2018: The year where Hollywood struggles with social media
As we all remember, 2017 was a bad year for Hollywood. Not just a bad year even, or a very bad year, but an absolutely horrible year. The sexual allegations that came forward after Harvey Weinstein got exposed sent the world down a rabbit hole, with big nations’ sexual deviants taking up the headlines of local newspapers. Our own way to deal with these revelations was to first try to make a list of sexual offenders in Hollywood, then a follow-up, and lastly a spoof post about the Xenomorph feeling harrassed by Ridley Scott, after which we gave up on reporting.
However, as a result of celebrities constantly taking their dicks out in front of women, we are now living in a very sensitive society. And guess what? That sensitive society has multiple social platforms it can use to speak out on, which can snowball into media picking up on this. That matters, since some people in Hollywood don’t seem to understand that.
Take for example the recent statement of HBO Senior Vice President of Drama Francesca Orsi, who discussed renewing Big Little Lies for a second season. As you might remember, the show was initially planned to be a miniseries, which means salaries had to be renegotiated. Discussing this Orsi said:
From a budget standpoint, going into Season 2 of ‘Big Little Lies’ without any options in place, we’ve been … um … short of raped
Bad Orsi! Bad!
Recently several celebrities have distanced themselves from Woody Allen, as the allegations against him heated up again. Yet Alec Baldwin dared to defy the storm, by offering up support for Woody Allen. This backfired, as several publications ran pieces on Alec Baldwin’s statements.
It kind of seems like Hollywood is going crazy right now, with celebrities offering opinions defending or attacking those accused, or blatantly ignoring the sensitivity that exists in the current climate. All of this helps to fuel the media, which in an attempt to get more clicks – and ad revenue – picks up all this stuff. Does it matter if Alec Baldwin still likes Woody Allen? Not at all, and Baldwin has had weird opinions on things for a while now.
Luckily this week Cate Blanchett offered her own thoughts on the matter, and smartly choose neither camp when it comes to Woody Allen:
If these allegations need to be re-examined which, in my understanding, they’ve been through court, then I’m a big believer in the justice system and setting legal precedents. If the case needs to be reopened, I am absolutely, wholeheartedly in support of that.
It’s a smart answer to all of this. Celebrities shouldn’t be forced to act as an extension on our own opinions as their job is to act, and since they do have the ability to have their words reach a broad audience they should know to be careful with what they say.
What do you think about this?
