Everyone in Hollywood wants to be a libertine -- like the Marquis de Sade, who also was an
amateur revolutionist -- or perhaps they wish to emulate ex-Presidents John
Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Kennedy was a tolerable Catholic because Catholic
dogma did not live loudly in him, and the husband of Hillary Clinton was
permitted indiscretions with cigars and interns because he was a hale fellow
well met with a photographic memory, whereas ordinary politicians rely on
Google and an expensive staff of brash know-it-alls.
To be an artist, after all, is to be in perpetual revolt
against the usual pieties, conveniently listed in the Decalogue. Marriage among
the Hollywood elite, for instance, is considered but a temporary interruption
of multiple liaisons, and adultery, sex outside the boundaries of marriage -- “You
shall not commit adultery” -- is rampant. Andy Rooney, whom everyone will
admit was a nice guy, had eight wives, the same as Henry VIII, none of them
executed fortunately, twice as many as ex-Connecticut Senator and Governor
Lowell Weicker. The second commandment – “You shall not make yourself an idol” --
is in Hollywood incompatible with Oscar Night. Few are the Hollywood twinkling
stars unwilling to rally round the partial birth abortion flagpole. A
caricaturist neatly summed up the ethos of the Hollywood mega-stardom when he
said about his own profession, “What is the point of having absolute power, if
you are not prepared to abuse it?”
Hollywood is here used as a synecdoche to indicate anyone,
short of convicted felons, who transcends the morality of the lower orders,
plebeian ethics, common sense and, worst of all, bad manners. The trouble with
bad manners, Bill Buckley used to say, is that they sometimes lead to murder –
or reputational suicide, as is the case with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein,
whose fall from the starry heights was only a bit less dramatic than that of
Icarus.
The New York Times is credited with bringing down Weinstein.
On the other hand, former Times reporter Sharon Waxman has said she had the
goods on the serial molester at early as 2004. Her piece, Waxman said, had been
gutted after Weinstein contacted the paper “to make his displeasure known.” The
FBI put a wire on one complainant and caught Weinstein hauling a fly into his
hotel room whom he had admitted molesting on the tape. The prosecution fizzled
out. The grapevine was full of lurid stories concerning Weinstein, but what
happened in Hollywood stayed in Hollywood – until now.
Weinstein was politically connected. He contributed
generously to liberal and progressive Democratic candidates: Hillary Clinton, then Running for President,
white-hatted U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, then and
now running against the NRA, and other prominent Democrats.
During the 2012 election, President Obama attended a
money-making fete at Weinstein’s lavish mansion.
Fifty people attended the event, forking over $35,800 each. Weinstein praised
the President extravagantly – “Leading with your heart is the utmost for this
president. Fighting for Planned Parenthood and protecting women's rights, this
president has fought the good fight. Recently in Aurora, we saw him put his
arms around the people that needed him the most. You can make the case that a
he's the Paul Newman of American presidents" – and the money furnished by
Weinstein, some now suppose, inoculated him against the charges now swirling
above his head.
The House of Weinstein lies in ruins. Blumenthal has now
given to some worthy cause, not Planned Parenthood, the campaign donations
received from Weinstein, as have other politicos, all of them professing shock
and dismay. Weinstein’s Connecticut mansion is up for sale, and his wife has
indicated a divorce may be in his near future. Weinstein will be recovering
from culture shock at some place in Arizona that caters to men suffering from satyriasis, an occupational hazard of
both the Hollywood and Washington DC cults. Even the libertines in Hollywood are
shocked.
Really, who knew?
Lots of people knew, but no one came forward -- because
Weinstein had taken out a social insurance policy that had effectively
protected him from exposure. Why should a starlet speak out when she knows the
groper had brushed cheeks with Obama and other large political constellations and
by doing so she might lose her place in line on the stairway that leads to
stardom and riches?
Poor Harvey, adversity now sits on his throne. It's an old story. Even the
Psalms offer no solace – only wisdom: “The wicked, in the haughtiness of his
countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’ His
ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight. As for
all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, ‘I will not be
moved. Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.’”
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