Obviously, many of the accusations coming out about many of Hollywood’s sexual predators have not been “surprising.” There were rumors and whispers about many of these men. I’ll admit that I was genuinely surprised about Ed Westwick, but he’s been the only one, really. If I had to choose the least surprising alleged sexual predator, it would be Steven Seagal. Steven Seagal has long been KNOWN as an absolute douchebag and predator. Julianna Margulies recently name-checked Seagal as one of the predators she encountered in her early days as a young actress, claiming that Seagal was carrying a gun when she met with him in a hotel room and that she somehow managed to get out of the room “unscathed. I never was raped. And I never was harmed. And I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room…I sorta screamed my way out.” Now Portia de Rossi is telling her Seagal story:
My final audition for a Steven Segal movie took place in his office. He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants. I️ ran out and called my agent. Unfazed, she replied, “well, I didn’t know if he was your type.”
— Portia de Rossi (@portiaderossi) November 8, 2017
To be clear, Steven Seagal is garbage. But I was also struck by her agent’s response. That is the undercurrent in so many of these stories about sexual predators, how many agents and publicists and managers were complicit in decades of sexual assault, harassment and abuse. How many agents set up hotel-room meetings knowing that their client was likely going to be harassed or assaulted? How many managers failed to protect their people?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Whist the focus must always be on the predators themselves and thier actions. It is increasingly clear that there are a lot of Garbage men AND women who were complicit in perpetuating a culture of sexual harassment in Hollywood
Yeah for added emphasis on what garbage the Hollywood system is? Check out Rae Dawn Chong’s story and the reaction of CAA super agent and managing partner, the apparently utterly worthless Kevin Huvane.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/hollywood-lawyers-up-harassment-claims-who-knew-what-1055993
And Chong’s career stalled (“difficult” ugh) and an entire generation of young women of colour were robbed of a role model. F**k you CAA, and every senior agent who works there.
Ugh… funny how it seems that the accused always ‘spin’ things when a person of color namechecks him or her in a very specific , public way.
At this point, I have little faith that these talent agencies will face anything resembling consequences. There will be sacrificial lambs, to be sure, but unless the actual talent put their own skin on the line, these agents are staying put.
People used to refer to the movie industry as ‘flesh peddling’ and for good reason. Pimping, pandering and procuring is part of the job description it seems for a lot of these agents and managers. HW is the rawest form of capitalism—anything goes as long as you make money.
YES!!! All these people knowing, and letting it happen. And it is even sadder to know this happens in every industry, at every level, and I hope this inspires changes all around. Close to a nervous brakdown but trying to remain optmistic hehehe
Now Steven Seagal is free to be a sick f**ker in Russia with his friend Vladimir Putin.
apparently he was free to do so in the US, too. at least until now.
The fact her agent was a woman makes this even more distasteful. There really is something very rotten at the core of this industry.
There is … but it’s not just Hollywood. I’m betting 90% of women in whatever industry or situation has a story like this. Some man pushing himself on her.
Poor Portia. That’s horrible.
I believe Portia. This question is NOT in ANY way meant as a criticism of Portia: but why didn’t she name the agent? I’m genuinely curious about that. Or some of the women who were led to HW by assistants; why aren’t any of those people named? Let me be clear: it’s her choice to tell her story and to share whatever details she feels comfortable sharing. I’m talking aloud and wondering why so many of these people who enabled these encounters are not being named.
Yeah: why not name them too??
*throws hollywood into the 7th layer of h*ll*
It happens everywhere though. One day I was working late in a near empty office. I worked with a guy (powerful in the company at the time) who walked into the office in a muscle shirt and speedo, came into my office uninvited, plopped in a chair, spread his legs and asked me what it would take to make me happy at the company. His excuse for the speedo was that he’d been swimming at the hotel next door. Luckily, an intern was working late too and walked in behind him because she saw that “he wasn’t wearing pants.”
Swear this is a true story. This guy had a cocaine problem and was a serial cheater too. He was brilliant at his job, so he was tolerated until his coke problem caused him to be arrested. He had a coke induced heart attack about 10 years later. I left that company about 6 months after this incident.
I don’t doubt its real. I have my own stories of harassment. Its a cultural and societal problem. Hollywood is just society dialed way up
“Swear this is a true story.”
I hate that you felt you even had to write that line. It’s a conditioned response to the way we expect the world to interpret our stories. It’s sad that we do this. Not a criticism of you by the way. Just an observation.
For what it’s worth…. I believe you.
I believe her.
Not surprised by this. Didn’t Kelly LeBrock say he repeatedly raped and abused her during their marriage?
From my talking to my friend who works bts in showbiz, frequently the managers and agents are the predators, too. It’s definitely not just fellow artists, directors and producers. It’s accepted, sadly. My friend has been harassed herself, by a not-big-name male director, by a female hair stylist and by a male agent. To my surprise, the female hair stylist was the most overt and vulgar, asking her intimate questions in crude language in front of a trailer full of people including a teen actress.
What an absolute piece of garbage, Seagal and her agent. I wonder if any of these agents, pr people, etc, are actually having some sort of repercussion.. it doesn’t seem to be the case though.
How awful.
I’ve loved Portia ever since she played the boss on that brilliant office comedy…the name of the show escapes me but it was so good and cancelled way too soon.
Better Off Ted. Brilliant!
What did she do to her face?? When will these people learn not to hit up the scapel and the botox so often. Horrible.
That is your take-away from a woman’s story about systematic sexual harassment? Mkay.
For real. That was just so…. out of place and context. This world will always hate women.
Where were the unions is THE QUESTION.
The supposed reason behind them – more power together than alone – one individual won’t be singled out for retribution if the cause is handled by a professional group. Why were the unions not a resource for the harassed, due paying members?
It happens everywhere. I once worked at a retail outlet and had a customer who came in and harassed me nearly every day. He made awful comments about my breasts, flirted with me to the point I couldn’t do my job, and one day cornered me in the children’s department to ask me out. When I declined, as politely as I knew how, he started swearing loudly at me and threatened to hit me. By this point I was so sick of him that I started screaming back at him to leave me alone and stay away from me. He left in a rage. He was also older than my dad.
When I told my manager about what happened, her response was “He’s a good customer and you have to be nicer to him.” Apparently she was willing to pimp me out to this guy to sell books. I found out later that both of them were friends and had apparently come to an arrangement of sorts about me. After I turned him down, she did everything in her poor to get me to quit. Which I eventually did, because no minimum wage retail hell shitshow of a job was worth that.
I’m also sure the guy followed me home once, maybe more than that.
You poor thing, that sounds horrendous. What a freak that man was!