I bet George Clooney is wishing that he had chosen to release Suburbicon right after the late summer film festival season. It would have been good in early or mid-September. Hindsight is 20-20, I guess, because Clooney could not have chosen a worse time to release a movie starring Harvey Weinstein’s main guy, Matt Damon. The promotional tour has barely gotten off the ground and it’s already such a mess. To be fair, George is doing okay on his side. Matt is not though. Matt and George – and Julianne Moore, being used as a ginger shield to deflect criticism – gave interviews to the Today Show. So messy. Here’s the video:
I do not understand the point Matt Damon is trying to make. Does Matt Damon understand the point he’s trying to make? It started out as “I never knew” and then it became “oh but I knew about Gwyneth” and now it’s “I knew about Gwyneth but I couldn’t do anything because I never saw anything directly, right in front of me.” Is that how low the bar is being set for men? They are only accountable to any degree when a woman is being assaulted right in front of them? Here are some quotes from this interview:
Clooney on Weinstein’s reputation: “I don’t want to say the rumors, because most of the rumors that I knew were from Harvey himself. He would say, you know, ‘I had an affair with this actress or that actress.’ And, you know, I took all that with a grain of salt. I thought he might have been chasing them.”
Clooney wants the colluders: “There were people that brought young actresses to his hotel room. We should have known this. This is violating women. This is assault. This is silencing women… I’m furious… The idea that he’s committed these kinds of atrocities? I want to know who knew…. Whoever had that story and didn’t report it? I want them held responsible. I want to know what kind of ad dollars were spent from the Weinstein Company and from Miramax. We should’ve known this.”
Damon on what he knew: “I think everyone knew he was a womanizer, but in the ‘90s I definitely heard he was… I mean, I knew the Gwyneth story. I worked with her after that on ‘Ripley’ and she and I never talked about that but Ben had told me about it and at that point, Harvey was incredibly respectful of her, always. I don’t know what I could have done… I never saw anything in front of me. Look, he was a bully, he was intimidating, that was part of who he was. I’ve been reading these stories because I am racking my brain. Did I see something? Could I have known something? Is there something I could have done?”
I still do not understand how Matt Damon’s current talking point is that he KNEW about Gwyneth but he didn’t know anything and he never saw anything and never heard anything and he KNEW about Gwyneth. It’s not even the fact that he didn’t know what to do back then, and I tend to believe that circa 1997, there was little he could have done. But for f–k’s sake, figure out a better way to talk about this right now. Figure out what to say that doesn’t make you sound like a complicit a–hole. The basis for “shutting down sexual harassment” shouldn’t be “if I see it happen right in front of me, I’ll maybe say something, or maybe I won’t and I’ll just talk about how I didn’t see it 20 years from now.”
Here’s how badly this promotional tour is going – Matt and George made appearances on Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live and it garnered headlines like “Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Trainwreck Post-Weinstein Apology Tour.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Keep digging that hole Matty.Your career will fit right in.
I said it few days ago. He cannot stop digging that hole. He will end up in China soon. I just wanna hear the dirt on him, clooney and others…
you took the words right out of my mouth…that whole crew..Clooney, The Afflecks etc need to stfu
Really?
can we please all coincide that this Guy isn’t that Bright, and the 5 Min. in Harvard doesn’t count.
This guy never learns, never evolved and he never will, please let him dig some more, hopefully he will end his career soon.
More Place for people with actual talent.
YAAASSSSS
100% correct. He should STFU and go away.
Like I’ve said before, Hollywood is right to be so vocal against Trump the clown, but with this perv, a lot of them are still quiet about it. And they love the other perv Woody. I just don’t get it.
Ugh… Matt Damon is a misogynist. He once told a story about how when he was young he wanted a wife to follow him around and take care of him. He told his mother and she said that was the most selfish sexist thing she had heard.
Matt Damon was raised by a feminist and he seemed to hate it.
Matt Damon keeps talking cuz he believes he is right and if we just listened closer we would understand. But we understand Matt. We understand that you are a selfish misogynist and we want your career to tank so we never have to see you again.
^^^here here!
@denisemich – well said!
I’m with you, well said!
“if we just listened closer we would understand” – yes, yes, yes to this being his thinking.
“We understand that you are a selfish misogynist and we want your career to tank so we never have to see you again.”
THIS x 100.
How is it that PR and damage control wise, Matt’s in a worse place than Affleck. His PR flack must suck.
That said, as I was channel flipping thru latenight, I caught a glimpse of whatever cutesy sketch he and Clooney were trying to do on Kimmel. Where Matt was Clooney’s ‘manny’ pushing a double stroller (for the twins get it? eyeroll)
I couldn’t help but think Clooney was about two decades beyond when this would have been funny or cute. You know what was cute? 10 years ago, that scene in Oceans 13 when he and Brad Pitt break the third veil and Danny (George) tells Rusty (Pitt) to settle down and have some kids (when every movie goer knew Pitt had an army at home).
But seeing 60yo George do cutesy jokes about being Daddy. To me it’s just sad. He looks old, if he’s lucky he’ll see his kids graduate highschool/college, but he might be in a home. Sometimes i don’t think some of these men think this stuff through.
We’ll see how Ben handles questions about all of this when/if he’s asked during the JL promos. My guess is that Warner Bros will do the smart thing and keep him away from live interviews when the questions have not been pre-arranged.
Ben Afleck has always had a problematic image. Has had a taste of negative press. Matt Damon has benefited from the bad press. He always looked like the better, nicer person overall. No scandals per say. Now the the curtain has been pulled back and he cant hide from it all. He has always been this person. Everyone else looked really bad compared to Matt. WE the public, have put him in high regard. His smug is showing now.
I don’t think it was a lack of “thinking it through” – re George and kids. I think he finally found a woman he was totally enamored with and he was willing to have kids for her. He accepted kids to keep her. Nothing more, nothing less.
exactly. when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. he just cant help himself he wants so much be seen as the golden boy. he’s not. so over him. his part in this dialogue is over. he contributes NOTHING. he was lying coward then and he’s a lying coward now. no thanks
He just conflated “the Gwyneth story” with Harvey being a Womanizer. Sexually harassing women and being a womanizer are not the same thing Matt!
Never was a fan & could never understand the appeal. He and Affleck are just a pair of douches
Yea, that pretty much says it all. Frat bro douches.
You know, I can take the openly, unashamedly, misogynist men. At least they’re truthful. It’s the slipperiness of the self-proclaimed liberal, “woke” men that really gets to me.
Look guys: you’re WORSE than those other guys you pretend to be outraged by because you can’t admit your own latent misogyny. You’re WORSE.
Exactly, one if the points of free speech is to have the buggers where you can see them and where they can be challenged, it’s bloody hard work challenging a snake in the grass who is constantly gas lighting you. That’s pretty much what this little shit is doing, gaslighting all of us and trying to deny that what we see is who he is.
Yep. It’s the gaslighting. Drives me up the wall.
Matt’s rightly taking a beat down for his odd tone deaf comments, but I’d like to call bs on George Clooney. IMO the more he talks, the more he puts himself on blast as a complicit hypocrite.
Let’s unpack what George said: “I don’t want to say the rumors, because most of the rumors that I knew were from Harvey himself. He would say, you know, ‘I had an affair with this actress or that actress.’ And you know, I took all that with a grain of salt. I thought he might have been chasing them.’
Look at what he’s doing there, he’s painting the Weinstein HE knew, as a harmless mischievous scamp who he felt probably exaggerated.
That’s such a lie. clip net has been in Hollywood for almost half his life, and before that he knew avout old Hollywood bwcauwe of his Aunt and Uncle. He’s no Pollyanna.
Wouldn’t the average sane person upon hearing a powerful producer say he *F’d* this and that actress (Clooney’s use of the old fashioned word ‘affair’ is just more disingenuous sanitizing of what he claims he thought Weinstein’s actions were) ask him point blank- ‘Was she willing?’ ‘Or, how did you manage that?’ ‘Or, doesn’t she have a boyfriend/husband’ Or, wouldn’t Clooney say the most truthful thing under the sun: ‘Wow, she must have wanted that role bad.’
That’s how you know Clooney’s lying. It’s a trademark bs move to claim you heard someone say something outrageous and suprising, and conveniently forget to tell the rest of the story – namely, WHAT YOU SAID BACK IN RESPONSE!
EVERYONE. Responds. Back.
Imagine if fat grizzled old sloth Harvey tells matinée idol George – ‘Hi, I slept with _______(insert name of current IT girl here).’ Are you telling me George doesn’t say back, ‘Are you effing kidding me?!!’
Then there’s the next very clear reason Harvey is boasting. He’s telling George these young women are wh0rez. He’s demeaning and disrespecting them. George surely doesn’t think Harvey is sharing the beautiful news that he’s fallen in love with a great gal, does he? Of course not. Harvey is telling the matinée idol that he hit that.
So at that point, I ask you- George has to only think one of two things: 1) the women exchanged favor for favor. Or 2) that the women exchanged favor for favor under duress.
I submit men like George and Matt refused to consider it was option 2. They talked themselves into believing the women were all desperate actresses bartering and they stayed out of it.
@ Casey, they are both gaslighting it’s just that Clooney is better at it, he’s likely had more practice over the years, his current ‘outrage’ mode is a prime example of deflecting from his own duplicity and keeping the focus on – well, let’s face it – anybody but him. Matt Damon does keep putting his foot in his mouth (another old British saying). As I said in his post yesterday, he’s digging himself a hole and Sixer reminded me of another Brit expression (courtesy of Sixer Dad) he’s digging all the way to Australia ( opposite to us Brits on the globe), which is why he keeps getting posts and getting duffed up. He just needs to STF up. As other posters have pointed out ( I tend to think it’s good manners to give credit where it’s due) it’s a poor day when Quentin Tarantino is coming out of this better than these two jokers.
Agreed. The wolves in poorly-fitting sheeps clothing are far worse. They usually begin with something like, “I have a wife and a daughter, so I’m not capable of sexual harassment, I understand exactly what “it feels like for a girl.””
At that point, you RUN because that’s always a precursor to a grab-ass situation, or getting passed up for a promotion, or some other BS situation because you have boobies. They are so predictable: if u have to instruct me that I don’t need to worry about your misogyny; that means I need to worry very much about it.
Yep again. When they loftily declare their “feminist” credentials, it’s usually more of a warning than a reassurance. Men who actually live feminist ally lives don’t need to proclaim it from the rooftops then go passive-aggressive on you if you challenge them.
Yep. You can walk away from the douchebags. You sometimes don’t see this sh*t until much later and then the regret of even having associated with them sets in. There are a few things I tend to sprinkle into conversations when I get to know people (men and women) better. My non-negotiables. You f*ck up on more than one, we can’t be friends. I know it’s harsh but my time on this earth is limited and I’m not spending it with people who think “the gays” are icky and that women really NEED to be mothers or they haven’t fulfilled their destiny. Among others.
As for these two, even Clooney isn’t looking great. He doesn’t get it. Punishing all the people involved is barely step 1. YOU are part of the upper echelons of the damn system, therefore you were part of HW’s support system, his shield, so to speak. The entire system is f*cked, it’s not a few people. Accepting child molestors and abusers in your midst for the sake of art or fame is the issue (looking at you, Kate Winslet).
The best test of a man is just to say “no” to him, about anything at all. See how he reacts. Men who just accept a “no” without prevarication are worth knowing. The ones who don’t and try to gaslight you with that A MAN HAS ARRIVED to explain why your “no” is wrong thing are the ones not worth knowing.
(Most of them go with A MAN HAS ARRIVED.)
(Damon with the WOC director was the epitome of A MAN HAS ARRIVED.)
Goddamn it, Sixer. Don’t remind me. I recently took stock of how many of my male friends are truly good guys. For how many would I vouch? Possibly … 2? Maybe only one. The ones I can say no to and still have a respectful discussion? Same. Although I never pushed it. Maybe because I was expecting the “man to arrive” at some point. How sad.
I’m laughing. But in a grim way.
Sixer is spot on. Just yesterday I was reading an article about “red flags” with males capable of rape or sexual assault (it was part of some research in a prevention program), and one point was the male not being able to respect your decision, even if it wasn’t anything sexual.
Littlemiss
I agree with you but it seems everyone else gets to slither back under their rock while Damon twists. He’s too arrogant to just shut up but should we give others a pass because their sense of self-preservation is more keen? Lively is problematic as hell for me, as are Meryl Streep and Georgina Chapman but they’ve become off limits. And it’s not that they’re female, it’s specific reasons vis-vis their dynamics with Weinstein in light of their shaky assertions that they didn’t know. Affleck also lied about knowing and I suspect Clooney. I don’t blame anyone for not coming forward but the lying nothers me the most. Anyway, just my opinion.
Well, you know I think the solutions don’t rely on individuals at all. Individually speaking, I feel they are all irrelevant until they start putting their shoulders behind the wheel of structural change.
But if Damon wants to keep on digging his hole, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be hard-hearted hags who keep pointing out the depth of the hole! 😉
They’re off limits? Is it the “a woman can’t be held responsible for the actions of a/her man” thing? I honestly don’t know what you mean exactly.
I agree that the focusing on one guy is not really getting us anywhere. But I have to say, it’s just bad timing and bad PR on his part that’s keeping the spotlight on him. And his what we call in German “salami tactics”. Only admitting what you cannot deny, slice after slice. I mean, grow a pair. When Quentin Tarantino looks better than Matt Damon, Damon needs to re-examine his strategy.
@ little miss naughty ‘salami tactics’ that made me LOL, I have a picture now of him desperately and sweatily slicing up sausages because it will help obvs ….
Littlemiss
Yes, that has been part of the trend here. Any focus on some of the actions of these women can quickly get you labeled as an internalized, victim blaming misogynist who is trying to pull focus from Weinstein himself as opposed to a thoughtful attempt to look critically at the whole cloth of the debacle. But yeah, as Sixer points out, Damon is hell bent on digging his own grave so, meh. I hope he takes others with him.
@ Enough Already: That’s what I thought but I wasn’t sure. I’m not in that camp and no, nobody is off limits just because they’re female. I find that notion insulting and a bit ridiculous. There’s enough responsibility to go around. But I guess we’ve had that discussion.
There are different kinds of feminist theory EA and I don’t believe anyone has a right to silence anyone else for having an alternate point of view. What I don’t ascribe to is the theory that women are inherent victims or helpless. The very idea of silencing a woman who views feminism differently is in fact not feminism at all. Debating and discussing is healthy but shutting someone down is not. We should always respect and recognize another feminist’s right to believe differently.
My stance about Georgina is the same as it has been years and no one will move me from it, but I don’t need to justify it either. I know why I feel that way and I am 100 percent cool with it. In my career, I have witnessed what women are capable of all by themselves. Some women have been in the trenches and aren’t newborn babies and just DGAF as long as their life isn’t interrupted.
The men around Harvey didn’t want their lives disturbed as long as everyone maintained status quo and they continued to reap a benefit. And some women felt the same way.
Enough Already I believe if someone dislikes you because you have a different view from the same side then that is their problem, not yours.
Littlemiss
Thank you and well said.
Magnoliarose
My sentiments mirror yours precisely. I fully understand the insidious reach and scope of misogyny and patriarchy. I mean, we all know women who misunderstand and bash feminism, acting against their own interests in doing so. However the whole point of demanding equality is to allow us to claim our own agency and that fight is undermined when we give some women a pass for poor choices just because they are women. That is actually the opposite of agency and insinuates that women can only be influenced and not be influencers, that they can only be reactive and not proactive authors of their own narratives, good or bad.
I think the discussion started because with the men accused of various forms of misogyny, assault, and general douchebaggery a lot of us turned around and looked at their wives. That seemed to rub a lot here the wrong way because it came off as immediately blaming the woman for something a man did.
But there’s a difference between blame and responsibility and I can side-eye the wife for making the decision to stay with and support her husband while having options. To me personally, that’s what it comes down to. Does a woman have options, does she have choices, and what does she decide to do with them? You’re successful, wealthy? And you decide to support a terrible man? You’re signing off on his behavior for selfish reasons and I can’t condone that. I can still focus on the man and see who’s to blame. But these men get away with a lot because of a support system and that usually involves women and yes, often as active participants. And I don’t buy for a second that that’s always due to internalized misogyny.
Littlemiss
This is what I’ve stated before nearly word for word! I don’t even blame Hollywood, spouses included, for not speaking out, that’s an unfair burden. But I do blame people for their own actions when it directly lead to the abuse of others. As for Chapman I blame her for staying married to, collaborating and having children with a vile human being and benefiting from the suffering of others. I believe the assertions from sources who say their marriage was contractual and that she knew. By the way, I don’t have a problem with women marrying for access to power and resources. It’s not my scene but I don’t tell the world how to function, but intimidation, psychological abuse, rape and sexual harassment should be a dealbreaker for any spouse with a modicum of integrity.
We have dogs, and we have weasels.
This one is a weasel. Look at him squirm and wiggle around the truth. He won’t hump your leg without asking, but he will look the other way while some dog does. I mean, as long as it isn’t DIRECTLY in front of him. Do it in some back corner, and its cool.
You win everything.
Yes. He looked away because he COULD. He wasn’t at risk of being sexually abused by Harvey, so he looked away and got on with his life.
That is the very definition of privilege, and that is why he is being dragged so hard; he branded himself as a semi-woke guy and he isn’t. (Same with Taylor and her PR feminism).
He is as arrogant as Harvey, just in a different way.
No, they are as bad as each other-because the men who are open about being assholes dont think its bad-otherwise they would’nt be open about it and often use that excuse “well, at least i’m being honest” to excuse their shitty behaviour.
They are as bad as each other.
I wasn’t in New York city during the 9/11 attack so I’d rather move the conversation along please… thanks so much.
Ha. Exactly.
It’s a mess. And I am enjoying every minute of it, keep digging your hole Matt.
All this faux-outrage, excuses… it’s telling.
George is just as bad. He’s just a smooth talker. You KNOW Harvey wasn’t talking about, “all the affairs he had with actresses'”…..he was telling them in the crudest terms who he’d fucked.
George is just smart enough to clean up the language and try to refocus the anger on someone else.
Yeah, this promotional tour is one of the biggest car crashes I’ve seen in long time. It’s a shame Julianne is caught up in it…
And their crappy smug movie will bomb big time and they know it. I almost feel sorry for Clooney & Damon. Almost.
Oh my god, do you have the stupidest publicist EVER or do they just really hate you?
Every time you open your mouth, you make it WORSE. Just stop talking.
We get it, she was still getting good roles and he never harassed her in public, so basically if she stuck around and didn’t say anything that’s really like, her fault right? Totally nothing to do with you.
He’s clearly too arrogant to listen to a publicist. Clooney is getting coached and prepared. Damon thinks he can blow off these questions. Of course the obsequious entertainment reporters aren’t helping.
Publicist fix mistakes, they can redirect a narrative to a certain point. They can’t however perform miracles, they can’t fix deviant personalities.
I’m becomng uncomfortable with this fixation around Damon. Please no lengthy breakdowns of his problematic areas – I’m aware of them and completely agree that he’s a pos and I think he’s the Eddie Haskell of Hollywood. But this is just starting to feel odd.
Ditto. He’s a privileged idiot not the antichrist.
I actually find the far more powerful Clooney’s faux outrage far more problematic than Damon’s inept floundering.
I find Clooney’s faux outrage extremely problematic too. He absolutely knew, and he is clutching his pearls like a big hypocrite.
Clooney always does that. After Princess Di died, he held that big, dramatic press conference about the evils of paparazzi and celebrity. Years later, he invited the paps to his charade wedding.
The so-called Mayor of Hollywood is the Master of Hypocrisy.
Anyone who’s followed his career will have gradually noticed the gaping chasm between what he says and what he does and will not be in the least surprised at how he’s positioning himself here.
But hey, he has a movie to sell, like he has a (Nestle) living to earn. But don’t ask him about the latter. 😉
Well, he’s the one digging the hole though. And the thing is, he’s saying all the things a lot of them are probably thinking and that makes him the perfect example of a faux woke dude whose wokeness is nothing more than a thin veneer. You scratch at it a little and it comes off. He’s just in the unlucky position of having had close ties with HW, having actually heard about at least incident, being quite famous, and being on a promotional tour. It’s the perfect storm and he’s the perfect guy to represent the boys’ club.
Exactly. To be honest, I don’t know what he could have done? What do people think he should have done? The fixation on him is bizarre, while at the same time saying that no one else should be blamed, because it’s Harvey’s fault (which is true).
Fixation is because he keeps digging himself a deeper hole.
If this was a political campaign, he’d be pulled from any interviews.
His publicist must be on valium by now because his excuses keep getting worse because he clearly doesn’t understand yet considers himself a very liberal feminist man.
Seriously, he needs to stop talking.
ETA: i think he doesn’t understand that whilst no one is holding him responsible for HW, his thoughts on the situation might help the conversation going on right now as someone who worked so closely with HW.
Personally i prefer Scott Rosenberg’s response which said plainly that he knew, they all knew that HW was ‘chasing actors’, but the perks provided by HW to be team Miramax was too good to recall their better judgement.
Stocks and rotten fruit for Scott, but i appreciate his honesty.
https://etcanada.com/news/264156/screenwriter-scott-rosenberg-says-everyone-knew-about-gluttonous-ogre-harvey-weinstein/
LOL at the bit before ETA.
Nail and head. If he shut the eff up, the fixation would go away. Nobody’s fault but his own – if he will keep on talking, people will keep on reacting.
I know. I keep thinking be quiet Matt. Ok now, this time be quiet. Oh, here he goes again oh well I guess watching a movie star dig his own grave is fascinating.
We see his Achilles heel here. He has a pathological need to be liked and be the good guy. He can’t stop until he saves a basket of kittens from a burning building in full view of a camera.
Magnoliarose: ha! Exactly.
I agree. He hasn’t uttered the best statements about all of this but he wasn’t the abuser, he wasn’t the boyfriend or husband of the abused, all of his info was second or third hand… wtf is this fixation on him and his responses?
Yeah it’s a bit much. I mean, I agree that Damon is a privileged fool with his head up his ass but I don’t quite understand why he is the proverbial punching bag on this matter?
Quentin Tarantino, a man who was close friends with Weinstein for 25 years got all the applause for merely admitting that he knew what Weinstein did but didn’t speak up.
Um, yay I guess? O_O
That being said, I don’t really agree that somehow Blake Lively or Chapman are more to blame than Damon. But as I’ve said a million times, blame should lay squarely on the shoulder of the abuser.
And frankly, I’m just kind of exhausted by the continual pitchforks. I understood it more when the story first broke and we were all trying to understand how it happened, who knew, etc but repeatedly going after actors and parsing every word they say just feels like shooting fish in a barrel at this point. That’s not to infantilize them or let them off the hook entirely, just to say that just because someone is good at entertaining does not mean that they are brilliant/insightful/compassionate whatever.
JMO.
I don’t consider holding Damon accountable for the very words that come out of his mouth to be a fixation. I see it as persistence in the fight against systemic, institutionalized dysfunction.
Those of us adults — I include myself here — who have ever stayed silent about abuse of power, sexism, racism, ageism, etc., have helped make the truism “silence gives consent” horrifyingly valid. While there are understandable, often unintentional reasons why we shut down around speaking up, we bystanders to abuse who somehow profit by looking the other way are responsible for our complicit silence.
I’m ashamed of the times that my fear & self-interest stopped me from speaking against injustices I knew about. If I don’t own my failures & cowardice, I stand little hope of learning from them. I will remain part of the problem.
Matt Damon & others could shut down some of the criticism by just flat-out acknowledging their complicity, that they benefitted from maintaining an insidious status quo, & that it was wrong. Holding them accountable for trying to act like they “get it” while dodging any meaningful responsibility is part of the process of change.
He missed the window for a correct response so he needs to move on now. I read that Val Kilmer punched someone and Luc Besson had a relationship with a 15 year old. Russell Crowe was called out by Rose for reason.
Terry Richardson’s scandal is said to make Harvey’s look like amateur hour. Already what I know is horrific but now I am actually scared to know.
Bryan Singer and the perverts need to go down.
We have work to do and Matt is sucking up the headlines!
I disagree that it’s a fixation.
Harvey Weinstein is THE entertainment/culture story right now. Matt Damon literally got his big break from Harvey Weinstein. MD is also promoting a movie right now. It makes perfect sense that he would be asked about Weinstein. It just so happens that he keeps saying really, really, really stupid things. I don’t think it’s a “fixation” to talk about it.
“In front of me.” Eyeroll.
“Harvey was incredibly respectful of her” – after he harassed her. How awfully polite of Harvey! I guess then everything is forgiven?
Clooney looks terrible, he’s got really old looking, really suddenly.
Shelly I agree, he is so old and haggard looking, must be all the lies and deceit he has been hiding behind getting to him, or maybe he knows his latest film is another big flop for him, Mr Smug is’nt so great as he thinks he is.
Omg Damon please shut up
Right?! He’s beyond damage control at this point.
Just STOP TALKING. STOP.
Matt Damons excuse for turning a blind eye to victims “pics or it didn’t happen”
You can almost hear him… “I worked with Gwynth she seemed fine with Harvey, so it was probably just an exaggerated rumor. I didn’t see anything other than a bully who demeaned everyone and who chased after every woman he saw, what’s bad? Why don’t you still love me?”
That’s what’s bugging me, he just keeps saying “It didn’t happen in front of me!” Well of course not, Matt, that’s not how predators work, and no one is saying Matt sat in the room when the assaults happened.
But he DID know that the guy was a creep and extremely inappropriate with actresses, so what he could have done was not make movie after movie with the guy. It benefited him, so he chose to ignore what he did know.
And also, it can’t be said enough, CASEY AFFLECK.
You know, Matt, the first rule when you find yourself in a hole is to STOP DIGGING.
Lord, I went from liking this guy to permanently writing him off in about 2 seconds flat.
I think a lot of the people who knew, made Weinstein’s abuse about them. They were sophisticated, tough and clever enough to manage a guy like Harvey while others who were “weaker” were chewed up by the system.
Of course Matt knew, but I think if his definition of success includes being one of the people “cool, smart and tough enough” to not be targeted, then he’s not going to think about the victims and he’ll even insinuate blame for their abuse. After all, Hollywood is one big toxic high school. That’s why he doesn’t know what to say now. He’s supposed to be a “good guy” who is tough and smart enough to not be messed with instead of a self-absorbed enabler who became one of Harvey’s lackeys by providing social cover for him.
Your first paragraph made me think about Blythe Danner’s letter.
The bar really is that low. I filed a sexual harassment claim against a coworker, along with another woman in my office. A lot of this occurred while I was traveling for work at a conference. And the man always waited until others were out of earshot or he could corner me alone before starting in on the nasty and vulgar comments. So now my harasser has been found to have committed harassment by a third-party review process, and he was fired. My male coworkers have stated that “they didn’t see anything happen at that conference, so they know I’m lying” to multiple people. It’s so frustrating!
I’m sorry your coworkers are not being supportive, but I commend you for standing up for yourself and doing the right thing.
I would be willing to be a few of those coworkers have done some questionable stuff as well and are a little nervous themselves.
And this right here is why so many women don’t speak up.
lol. Damon, Di Caprio and Wahlberg all copping it today.
What, it doesn’t happen unless HE personally sees it? If he applies that to childrearing, his kids must get away with murder.
How is he still talking??!!
For someone so “woke”, he seems to have Trump syndrom in terms of verbal diarrhea…
Stop talking, Matt Damon. That flushing sound you’re hearing is your career going down the toilet.
Say hi to Ben while you’re down there.
This is actually the first time I understand what he was saying, especially combined with everything he has said. Basically, “Most of the stuff Weinstein said I thought were wishful exaggerations of consensual affairs. The one episode of harassment I heard of second-hand, Paltrow seemed to have “handled” and “dealt with” and he seemed super respectful of her going forward so I wasn’t sure there was anything to do at that point. But obviously there was more and I am wracking my brains to see what I should have known or noticed.”
It is painful and uncomfortable to watch him go through this process as an oblivious privileged dude, but whatever his intentions (basically trying to make himself look innocent) I kind of appreciate him going through it publicly. “I thought he was chasing them” is very illuminating. Like, that is the problem dude.
That’s pretty much where I am with him. Personally, I think he’s still mentally trying to join the dots to understand why he’s getting the third degree here. I’m not defending him but the more he says, the more I think it’s privileged confusion that’s driving his current trainwreck of a defence, rather than just skin-saving.
Hopefully, the penny will eventually drop.
Absolutely A+. Chasing girls is a f*cking problem. Being a pest is a f*cking problem. When you have immense power over people’s livelihoods, there is a looming threat of coercion.
This, George Clooney and Matt Damon, is when you have to eat some humble pie, followed by a nice serving of sh*t.
That struck me, too. You’re right, Matt, he WAS chasing them! Literally, around hotel rooms.
But you know, dealing with that kind of thing is one woman tax, he rationalized, I guess.
Just take a seat Matt and STFU.
I think he should just stop talking. He’s doing more damage each time he opens his mouth.
I get part of his point, in reality what could he have done to stop this. It wasn’t his story to tell. He never saw anything first hand (according to him). I don’t blame Damon for not rushing to the press with Gwyneth’s story.
But I think he bears the same responsibility all powerful men (and some women too) for allowing this system to continue and to be seen as normal. Damon’s been friends with men he knows are either accused or known to be abusive to women. They created a culture where it was expected for women to have sex in order to have a successful career. Damon benefited from the system Weinstein created.
But Damon chose his career over this. He chose to have a successful career over defending others. That’s his cross to bear. I don’t get why he keeps going on and on about it. He’s only doing more harm than good.
Hollywood is full of predators who protect each other.
Maybe he feels guilty about something and that’s why he keeps talking?
I have to admit I’m confused as to why Matt Damon. keeps talking. Maybe he really cares a lot about what people think of him.
I realize people have said not to bring looks into the discussion, but Harvey Weinstein is unusually repellent looking. Did people genuinely believe that he could get THAT many actresses to willingly sleep with him? Whenever people say they thought he was simply a womanizer, I’m a bit baffled. Obviously, good-looking men are capable of assault, harassment, etc too, but I think it’s a bit easier to believe someone is simply a womanizer if he fits some kind of criteria for physical appealing-ness. Harvey Weinstein is so physically repulsive I don’t think I ever thought he could get women to willingly do anything with or for him.
For such a supposedly smart guy, his tiny brain seems determined not to tell his mouth to SHUT UP.
Matt, is it really that hard to say “I’m incredibly disturbed and upset. We need to make this industry safe for women and I promise to make everything that is in my power to accomplish that. I’m disappointed that somebody I worked with for so long has been doing this to actresses I know and love. Hopefully the law will work to their advantage and that we see justice. We will never tolerate this again, no matter the threats to our career.” But WHYY are you being so defensive? Oh yeah, because YOU KNEW and you stayed quiet. Leads and Oscars matter more I guess. Well, you know what? I now doubt every Oscar earned with the help of Weinstein. How do we know he didn’t intimidate and threaten voters too? Screw every actor who benefited from Weinstein. I don’t believe you earned your accolades fair and square and I don’t believe you didn’t know. You knew!
” i knew something was burning but I didn’t see the plate in front of me..”.. and what would Clooney do if the names of people who provided were released? Dude knew from the mouth of the predator “I slept with x and Y and Z and XY..” and laughed it off? he never saw a pattern and wonder “wait a minute? tell me it was all consensual”.. wouldn’t a decent person start to wonder and go to the bottom of it? Everybody knew. Everybody. Shame on one of the former assistant who knew what was going on but only left when one of her friends was assaulted.
““I slept with x and Y and Z and XY..’ and laughed it off? he never saw a pattern and wonder “wait a minute? tell me it was all consensual”.. wouldn’t a decent person start to wonder and go to the bottom of it?”
Not necessarily, because that usually isn’t a normal response to hearing someone brag about their ‘sexcapades’. You wouldn’t question that the person is, at best, blabbing about consensual sexual encounters or, at worst, embellishing details about their sex life by throwing in some fantasy fucks in order to sound more experienced, desirable, sexually adventurous, manly (if it’s a man), liberated (if it’s a woman), etc.
But knowing what we know about Harvey Weinstein, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he also 1.) listed women whom he assaulted as consensual affairs, and 2.) added women that he didn’t get on the list too.
Over the years, I have found MD to be a bit blind about many issues.
I think here, he is struggling to admit he is part of a bigger problem that he didnt recognize. The guilt might be surfacing.
If he could not recognize at work, will he fail the recognize as a parent?
All these guys have to tell the truth!!! ‘Yes i knew & i did nothing, just like the whole industry. I am very sorry & truly regret that. I want to,& will be a better man because of this.’
How hard is that to say for these idiots?
Keep talking Matty! You’re showing your true self. Selfish and ignorant.
I’m surprised no one has asked him about being bff’s with Affleck, and how many assaults/harassment’s he witnessed over the years.
Matt’s problem is that he so defensive & deflecting by doing the whole “never saw anything” routine that he doesn’t get it. Ok fine, but what will you do NOW? Talk about what can be done to end this abuse of women. Talk about the role that men play in their abuse of power. For the love of God, talk about anything constructive other than “I never saw” & then “well yeah I knew but she handled it”. I mean What?!
Also, Clooney wants to hold the colluders responsible, that’s great. But he better look at his buddy sitting next to him because Matt went to bat for Weinstein’s biggest colluder, Fabrizio(?), years ago & tried to kill a NYT story about him. So if Matt knew about Gwyneth (as he says) then why try & vouch for a guy known as Weinstein’s “pimp” because Weinstein asked him to? Matt is a phony & is mishandling of this situation shows what a creep he truly is.
I fully realize that I’m repeating myself in literally every Damon post this week, but I still don’t have an answer.
WHY isn’t Damon getting asked about Casey Affleck in any of these interviews?
It’s legitimately related to the broader discussion involving Weinstein, so it’s completely relevant to ask. If just one reporter asked about Casey, it would totally shatter this flimsy, weak, waffling around, self-preservation dance he’s doing about Weinstein.
Yet, NOPE. No one is asking.
Do you think that Damon/Clooney’s publicists have made Casey Affleck off limits in these interviews?
@ JoJo, Yes why is no one asking about Casey?
It’s kind of ironic because there was a big deal made in the media about how no one pressed Casey on the allegations during his awards campaigning, and now NO ONE is asking Matt about the very same thing. I don’t even see it being mentioned here on Celebitchy. This is a MUCH bigger problem for Matt than Weinstein.
I mean, Casey’s going to be at the Oscars next year handing out the Best Actress award, I bet Matt has made him off limits. It was pretty clear how Matt and Ben were trying to confer their power on to Casey for that Oscar. I feel like they’re both hoping to make him a powerhouse in Hollywood, and they don’t want anything getting in the way of that. This way they’ve got another power player in their corner.
It’s revealing, isn’t it. . . the way they twist & turn.
I admired Clooney once. Perhaps I couldn’t see through him quite as easily before.
On a positive note, I thought Emma Thompson handled this thing well and I admired Quentin’s honesty, “I knew enough to do more than I did.” Yes. Yes, you did. Thanks for saying so.
Come on–they knew about Rose McGowan’s cryptic but easily decipherable tweets about her rapist. You think they never discussed this? Didn’t it concern them that an actress who has been in major movies was CLEARLY referring to Harvey Weinstein? I’ve been around famous people, as a fly-on-the-wall not famous person– and they gossip ALL THE TIME. This stuff–they surely talked about it and even if they didn’t they read about it. They KNEW about Rose’s tweets. Clooney knew. Damon knew. Affleck knew. Pitt knew, and not working with Weinstein wasn’t enough. He could have outed him with no blowback because of his fame. They just didn’t care enough. They figured they could ignore it and it would not come out or go away. I don’t think it was entirely malevolent–I understand the impulse to ignore unpleasant truths. But they failed morally and should admit as such. They won’t.
According to Rose, she told Ben about her assault right after it happened, and he said “goddammit I told him to stop doing that!” And you think Ben knew but Matt didn’t? I think what’s making everyone so irritated about Matt’s handling of this situation is he’s insulting people’s intelligence here with his, I didn’t know anything schtick. Like, come on, it wasn’t just tweets in recent years, Ben knew at the time and also knew it wasn’t the first time Harvey had done something like that! They all knew.
If these guys, men with power, never admit they saw something wrong how are things going to change? That’s what’s important.
Exactly. Matt knew that Weinstein raped McGowan. Ben disclosed to him about Gwyneth, so it is very likely that he disclosed about many other actresses that Weinstein had assaulted.
Yeah, I’m done with Matty D. Seeing him in 1950s garb in Suburbicon (the trailers, that is – I won’t be paying to watch it) doesn’t help, as it rather suits some of the ideas he’s been expressing these past years.
They should have followed Quentin Tarantino’s lead and just owned it and apologized: we should have known, but remained willfully oblivious because we enjoyed the benefits of being Harvey’s friends, and his toxic behavior didn’t seem so out of line because that kind of toxic behavior is so common and so accepted, and I didn’t have the balls to call it out. And we are ashamed and sick that we didn’t do anything and promise to avoid working with men who show that kind of bullying creeptastic behavior in the future.
“Suburbican” is going to be a big-time bomb and they know it.
All of Clooney’s films have been bombs except for the Oceans 11 series…Leatherheads, Solaris, Money Monster, Hail, Caesar, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and the HUGE bomb “Tomorrowland”…who can forget
Same with Damon, with the execrable “Great Wall” which had him as White Savior. It lost $75 million. Unless its a sci-fi action big budget film like the Martian or a bankable franchise like Jason Bourne. Remember before the Jason Bourne series came along, his career was toast.
I’m sincerely hoping that Clooney, Affleck and Damon now all go by the wayside and take their frat bro sycophants in the industry with them.
Yes. Time for new blood. Hopefully younger men who were raised in the modern era by parents who taught them correctly how to respect women and the meaning of consent, rape, assault, and sexual harassment. Would love to see more men with morals take the place of Clooney, Affleck, and Damon. Can’t wait.
Magenta, this film is going to flop big time, seriously his directing is as bad as his awful acting, he should really throw in the towel and not embaress himself anymore, but his ego is so huge he actually thinks he has talent, he doesnt, he got buy on his somewhat good looks and charm for a couple of years, but they are gone now and all he has to show is his terrible directing and awful acting that he has.
I think Clooney, both Afflecks and Damon are all talented in different ways. That is nothing to do with their behaviour, and I don’t know why the two have to be always lnked. Roman Polanski is a genius. The Pianist is one of the great films of the last 25 years. Does that in some way mitigate him being a child ra@pist? Of course not. Being great or being cr@ap at your job – subjective in creative industries anyhow -and how much your last film made isn’t relevant to whether you have committed negligent / immoral / criminal actions.
Matt Damon: Nobody knew about this and as a father to four girls it sickens me. I am shocked and appalled by this revelation.
Also Matt Damon: Well yeah I knew about Gwyneth because she dated Ben, but it was all fine by the time we knew her [does not mention that Rose McGowan claims she told Affleck at the time when Weinstein raped her, and Affleck’s response was that he’d “told him to stop doing that”.]
Also Matt Damon: We all know who the good guys and bad guys in this industry around this subject are and in future people will only want to work with the good guys.
His story just doesn’t hold together. You can’t admit hearing stories, admit you know who the predators are, and claim ignorance at the same time.
Damon doesn’t know what he could have done? How about NOT WORKING WITH WEINSTEIN EVER AGAIN? It doesn’t take a lot of effort for a successful actor to NOT WORK WITH SOMEONE if he doesn’t want to. But even THAT was too much for Damon, and he just HAD to keep working with Weinstein? Give me an effing break.
Clooney says the people who aided Weinstein should be charged. I think he means the assistants who probably had no power and were themselves at Weinstein’s mercy. But maybe Clooney and Damon should look in the mirror and see how THEY enabled Weinstein to remain in power and abuse women for so long.
Rose said she told Ben at the press conference (Phantoms 1998), right? Ben dated Gwyneth from 1997 to 2000, so pretty concurrent timeline. So, did Ben reference talking to HW about Gwyneth when he made his remark to Rose about telling HW to “stop doing that”?
Since the events were somewhat concurrent, what are the chances he didn’t tell Matt about Rose, as well?
Also, Matt says that Gwyneth became the “first lady of Miramax” so apparently she and HW worked it out. But, that would have been after the 1997-1998 time period, right, since it followed her role in Emma (1997)? The assault event would have still been somewhat fresh when he worked with her, and when Ben was dating her. She hadn’t had the chance to become the “first lady” yet, right?
Also, Matt starred in the movie with Gwyneth during that period – release was 1999, so filming maybe 1998, while Ben and Gwyneth were dating.
Shady timeline that.
I do love the Matt Damon thrashing. Hopefully, many more will be held accountable for their non-action and complicity.
I generally find George Clooney somewhat annoying and fake-y in print interviews, but in that sit-down GMA interview his “acting” seemed better than Matt Damon’s.
They’ve probably made Casey off limits, as most people don’t expect to hear about him, unlike Weinstein.
On another note, I’ve read a few online accounts about Casey’s lewd behaviour, wonder if anything else will come out about him down the road.