Hollywood hypocrisy is a classic “dog bites man” story.
Think gas-guzzling elites pimping Climate Change alarmism from an Oscar stage. Or, consider stars glorifying gun violence on screens large and small while demanding gun control legislation.
The latest examples are even worse, tying directly into Hollywood messaging on the MeToo movement, immigration and female empowerment.
The mainstream media won’t expose these egregious examples. Nor will entertainment sites like Variety, Deadline or The Hollywood Reporter.
Why?
They cast a withering light on Hollywood activism, and that hurts the Democratic cause.
Here are three cases where celebrities abandoned their principles when it became inconvenient to do otherwise.
MeToo: The movement began, in large part, when reporters finally exposed producer Harvey Weinstein as a serial sexual predator. The Democratic donor, along with Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and director Brett Ratner, found their careers canceled as the MeToo revolution erupted.
Sexual assault isn’t confined to Hollywood, but a movement dedicated to outing these villains had undeniable roots in La La Land.
Hooray for Hollywood … right? Not so fast.
Celebrities carried the new movement on its collective shoulders. They demanded others accused of sexual misconduct like, President Donald Trump and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, go the way of Weinstein and co. They even marched once a year to ensure we finally “Believe All Women.”
Except those voices fell silent after two women accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax in 2019 of sexually assaulting them. The would-be governor, a Democrat, insists he’s innocent, then and now. CBS aired emotional interviews with his accusers, but the Hollywood community couldn’t spare a syllable on their behalf.
No marching. No speeches. No fiery Tweets demanding justice. The accusers, both black, were on their own.
That was a bellwether for what we’d see on a national scale. Multiple women have accused then-Vice President Joe Biden over the years of inappropriate behavior. Sniffing. Kissing. Close contact. Late night comedians often yukked about it, long before Biden’s latest run for the White House.
Yet when a former Biden staffer, Tara Reade, credibly accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, the same Hollywood community that railed against both President Trump and future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh fell quiet.
The kind of quiet you demand at the start of a big screen movie, not when a victim needs your help.
These Hollywood hypocrites weren’t done yet.
Stars like Ben Stiller, Cher, Sarah Silverman and Jada Pinkett Smith threw their support behind New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the pandemic months. He was their anti-Trump, and a possible presidential contender if Biden’s health collapsed.
They latched onto terms like “Cuomosexual” to capture their passion for the tough-talking politician.
Then, woman after woman accused Cuomo of sexually inappropriate behavior during his time in office.
Ten women in all went public with their accusations. That was on top of a scandal-lanche in which the governor allegedly hid damning COVID-19 data, forced elderly New Yorkers to be exposed to the virus and other bullying tactics.
Gov. Cuomo remains in power, and the vast majority of Hollywood feminists refuse to speak out on the women’s behalf.
Chelsea Handler, the far-left comedian who once said she had a “crush” on Cuomo, later announced said crush was over. That’s it.
To be fair, one liberal celebrity has stood tall on the MeToo front. Rose McGowan, the “Charmed” alum who says Weinstein raped her early in her career, has blasted Biden and Cuomo for their alleged behaviors. She similarly slammed Hollywood’s hypocrisy on the matter.
Kids in Cages: Hollywood aligned with the press and Democratic activists in trashing President Trump’s border policies for four long years. Their ire peaked with the “kids in cages” battle cry. Immigrant children brought across the border by parents, strangers and mules alike stayed in temporary facilities while the arduous legal procedures played out on their behalf.
No one liked the situation, a by-product of unenforced immigration policies and mixed political messaging. (Let’s not forget the cages in question were built, and used, during the Obama administration sans outrage).
Hollywood boiled over with fury all the same.
On Instagram, singer Nicki Minaj opened up about coming to this country as an illegal immigrant when she was a child: “I came to this country as an illegal immigrant @ 5 years old. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place & having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5. This is so scary to me. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now?”
Others, of course, played the Nazi card.
In a series of tweets, actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani compared the policy to the Nazi regime. “There are going to be people, many people, who will be able to justify separating children from their families. They’ll say the words they need to say to justify it. Forget those people. Those people are hopeless. We have to rally and motivate everyone else. Appeal to humanity.”
On and on it went for several years.
Flash forward to President Biden’s first months in office. The same kids are in the same cages, except the numbers are worse. So, too, are the threat of COVID-19 and the living conditions these children are enduring.
So celebrities regrouped and demanded the Biden administration take action, and fast.
That’s adorable.
They haven’t said a word about the issue since Biden moved to the White House.
Female Empowerment: Hollywood has treated women badly over the years.
Very badly.
The Casting Couch. Harvey Weinstein and his doppelgangers. Disappearing women as they hit their dreaded “40th” birthday. A dearth of female directors, studio executives … etc. etc.
Today, celebrities are trying to make up for all of that. Much of that emphasis is noble, even necessary. And yet, for all the “grrrl power” antics, the industry turned its collective backs on two women when they needed help the most.
Actress Gina Carano of “The Mandalorian” fame got dumped by Disney for social media messages that ranged from pugnacious to provocative. Your average Trump deranged star says far, far worse on any given day – like fellow “Mandalorian” star Pedro Pascal, who compared Trump voters to Nazis. Bette Midler’s vile Tweets alone should get her fired, canceled or both based on current cultural standards.
You’d think Carano’s co-stars, especially actresses like Ming-Na Wen and Katee Sackhoff, might have stood up for their wronged colleague. What about progressive “Star Wars” icons like Mark Hamill?
Nothing of the sort happened. It took a conservative Web site, The Daily Wire, to come to Carano’s side. Ben Shapiro’s platform offered to cast Carano in an action movie all her own.
And then there’s Ellie Kemper. The “Office” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” alum got slammed as a “KKK Princess” for appearing in a pageant in 1999. The hosting organization once embraced bigoted policies for admittance, but they ended those gross practices two decades prior to Kemper’s arrival.
The charges were beyond absurd, a cartoonish version of Cancel Culture that even the liberal new site TheWrap.com said went too far.
Did any celebrity, either someone who worked with Kemper in the past or just felt she had been treated shabbily by the woke police, come to her side?
Not a one.
“Kimmy Schmidt” co-star Tituss Burgess shared a positive message for Kemper, but only after she served up a groveling, hostage-style apology.
Celebrities are scared silly of Cancel Culture, knowing their own pasts could make them vulnerable to the woke mob. So they stood down and watched Kemper make an embarrassing apology for doing nothing wrong.
The industry loves empowering women as much as it does hiding its head in the sand when an actress needs help against a corrupt system.
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