ColumnWell, Bill Cosby will have to stand trial. Great news, but why did it take so long for Cosby to be called out? The answer is simple: Because he’s a Hollywood asshole.
That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Hell, just look at recent headlines that have graced news sites over the past few weeks:
“Camille Cosby’s Dramatic Deposition Transcript Unsealed”
“Elijah Wood on Child Predators in Hollywood: ‘If You Can Imagine It, It’s Probably Happened'”
“My father, Woody Allen, and the danger of questions unasked”
Yeah—it ain’t good.
To examine our sweeping, asshole allegation, let’s examine the stories behind the headlines.
Bill Cosby
On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania judge decided there was enough evidence to go forward with Bill Cosby’s trial. “Cosby faces three counts of felony indecent assault from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, an employee at his alma mater, Temple University,” CNN reports.
“She was the first of more than 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.” If he is convicted, he could spend up to 30 years in prison.
As you know, we’ve been following this issue for a long while. While we can’t say Cosby definitely harmed these women, we do think it’s incredibly strange that some people, such as his wife, other comedians, and fans, still think he’s totally innocent.
Cosby’s wife
During a February deposition, Cosby’s wife refused to answer numerous questions that pertained to a libel lawsuit.
“Within the transcript, after asking Camille about how much she values integrity in herself and others, Cammarata asks, ‘Now, can we agree that throughout your marriage, Mr. Cosby acted with a lack of integrity?,’ The Hollywood Reporter reports.
“Pressley jumps in and tells her client that she isn’t obligated to answer a question if the information was gained through a conversation with her husband or an attorney. ‘And I won’t,’ Camille responds.”
His fans
Earlier this year, Vice interviewed a few of Cosby’s fans about why they think the comedian is innocent.
“One of the people defending Bill Cosby to this day is Wilmington, Delaware, native Crystal Lambert, who tells me via Facebook that she’s been a fan of the comedian ‘since Mortimer Ichabod Marker and Jello pudding pops,’” Vice reports.
“She hasn’t read the deposition and plans to direct prayer to the situation rather than scrutiny. ‘We as the public have a civic duty to back a man that gave and taught us so much,’ she says.”
Comedians
And let’s not forget when Damon Wayans’ said that Cosby’s accusers were unrapeable.
We get that it’s hard to imagine Cliff Huxtable as a serial rapist, but that character was just that—a character. And if Cosby really did harm all the women who have accused him over the years, it’s truly disgusting that he hasn’t been brought to justice… yet.
Elijah Wood
While it looks like this story isn’t nearly as shocking as many media outlets once thought, I think we all can agree that Wood’s basic accusation is still correct: Hollywood is filled with a lot of bad people.
The conversation started on Tuesday when Wood said that he thinks that Hollywood is rife with “vipers” who prey on people—especially people without power, such as children.
“Wood, now 35, drew parallels between such experiences and the prolific sexual abuse perpetrated by TV host Jimmy Savile,” The Guardian reports. “‘You all grew up with Savile’ said Wood. ‘Jesus, it must have been devastating. Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organised. There are a lot of vipers in this industry–people who only have their own interests in mind.’”
Now, it turns out that Wood said most of these things because he had just seen the film “An Open Secret,” a documentary about the abuse of young males in Hollywood.
“Mr. Wood is not the only actor to suggest that abuse of child actors is underreported: Corey Feldman, who worked in children’s films in the 1980s, said in 2011 that pedophilia was ‘the No. 1 problem in Hollywood,’ calling it ‘the big secret,’” The New York Times adds.
So, although Wood doesn’t have personal experience with abusers in Hollywood and doesn’t necessarily know anyone who has been abused, I think it’s safe to say that his thoughts are still valid.
Woody Allen
By now everyone has heard that Woody Allen may have sexually assaulted his daughter, Dylan Farrow. It’s hard to ignore the piece that Ronan Farrow, Dylan’s brother, recently penned for The Hollywood Reporter, which discusses why Hollywood is filled with people who can ignore terrible things stars do.
And although Ronan states that not all media or people in Hollywood are to blame, there is still a large group who choose to do nothing about the claims brought against stars.
“…the old-school media’s slow evolution has helped to create a culture of impunity and silence,” Ronan writes.
“Amazon paid millions to work with Woody Allen, bankrolling a new series and film. Actors, including some I admire greatly, continue to line up to star in his movies. ‘It’s not personal,’ one once told me. But it hurts my sister every time one of her heroes like Louis C.K., or a star her age, like Miley Cyrus, works with Woody Allen. Personal is exactly what it is—for my sister, and for women everywhere with allegations of sexual assault that have never been vindicated by a conviction.”
Now, all of the above stories are incredibly disturbing and discouraging, but as Ronan points out at the end of his piece, people are starting to speak out about assaults and Hollywood doesn’t look so golden anymore. It’s a small change, but it’s still change.
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And the Bill Cosby Case Marches On: #NowWhat
Image of gloomy Hollywood via Shutterstock, logoboom