Birds, Tweets & Sexism -- Oh My!

Cannot wait to see "The Girl," HBO's new film about Tippi Hedren, in which she discusses the sexual harassment she was subjected to by Alfred Hitchcock. As interesting as the film sounds, however, it's the side drama that's getting all the press now. Andrew Goldman, a regular contributor for The New York Times Magazine’s “Talk” feature, came under Twitter fire from writer Jennifer Weiner ("In Her Shoes") this week for asking Hedren if she had ever considered sleeping with someone to advance her career. (See all of the tweets HERE.) In her complaint, Weiner also accused Goldman of a pattern of sexism. Goldman, as people are wont to do when they are being attacked, snarikily responded that she would have liked to have had the opportunity to sleep her way to the top, which only fueled the sexism charge. (He says he gave a ridiculous answer to match a ridiculous charge, something I can totally relate to!) New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum and author Mary Beth Williams ("Gimme Shelter") then went on the attack. Hugo Lindren, Goldman's editor, defended  (and apparently pre-approved) the question, and had this to say when  New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan asked him about it, pointing out that was a relevant question given the context of the interview about the HBO film.

"Hitchcock sexually harassed [Hedren]," he told Sullivan. "It was an unsavory decision she was actually faced with, so he asked her about it: He made no assertions about what she should or shouldn’t have done. Andrew’s questions acknowledge and refer to sexism in the world, but they are not, in and of themselves, sexist."

Sullivan then took a page out of the Michael playbook, and made the issue more about how Goldman had reacted to the attack rather than what he actually did in the first place. Sullivan then said: "Given his misbehavior on Twitter and his status as a highly replaceable freelancer, I think his editors are extraordinarily generous to give" him another chance. (For his part, Lindren said that Goldman has been "needlessly rude and insulting" to Weiner. He's since apologized and deleted his Twitter account.) Fishbowl New York then questioned whether he would have been given a slide if the charge had been racism rather than sexism ... and that's when my head exploded like in a David Cronenberg movie!

Hat tip to The Hollywood Reporter, which has the full story HERE.