Watching Hollywood react to the still-unfolding sex abuse allegations surrounding mogul Harvey Weinstein, I can’t help but feel we’re witnessing an epic production. It’s a movie currently shooting called Oh, This is Horrible!  The plot: Hollywood’s elite pretend to be shocked, horrified and indignant over the revelations that one of their own is a sadistic sexual predator. With furrowed brow they call for massive, industry-wide changes and salute the bravery of the woman who’ve come forward.

Oh, This is Horrible! stars the greatest collection of A-List talent since It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and it is twice as frantic. They’ve even scored a spectacular cameo from Hillary Clinton.

The Sad Part

The sad part?  In a couple weeks, someone will shout “That’s a wrap!” The cast and crew will move onto their next projects. And business will be back to normal. Oh, This is Horrible! will get locked in the vaults, with, at best, random clips showing up years down the line in a Show Biz Scandals of the 2010s special on E!.

One scene was shot Saturday. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks behind the Oscars, tossed Harvey Weinstein out of the organization. The Academy said, “We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.” A lot of words for “We dislike you! We really, really dislike you!”

The Academy has only made this move once before. No, not for rapist Roman Polanski. Not for accused serial rapist Bill Cosby. They booted an actor named Carmine Caridi in 2004. His crime? Loaning out his DVD screeners of films in Oscar contention. When those films showed up online, it was “See ya, Cardini!”

Another scene was shot at Saturday night’s AmfAR Gala in L.A. MC James Cordon tried out a few Harvey Weinstein jokes. They bombed.

Saturday Night Live, after being ripped for ignoring the scandal last week, took several shots at Weinstein. Of course, only after getting their latest rip on Trump out of the way. I mean, a show has to have its priorities.

Hillary Clinton

In an interview with the BBC, Hillary Clinton kept to the Hollywood script. (Blast the behavior, pivot to Trump.) “This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it’s in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.”

When BBC’s Andrew Marr countered by pointing out Hillary’s sustain attacks on those who accuse her husband of rape and sexual harassment, she not only went off script, she went off her rocker.

“That has all been litigated. That was subject of a huge investigation in the late ’90s and there were conclusions drawn. That was clearly in the past.” The conclusion was your husband was a sexual predator. That you raised enabling a sexual predator to an art form. That you went after Juanita Brodderick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, et. al, harder than you did the Benghazi terrorists.

Face it, Hillary. You were the Honey Pot-in-Chief.

But let’s put all that aside. By your argument, we should let your pal and benefactor Harvey Weinstein slide because every single one of his rape and groping and harassment incidents happened in the past. Heck, if he jumped a worker at this posh “rehab” facility this very hour, that too is in the past. Your argument is a familiar one: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Tell it to Scotland Yard. The British are investigating three more alleged assault allegations against Weinstein. This is in addition to actress Lysette Anthony who told police Weinstein had raped her in the late 1980s. Across the Channel, French President Emmanuel Macron is looking to strip Weinstein of his Legion of Honor award. How disgusting are your sexual proclivities when even the French are through with you? 

“I Did Not Know”

“I didn’t know” is quickly catching up to “It’s an honor just being nominated” for Top Hollywood Cliche Nobody Believes. Seemingly every day, a new clip emerges offering video proof of the widespread awareness within the entertainment community.

Check out David Letterman’s awkward exchange with Gwyneth Paltrow, who came forward last week to say she was sexually harassed by Weinstein. Clearly Letterman knew Weinstein was a pig and he was hitting a hot button. This is from 1998.  (Crucial part starts at :49)

 

A full 15 years — and countless victims later — Letterman again seemed to reference Weinstein’s boorish behavior in an interview with Jennifer Lawrence. He asked the star of the Weinstein-produced Silver Lining Playbook, “You don’t mind when a guy like Harvey Weinstein hugs you?” Lawrence turned the question into a gag.

It was no gag when Courtney Love was asked on a red carpet in 2005 what advice she’d give a young actress starting out. “If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party in the Four Seasons, don’t go.”

 

After the clip surfaced, Love tweeted:

Although I wasn't one of his victims, I was eternally banned by CAA for speaking out against #HarveyWeinstein #rape https://t.co/8giwNkrC5t

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) October 14, 2017

CAA is Creative Artists Agency, one of the most powerful talent agencies on the planet. It is not a Weinstein company. Meaning, if Love’s assertion is true, you’re getting a quick glimpse at how Hollywood’s powerful protected their own.

Woody Allen

Which gets us to Woody Allen. The fabled director is “sad for Harvey,” along with his victims. ‘The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” Allen told BBC Arabic, “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that is life is so messed up. There’s no winners in that, it’s just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.”

He should have cut there. Instead Allen went on: “You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That’s not right either.” Allen, in particular, has reason to worry that the hunt is just beginning.

In 1993, Allen was accused of molesting his daughter Dylan, then age 7. This after had been forced into counseling for “inappropriate” behavior towards the girl when she was even younger. Allen denied the allegation. The prosecutor found “probable cause,” but did not pursue charges because of the “fragility of the child victim.” Harvey Weinstein was but one of the Hollywood elite who went to bat for Allen. In fact, Weinstein was instrumental in getting Allen’s career back in motion.

In 2014, Dylan Farrow posted a personal account of her alleged molestation. Two years later, brother Ronan Farrow took Hollywood to task for it’s continued embrace and protection of his father. In a lengthy piece for The Hollywood Reporter, the lawyer-turned-journalist laid out why he believed his sister.

Allen the Victim

He also detailed the massive P.R. effort make Allen out to be the victim of Ronan’s jealous, vindictive mother Mia Farrow and how media outlets went along because “there were too many relationships at stake.” Farrow was critical of the stars who continue to work with Allen, reporting that one told him, “it’s not personal.”

When you believe your father molested your sister — and trashed your mother — and ran off with your teenage sister — only to continue being embraced by Hollywood, it is personal. Last week, Farrow helped take down Weinstein with his devastating article in The New Yorker.

Reading his Hollywood Reporter piece and his sister’s account something tells me Farrow is just getting started. And we can look forward to another Hollywood production, Oh, It’s REALLY Horrible!