Mug Shot Monday

Apparently this guy misunderstood the meaning of #MeToo. Read HERE.

Which Famous Actress Did Les Moonves Slip the Tongue in the CBS Dining Room?

The million-dollar question from Linda Bloodworth Thomason's scathing piece yesterday on disgraced CBS president Les Moonves:

"Soon, I would hear how he had invited a famous actress to lunch in the CBS dining room. Coming off the cancellation of her iconic detective show, the star began pitching a new one. He informed her that she was too old to be on his network. She began to cry and stood up to go. He stood up too, taking her by the shoulders and telling her, “I can’t let you leave like this.” She reacted, suddenly touched. Then he shoved his tongue down her throat. I know this happened because the star is the person who told me." 

Who was the female star?

My friend's first guess was Angela Lansbury -- which the internet seems to agree with -- but it seemed off to me given Moonves's penchant for young flesh. My first guess was Cybill Shepherd, whose "Moonlighting" had been off the air for a few years and she would have been about 45 when Moonves took over in 1995. But her show "Cybill" did end up on CBS, although it's possible the story is somewhat intentionally disguised ("Cybill" did get abruptly canceled during his tenure). Also, I can only seeing her punching rather than crying -- if someone said that to her!

UPDATE: Your guesses are very much appreciated. A friend has pointed me to what appears to be the correct "answer" HERE.

Remains of the Day (07/20)

The New York Times: Man says Cardinal McCarrick, his "Uncle Ted," sexually abused him for years

ABC News: Cohen secretly taped Trump discussing making hush payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal

Towleroad: Jason Mraz talks about his sexual experiences with men (still waiting for him to have some experiences making decent music)

Boy Culture: Crazy Roseanne is at it again

Billboard: Cher recalls her first interaction with gay people (at age 12)

OMG Blog: Insta-stud and former Saturday 'Stache model Alec Nysten bares all (and then some!)

The Hill: CVS pharmacist fired after refusing to fill transgender woman's hormone prescription in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

USA Today: More than 100 ex-Ohio State students report misconduct by doctor, university says

The Root: NYC releases thousands of documents on the Central Park Five case, prosecutor says the men weren't "deserving" of settlement

Greg in Hollywood: Bette Davis tells why she really did not like working with Faye Dunaway

EW: Adrian Cronauer, the inspiration for Robin Williams's role in "Good Morning, Vietnam," dies at 79

Hunk du Jour: Behold Mitchell Tovee's perfect muscular physique

CBS News: The Go-Go's to discuss their new Broadway musical this weekend on CBS' "This Morning"

BosGuy: Thank God it's Furry Friday

Baseline: Wheelchair champ Dylan Alcott met a naked Roger Federer

The Gay Almanac: Born today in 356 B.C., Macedon King Alexander the Great

NBC: Father of Parkland school shooting survivors killed in convenience store armed robbery

Variety: Kathy Griffin says Joan Rivers is the reason she no longer speaks to Ellen DeGeneres

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Hot Cat of the Day: This one's half raccoon! 

'Three Stooges' Descendant Sues Ex-MTV Exec Brian Graden for Alleged Sexual Abuse; Accuses Viacom of Covering Up Brad Grey Rape

I don't want to get in trouble with the #MeToo crowd that doesn't believe each accusation needs to be evaluated on its own merits. So I'll just let you take in Variety's story about Rovier Carrington's lawsuit against former MTV honcho Brian Graden, which reads like it's making fun of the whole thing just by reporting the facts. 

Brian Graden is a 1985 graduate of Oral Roberts University -- huh-huh

Ho/Moe: Rovier Carrington and great-grandfather Moe Howard, one of the Three Stooges

Variety reports:

A self-described Hollywood “It boy” has sued producer Brian Graden, alleging that the former MTV executive used the lure of a potential reality TV series to extort sex.

Rovier Carrington filed the suit in New York Supreme Court. It accuses Graden, a former head of programming at MTV, of destroying his career and stealing his idea for a gay reality dating show. The suit states that Carrington and Graden had a two-year sexual relationship, during which time Graden promised to help produce various reality shows that Carrington was working on.

Carrington also alleges that he was sexually assaulted by Brad Grey, the late CEO and chairman of Paramount Pictures. He contends that Grey blacklisted him from working at Viacom after Carrington refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Carrington said he initially agreed to have sex with Graden because Graden agreed to help him work at Viacom again.

“Graden indicated to Carrington that if he wished to move forward with his reality show, and come off Viacom’s banned list, that he would be required to have sex with Graden, Carrington agreed, as having sex with Graden was now his only option if he wanted to work in the entertainment industry,” the lawsuit states.

A representative for Graden did not yet respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

In the suit, Carrington describes himself as “Hollywood royalty” because he is a great-grandson of Moe Howard, one of the Three Stooges. He says that in 2010, he began pitching various reality shows drawn from his life, including one called “The Life of a Trendsetter.” The show would feature “good looking kids from wealthy families, living together in a home, spending their parents’ money.” He also pitched a “dark comedy” called “Inheritance,” and a gay dating show.

Carrington accuses Graden of stealing his idea for the dating show and turning it into “Finding Prince Charming,” which ran on Logo and featured Lance Bass. Graden left MTV in 2009, five years before the alleged sexual misconduct took place. He has since been an independent producer.

Carrington is seeking $100 million in damages from Viacom. The suit also names Grey’s estate as a defendant.

Viacom issued this response: “We take allegations of this sort seriously, and are reviewing the complaint.”

!

Anonymous Photographer, Katie Way of Babe.net Accused of #RevengePorn Against Aziz Ansari

Nothing more depressing for a writer than to find that someone else shared your thoughts about something but was so much better at putting them into words.

While my response to a tweet from Cher about the Aziz Ansari allegation -- which to me is the more interesting (but with far higher stakes since it affects real lives) version of The New Yorker's Cat Person (fiction) story everyone was debating last month -- got some play, Caitlin Flanagan really nailed it in her piece for The Atlantic.

Was Grace frozen, terrified, stuck? No. She tells us that she wanted something from Ansari and she was trying to figure out how to get it. She wanted affection, kindness, attention. Perhaps she hoped to maybe even become the famous man’s girlfriend. He wasn’t interested. What she felt afterward—rejected yet another time, by yet another man—was regret. And what she and the writer who told her story created was 3,000 words of revenge porn. The clinical detail in which the story is told is intended not to validate her account as much as it is to hurt and humiliate Ansari. Together, the two women may have destroyed Ansari’s career, which is now the punishment for every kind of male sexual misconduct, from the grotesque to the disappointing. 

The "revenge porn" phrasing is what was so brilliant, because that's exactly what this (and others I've called out) are: smear pieces chock full of deeply personal and embarrassing details -- that you know are wrong to look at yet you can't turn away -- revealed only to get back at someone the alleged victim perceives as having done him/her wrong, dressed up as #MeToo sagas. (I'm going back and relabeling pieces by David Ng of the Los Angeles Times, Mary Ann Georgantopoulos of BuzzFeed, Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times, and Dawn C. Chmielewski / Dominic Patten of Deadline as the #RevengePorn that they are, (Click on news organization names for offending works.)

As awed as I was, I suppose it was foolish to think even Caitlin Flanagan had gotten the final word on the subject. Indeed, I woke up to reactions from friends I greatly respect that still saw nothing wrong with the #RevengePorn piece on Babe.net. It was only in the shower while getting ready for work that I realized that a far greater percentage of the world is OK with (what I call) the Yelpification of everyday life, meaning anyone (and everyone but especially celebrities, obviously) should be on notice that anything (and everything) you do -- even in the privacy of your own home where there is just that, the expectation of privacy ("the claw"???) -- is fair game to scrutiny by the world, by way of an artfully worded tweet directed at the lowest-hanging "journalist." I guess just because she had his phone number and he was completely receptive to her concerns that was no reason not to run to the "media" and share what happened six months ago with the world, instead. Not a fan of Ansari's -- and no one is saying his behavior was commendable -- but it will be interesting to see if Katie Way and Ansari's still-anonymous date's effort will be able to exact the maximum revenge they seemed to be aiming for. 

Aziz Ansari responds:

In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual. The next day, I got a text from her saying that although "it may have seemed okay," upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said. I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue.

Note the reference to responding to her concerns ... PRIVATELY. (Just because there's social media doesn't mean we can't speak directly to one another, people.)

The Aziz Ansari Case Isn't About Assault, It's About Sexual Politics (or, Why Heterosexual Relationships Are Unnatural)

I am only vaguely aware of Aziz Ansari because I think he was on "The Daily Show" back in the day. I have never seen "Parks and Recreation" or "Master of None" and what little I recall of him on Jon Stewart I found annoying. (That weaselly voice.) But I strongly believe the #MeToo movement just took a huge hit with yet another non-story about a celebrity interaction that didn’t go how someone hoped(?) it would. As far as I can tell the smoking gun is he served white but she prefers red. “Media” outlets need to STOP TAKING THE BAIT of starfuckers who don’t want to fuck — this is not assault, this is an invasion of (his) privacy. The public has no right and no need to know the intimate details of Ansari's sex life. He was aggressive and gross. But he's not her boss or in a position of power over her. It's very possible he thought she was saying no to intercourse -- the condom conversation -- but not to fooling around. Leave. No biggie. Something that was BADLY NEEDED is being destroyed by people using this movement to air their grievances about bad boyfriends (Bret Tyler Skopek/Bryan Singer), bad coworkers (Daniel Franzese/Bijou Phillips) and now bad dates. Soon all accusations are going to be met with a collective eye roll if this continues. I can't understand why other so-called journalists don't see this.

UPDATE:

THIS would be a newsworthy story -- but enough with the online accusations and anonymous sourcing. If this really happened, let it go through the standard reporting/fact-checking process.

I am thrilled that society is FINALLY realizing we should err on the side of believing people who say they were abused. But each allegation needs to be weighed on its own merits -- due diligence still applies and media outlets shouldn't just regurgitate everything an accuser says. How are my fellow journalists dealing with this increasingly relevant issue, and how do non-media types think the issue is being handled thus far?

UPDATE 2: Aziz Ansari and more thoughts HERE.

UPDATE 3: Samantha Bee makes some valid points (in favor of the accuser), yet somehow what she says makes me even sadder for the person who thinks a connection is to be made with a total stranger.

Mary Ann Georgantopoulos of BuzzFeed Conspires With Jonathan Well to Produce #RevengePorn Against Jann Wenner

Hmm, has anyone else checked out this BuzzFeed piece? (Best to read before hearing me out.) This isn't anything like what BuzzFeed reported another man says happened to him with Jann Wenner. (An alleged quid pro quo.) This is a grievous invasion of Wenner's privacy poorly dressed up as a #MeToo story. Just as this accuser (Jonathan Wells) had a hard time labeling "what happened" to him, so would any reasonable person. It's very possible both men could be telling their version of the "truth." But if Wenner wasn't aware of Wells's take then I don't see how it's at all fair to Wenner to fill him in for the world to hear. (Has everyone forgotten what a phone is?) Someone drunk and on coke putting the moves on someone -- and the object of their desire not saying no or protesting in any way -- and then this person coming back on two separate occasions to have “consensual sex” afterward could very reasonably have allowed Wenner to think it was consensual. (Wouldn't anyone?) And if Wells felt like he couldn’t say no to Wenner — who was NOT HIS BOSS at the time of the alleged assault— simply because he was rich and famous, that says more about Wells and our obsession with celebrity culture than it does about Wenner. (And let’s not even get into Wells’s “daddy issues.”) Wenner eventually realized the guy wasn't into him and dropped it. 

Jonathan Wells's story is suited for a therapist, not a reporter 

The other part isn't as easy to gauge — but that certainly didn’t stop BuzzFeed from using a watonly misleading headline. People who like each other often do nice things for one another. (Every kind act isn't secretly motivated by something nefarious.) And book publishing is an extremely precarious business. But to the more specific charge, I'm not sure threatening "gay" blackmail is any better than threatening legal action to try to stop a book you wish you'd jumped at from getting published by a rival. Bottom line: Shame on Mary Ann Georgantopoulos and BuzzFeed for this sleazy attempt at publicly shaming an openly gay man for what he does in his personal life. Wells has every right to feel any way he wants and to tell whomever he wants. But that doesn't mean media outlets have to breathlessly regurgitate every word every accuser says. Yes we should lean toward believing victims. But each accusation needs to be evaluated on its own merits, and not every incident is worthy of a news story. This article has no business in a supermarket tabloid much less a Pulitzer-nominated news site. What a giant step back for an organization that has worked so hard to be taken seriously and shed its listicle past.

Page 1 Roundup (12/20)

The Daily News: House approves Republican tax bill that benefits the wealthy, setting up Senate vote

It's official -- I don't want to be part of this society anymore 

#madforrightreasonatwrongperson

The New York Times: Bernard Law, vile cardinal disgraced by priest abuse scandal, is dead at 86

Ta-Nehisi Coates deletes Twitter account amid feud with Cornel West 

#socialmediaruinseverything

The New York Post: The Mooch rips ‘loser’ Steve Bannon at Hanukkah party

Page Six: It seems greed runs in the Koch family

The Washington Post: This is why I've never quite understood the fascination with dogs

Los Angeles Times: Who/what killed this beautiful mountain lion?

The Wall Street Journal: Distraught investors go to extreme lengths to recover their lost cryptocurrency, including hypnosis and ‘brute force’ attacks with a supercomputer

Meryl Streep Responds to Rose McGowan's Criticism: 'I Wasn't Deliberately Silent'

As I wrote over the weekend, I think Rose McGowan is barking up the wrong tree lashing out at other women in Hollywood for their "part" in Harvey Weinstein's crimes. (Apparently she's since deleted her vicious tweet calling out Meryl Streep by name.)

Streep didn't appreciate the attack either, reiterating today that she wasn't deliberately silent -- "I didn't know. I don't tacitly approve of rape. I didn't know."

The statement, first reported by HuffPost, reads:

It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others. 

I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening. I don’t know where Harvey lives, nor has he ever been to my home.

I have never in my life been invited to his hotel room.

I have been to his office once, for a meeting with Wes Craven for “Music of the Heart” in 1998.

HW distributed movies I made with other people.

HW was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of films made by other people- some of them great, some not great. But not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us. We did not know that women’s silence was purchased by him and his enablers.

HW needed us not to know this, because our association with him bought him credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt.

He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know. Apparently he hired ex Mossad operators to protect this information from becoming public. Rose and the scores of other victims of these powerful, moneyed, ruthless men face an adversary for whom Winning, at any and all costs, is the only acceptable outcome. That’s why a legal defense fund for victims is currently being assembled to which hundreds of good hearted people in our business will contribute, to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within.

Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth. Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she suffers. No one can bring back what entitled bosses like Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, and HW took from the women who endured attacks on their bodies and their ability to make a living.. And I hoped that she would give me a hearing. She did not, but I hope she reads this.

I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.

Some of my Facebook (and real) friends called Meryl a liar (about not knowing) over the weekend. Curious if they're still prepared to do so now.

Page 1 Roundup 12/15)

The Daily News: The FCC's net neutrality reversal will harm innovation and hurt consumers

Charlottesville suspect who plowed car into woman and killed her charged with first-degree murder

This Mortal Coil: Since you brought it up again, Dylan Farrow, I must say the evidence that your mother is actually your abuser is starting to feel overwhelming (and I take no pleasure is saying this)

New book about Woody Allen alleges abusive parenting by Mia Farrow

The New York Post: Man charged with raping stepdaughter, keeping her captive for 19 years

Page Six: HGTV host Carter Oosterhouse accused of coercing makeup artist to perform oral sex

The New York Times: After purging their own, Democrats take aim at Trump

The Washington Post: How Trump’s skepticism of U.S. intelligence on Russia left an election threat unchecked

The Wall Street Journal: Your passion for fancy vanilla ice cream is creating worldwide havoc

Page 1 Roundup (12/10)

The Daily News: Five years after Newtown and gun laws have only become more lax

Armie Hammer should obviously never open his mouth -- you had it right in the first place, honey

The New York Post: Anna Wintour may hijack the Vanity Fair Oscar party

The New York Times: Don't really buy this story -- Trump has always been thin-skinned and paranoid

David Ng of the Los Angeles Times conspired with actor Sean Rose to produce #RevengePorn against CAA agent Cade Hudson

The Los Angeles Times: More unnecessary conflation. The guy WAS NOT an agent at the time so this isn't newsworthy in any way. Shame on the L.A. Times for this gratuitous attempt to embarrass a gay man about his PRIVATE life. Note to media: Everyone who's ever exercised poor judgment is NOT worthy of a news story

From HERE.

I've complained to editor in chief Lewis D'Vorkin and to GLAAD about this article that I believe at its root is homophobic 

Dawn C. Chmielewski and Dominic Patten of Deadline conspired with Bret Tyler Skopek to produce #RevengePorn against Bryan Singer

Deadline: And again -- now we’re conflating sexual assault and harassment with having a shitty (rich) boyfriend? What that tech guy and agent allegedly did is criminal. But nothing this guy says about Bryan Singer is newsworthy — why was this ever published?

The Washington Post: GOP tax plan diverges wildly from Trump’s promises to the middle class

Democrats Call on Al Franken to Resign

Sixteen Democrats, including senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Claire McCaskill, Patty Murray, Maggie Hassan, Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono, have all called for Al Franken to resign following a new allegation of sexual misconduct, this time by a congressional aide in 2006. Putting aside the fact that this signals that Gillibrand and Harris have their eyes on the White House in 2020, this may indeed be the "right" thing to do. Still, it feels a lot like the same trap that got Sam Seder fired by the left-leaning cable network MSNBC. Trump remains in office. Clarence Thomas remains on the Supreme Court. Rep. Blake Farenthold remains in office. The already disgraced from the judiciary Roy Moore will be seated in the Senate. Democrats will lose Franken's and John Conyers's seniority and the just-won swing seat of Rep. Ruben Kihuen in Nevada. And they can run on the fact that they "cleaned house," only it won't have ANY EFFECT on the Mollys of the world -- i.e., older white women who put Trump in office -- who will just remember that "both sides" had skeevy politicians and have already excused this type behavior as "men being men." So where is this really getting us -- do we want to be "100% right" or do we want to win?

A seat is a seat!

When are we going to learn?