Harvey Weinstein is an American film producer and a former film studio executive from New York City. In early October, reports surfaced that this movie mogul allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted more than 80 women around the world over decades.
Even though Weinstein has denied all allegations that he engaged in non-consensual sex with women, and no criminal charges have been brought against him. “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” Weinstein’s spokeswoman, Sallie Hofmeister, said in a statement to the public.
More high-profile men in the entertainment industry, have been accused of sexual harassment and assault in the wake of the Weinstein scandal. This scandal has sparked a conversation in the United States of America about sexual misconduct, and prompted others to come forward with accusations ranging from groping to rape against prominent men, including former Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick, House of Cards star Kevin Spacey, actor Ben Affleck, and former President George H. W. Bush.
Ed Westwick is an English actor and musician, best known for his role as Chuck Bass on The CW’s teen television drama series Gossip Girl. Two accuser came forward of accusing him of rape. One of them Actress Kristina Cohen as she wrote a Facebook post saying that she and a boyfriend had gone to Ed Westwick’s home three years ago.
Cohen said she took a nap in one of the rooms, and that when she woke up, the “Gossip Girl” actor was sexually assaulting her. She said she tried to fight him off, but he was too strong.
Following Cohen’s post, former actress Aurélie Wynn shared on Facebook a claim that she was raped by Westwick while taking a nap in July 2014.
Kevin Spacey is an American actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and singer, who is also known as Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards. Spacey is accused by eight people who currently or previously worked on the “House of Cards” set. Among those eight unnamed accusers, some also claimed the actor sexually harassed or assaulted them.
Ben Affleck is also an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer and most obviously he is known for his famous roles in some of the hit blockbuster films over the past years. Two accusers have come out, one of them Hilarie Burton, an actress and former host of MTV’s “Total Request Live,”, accused Affleck of groping her. Makeup artist Annamarie Tendler also accused Affleck of inappropriately grabbing her during a 2014 party.
All these allegations came hours after actor Ben Affleck released a statement condemning Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct.
Four women from separate incidents came forward to accuse former President George H.W. Bush of touching them from behind while he told a dirty joke as they posed beside him for photos. Television actress Heather Lind was first to accuse the former president, and said in a deleted Instagram post that Bush inappropriately touched her during a 2014 screening of her AMC series.
While the list of high-profile men in the entertainment industry accused of sexual misconduct keeps on growing. The local community here had a bit to much to say, as they were in a shock hearing these names.
PR student Rohan Mehta, who is in his third year at SFU was asked for his opinion on this,
“From a PR perspective this is really bad for the men, because right now their careers are on the line and most projects that they are working on right now could be affected really badly.”
“Also many production companies are going to start dropping them and not continue to work with them because this could make their brand look really negative.”
Mehta is advising the audience that this is a big issue, and we all need to get this straight in our heads that some of these names will be out of the limelight for a significant amount of time because they don’t want their name to get destroyed anymore.
This whole Weinstein controversy has took a major turn and it seems as if more is still to come as more big names will be accused of sexual misconduct.
