploitation and generally treating them as playthings. Sorry, you don't get to slow things down just so you can catch up. The sunlight that the #metoo moment has brought in is good for us all. It is fairly clear that the abuse must stop -- complaining that actresses shut up and "go back to their kennels" just sounds pathetic and aggrieved.
97
Short memo to Hollywood: Stop doing remakes! I'm amazed that Gone With the Wind has not been remade in a central American banana plantation starring Antonio Banderas and Sofía Vergara. On second thought that has potential.
54
@Dan Barthel
Every story, every movie, every book, every fairy tale every election, every war and peace, ever love and hate is , in essence, a remake of its own making.
Hollywood will never learn.
8