Hollywood is looking to make amends in the aftermath surrounding allegations that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein routinely sexually harassed and raped women over several decades. So far, they’ve expelled him from the Academy and called for a change in culture but comedian John Oliver is having none of it, and blasted the entertainment industry for enabling Weinstein for all those years.
With the words “Monsterum Maximum” looming over an image of the disgraced producer, John Oliver declared that Hollywood has some serious ‘splaining to do for allowing this man to keep harming people for so long.
“It’s not just his behavior that was troubling. It was the way people around him excused that,” he said.
Oliver noted that one of Weinstein’s accusers, Angie Everhart, woke up one morning to see Harvey masturbating over her while on a boat at the Cannes Film Festival. After he finished, Everhart told several people of the incident, and their response was “Oh, that’s just Harvey.”
“What the f**k?!” Oliver responded. “So everyone knew, and they just went with it: ‘Oh yeah, Harvey’s going to burst into your room and masturbate. That’s just Harvey. He’s like sex-criminal version of the Kool-Aid Man’.”
Though most people have condemned Weinstein, Oliver took on his few defenders, like fashion designer Donna Karen who said women were “asking for it.”
“One: That is absolutely appalling. And, 2: How would Donna Karan know how women are dressing right now? It’s not 1993,” Oliver pointed out before noting that Karan apologized.
When it came to the Academy expelling Weinstein, he hit them for hypocrisy.
“Yes, finally the group that counts among its current members, Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby, and Mel Gibson had found the one guy who treated women badly and kicked him out,” he said. “So, congratulations, Hollywood. See you at the next Oscars where — and this is true — Casey Affleck will be presenting Best Actress.”