February 3, 2018

"I stand as both a person who was subjected to it and a person who was then also part of the cloud cover, so that’s a super weird split to have."

Said Uma Thurman, quoted in "This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry/The actress is finally ready to talk about Harvey Weinstein" by Maureen Dowd in the NYT.
"The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was,” she told me one recent night, looking anguished in her elegant apartment in River House on Manhattan’s East Side, as she vaped tobacco, sipped white wine and fed empty pizza boxes into the fireplace.

“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of ‘Kill Bill,’ a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”
Much more at the link. Don't miss the strange story about the car crash.

120 comments:

Achilles said...

She is angry that everyone assumes she got her roles because of her performance on the casting couch instead of talent.

Leftist dominated institutions always seem to have a casting couch.

Bay Area Guy said...

She was a real hotly in Dangerous Liaisons, jeez, almost 30 years ago. Getting mixed up with horny Leftwing Hollywood predators like Harvey Weinstein probably not healthy for you psyche over time.

tcrosse said...

Khrushchev denounced Stalin after having made damn sure he was dead.

bleh said...

Tsk tsk. She shouldn’t be burning cardboard in her fireplace.

rhhardin said...

Kill Bill was okay. They don't pile in so much testerone in fight scenes when it's a woman wiping out the bad guys.

With the exception of Atomic Blonde, where it was deliberate for humor. The guy keeps bouncing back.

As for poor Uma, nobody cares.

robother said...

The female revenge porn flic (e.g., Kill Bill) has always seemed to be a way Hollywood men and their male fans can have their cake and eat it too. It "empowers" the woman central character by more or less graphically depicting her rape and humiliation, which then justifies her and the cheering audience in the bloody (and usually sexually charged) revenge she wreaks on her victimizers.

whitney said...

With all these stories from celebrity women I can't help thinking about the risk reward ratio. If you become a famous actress the rewards are astronomical. Does that factor in at all?

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I read it.
Condensed thoughts: Harvey Weinstein(D) is a total pig. Confirmed. ✔


Q Tarantino is an asshole.

Hillarywoodland is one weird place where all sorts of bad crap goes down in the name of the mighty dollar. + the predominate inhabitants of Hollywood are loyal leftists, which only adds to the *yup/yuck* factor.

jwl said...

Bay Area Guy - I was eighteen year old working at cinema in between high school and university and we had Dangerous Liaisons for about two months - I worked during day as usher and I learned quickly at exactly what time Thurman got topless. And then we got Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was also pleasing.

I probably watched that one minute seduction scene at least fifty times. I long been bewitched by Uma Thurman, she is lovely.

YoungHegelian said...

And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”

I'm sorry, but Uma Thurman's father is a well-known scholar of Buddhism. In all of his accumulated years of wisdom, he couldn't have passed on to his daughter "People with power tend to abuse it because they can get away with it".

Seriously?! Did any of these people have any sort of moral formation? Were they so deluded that they didn't know that there are dirty old men who want to have sex with beautiful young women?

It's amazing to think of people who are young, beautiful, rich, of good family, talented & have less moral balance than Lizzie the waitress down at the local diner.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Hillary and Weinstein and Weiner should be cell-mates.

rhhardin said...

Even though a woman is angry, I don't assume she is right.

Crazy is the most likely option. Right is around number three or four.

Fernandinande said...

Big long article about how not much happened to her.

who coerced her afterward when they went to his Greenwich Village brownstone for a nightcap.

“I was ultimately compliant,” she remembers. “I tried to say no, I cried, I did everything I could do. He told me the door was locked but I never ran over and tried the knob.


She voluntarily went to his place for a nightcap, and was "ultimately" (?) compliant, she also did everything she could do except say no or try the doorknob to avoid the "nightcap".

IOW,
she didn't even say "no" and
she didn't even try to leave.

He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. But he didn’t actually put his back into it and force me.

IOW,
he didn't shove himself onto her, and
he didn't expose himself, and
he didn't force her.

All-in-all, some pretty good victiming.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Shorter Rh: Bitches be crazy forever, Amen.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The car crash is the curious and bizarre part of that whole story. Why on earth would a crew of movie-makers place the star of the show in a death can?
The Weinstein stuff, at this point, is boiler plate Harvey. She's lucky he didn't forcefully rape her and she managed to squiggle out from under him. I'm not excusing Harvey, but we can all see the pattern.

rcocean said...

Watching the car crash was bizarre. What happened? She seemed fine, then started weaving from side to side and crashed.

It wasn't a straight road, but it wasn't that crooked either.

nbks said...

I can't get past the toxic, cancerous fumes that she is subjecting her neighbors to by burning cardboard boxes in her fireplace. The Upper East Side is one of the most densely populated spots in the United States. Doesn't she recycle? #shame

gspencer said...

"Looking back, Uma, would you pass going into that room knowing that you would not be here today vaping, drinking, burning stuff in a fireplace, all while overlooking the East River?"

Sprezzatura said...

I know some people who have been around her. And these are people very used to hot people and famous people.

They say she exudes the highest level of Hollywood Star-ness, in a good way. A real presence.

I was thinking about what I've heard about her amazingness as I read this piece this morning.

[Also, I noticed that the piece said she hangs in Cap Feratt. Baller.]

Wince said...

Tarantino aficionados spy an echo of Thurman’s crash in his 2007 movie, “Death Proof,” produced by Weinstein and starring Thurman’s stunt double, Zoë Bell. Young women, including a blond Rose McGowan, die in myriad ways, including by slamming into a windshield.

Throughout the movie, Tarantino's Death Proof used women, cars and car crashes as sexual metaphor.

"High-velocity impact, twisted metal, busted glass, all four souls taken exactly the same time.... Probably the only way that diabolical degenerate can shoot his goo."

Hari said...

Are there any #MeToo survivors under the age of 45?

madAsHell said...

The car wreck is an old fashioned knee-capping.

Wince said...

The Death Proof misogynistic anti-hero is a over-the-hill movie stuntman, Stuntman Mike, who murders Pam (Rose McGowan), among others, before women exact their revenge.

"Hey, Pam, remember when I said this car was death proof? Well, that wasn't a lie. This car is 100% death proof. Only to get the benefit of it, honey, you REALLY need to be sitting in my seat."

fivewheels said...

"Seriously?! Did any of these people have any sort of moral formation? Were they so deluded that they didn't know that there are dirty old men who want to have sex with beautiful young women?"

There are beautiful young women who are so naive that when they hear dirty old men telling them how smart and talented they are, they don't realize that the men aren't saying that because the women are actually smart and talented, but because they are beautiful and young. They choose to believe the pretty lie. This leads to miscalculations.

mockturtle said...

Kill Bill is one of those cult classics that is enjoyed more the more one sees it. Kind of like No Country for Old Men. And what woman would not enjoy the scene where Beatrix Kiddo wakes up in the ICU and takes revenge on the male nurse who had been raping her [and selling her 'services' to others] while she was unconscious? But there are so many memorable scenes in the perfectly cast, perfectly directed series.

Wince said...

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.

mockturtle said...

Hari asks: Are there any #MeToo survivors under the age of 45?

The younger ones are still pursuing their careers. The #Metoo-ers can speak up because they've already made it.

tim in vermont said...

I can't watch Mirimax movies anymore, I was sort of hoping Q was an exception.

D.E. Cloutier said...

Subj: Nothing new under the sun

Merriam-Webster: "First known use of 'casting couch': 1931."

I first heard "It's not what you know, it's who you blow" in 1962.

In the 1970s, when I was in the entertainment industry in Southern California, the married CEO of one company where I worked had a red light and a green light next to the door of his office. If the green light was on, you could enter his office. If the red light was on, you couldn't go in because he was having sex with some ambitious chick.

tim in vermont said...

Death Proof was a good movie about women getting back at their tormentors, yeesh!

Freeman Hunt said...

There's no business like show business.

tcrosse said...

I first heard "It's not what you know, it's who you blow" in 1962.

A few years later I heard "It's not what you know, and it's not who you blow. It's who you know that blows."

wildswan said...

The way the story is going, "Exposing Rory Bluatsein" could be a Tarantino movie. Produced by Harvey Weinstein. Winning an Oscar. Attended by all of Hollywood dressed in black. The theme could be how movies by a famous director were based on the descent of a famous producer into a lustful pit of madness and sadism involving beautiful actresses. An actress in "Exposing Rory Bluatsein" begins to suspect that the movie is not an expose but another in the series and that her life is in danger from twisted plot twists. She realizes at last that the movie is based on feeding her clues to supposed plots against her and using her responses as the next step in the movie plot. Or ... are the supposed plots, real plots, she wonders? What should she do? How can she free herself from the madness of Hollywood and still get the Oscar as Best Actress? The last scene, in which she solves the problem, is one of the most amazing scenes ever filmed.

Michael K said...

I saw "Pulp Fiction " and thought it was weird. Not one I buy a DVD of. I did not see any of his others.

"Get Shorty" was a great comedy but "Pulp Fiction" was just weird.

jerpod said...

I was in Austin, TX maybe ten years ago, seeing my daughter at UT. We stayed at the Omni Hotel and went to the bar for a late efternoon drink. In walks a guy carrying a thick sheaf of papers. He sits at the bar for awhile talking to the bartender, gets a glass of something, then leaves the bar area and takes a seat in the lobby facing the main entrance. The bartender visits our table to ask about more drinks. I say, “That guy you were talking to sure looked like Quentin Tarantino.” He says, yeah, QT always stays at the Omni when he’s in town. Meanwhile, I’m positioned so that I can see QT in the lobby, reading his script, I assume, and obviously waiting for someone. Pretty soon, he gets up, smiles widely and runs to greet someone. Who could it be but - Uma Thurman!

Francisco D said...

Tarantino's movies are interesting, but in a creepy over-the-top sort of way.

After watching one, I feel like a guy in a raincoat who just snuck out of an XXX theater.

** For the younger crowd, porn used to be shown in theaters way back when. At least, that's what people tell me.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

But there are so many memorable scenes in the perfectly cast, perfectly directed series.

Agree. My favorite is the final confrontation between the Bride and O-Ren Ishii in the snow. Perfectly constructed; perfect balance between camp and delicacy; perfect lighting; perfect everything.

D.E. Cloutier said...

Michael K: "I saw 'Pulp Fiction' and thought it was weird."

"Pulp Fiction" is my favorite movie. I also liked "Get Shorty."

I have spent a lot of years on the mean streets of some of the world's biggest cities. To me, both films are almost documentaries.

My favorite author: Raymond Chandler.

My favorite Chandler quote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

“Personally, it has taken me 47 years to stop calling people who are mean to you ‘in love’ with you. It took a long time because I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of.”

She's not wrong here. I am grateful that I know this, and that I've been able to teach my daughters that yes someone who is hassling you is interested in you in some fashion, but you never never ever have to, or should, make room in your life for someone who makes you feel small or belittles you in any way. It doesn't matter if he has a crush on you ~ sure that is an explanation for his behavior, but how you respond to that is your choice, and you can and should choose to not waste a single second on a person who does not respect you.

Humperdink said...

DB@H said: "The car crash is the curious and bizarre part of that whole story. Why on earth would a crew of movie-makers place the star of the show in a death can?"

I agree. I owned a Ghia. The gas tank is at your kneecaps. Driving at that speed on a non-paved road is asking for someone to be killed. Thinking that was the plan. Make for great movie promotion, among other ulterior motives.

Luke Lea said...

I recently read about someone comparing Weinstein to a scapegoat. There were so many guilty ones in Hollywood. So they all heaped their sins upon him and drove him out into the wilderness. I never understood the concept of scapegoat before but now I do.

robother said...

I guess we now are at the stage of #MeToo where the actresses that knew and blew (and kept their mouth shut afterwards) to get the roles are sharing their stories. The show must go on. Will this mean Harvey Weinstein will never get air-kissed again at an LA power lunch? Will he never eat lunch in that town again? Stay tuned.

Oso Negro said...

"I was ultimately compliant" pretty much sums it up. She wanted fame so bad she would suck and fuck to get it. And now we are supposed to feel sorry for her. Not happening. Just another whore.

traditionalguy said...

Uma Thurman is one of my all time favorite personalities. If that makes me weird, then I plead to weirdness . But instead of calling her a whore for surviving Hollywood's peak insanity era , I am just happy that God made her such a special person.

William said...

She got to tell her tell all in the NYTimes, and she got Maureen Dowd to tell it. A definite star turn. Many young actresses can look to her example as the ideal way to tell their rape stories. This is a classy way to tell your rape story. I'm not knocking an interview with Oprah or even Ellen, but this is the classiest way to get the story out. Too many young women go to Access Hollywood or the police with their rape stories.

Big Mike said...

Just another whore.

But a very well-rewarded one.

Tank said...

@Michael

Both Kill Bills are great fun.

Oso Negro said...

@traditional guy - I am not calling her a whore for surviving Hollywood's peak insanity era. I am calling her a whore for being a whore.

Big Mike said...

I have to agree with DickinBimbos and Humperdink. What sort of idiot puts one of his leads in a patently unsafe car in the middle of a shoot? She gets seriously injured and your shooting schedule goes to near zero until she gets out of the hospital. If she dies, of her face is disfigured, every frame you’ve shot is headed for the dumpster while you start over.

For the benefit of you younger folks, a Karmann Ghia was fundamentally a 1960s era VW Beetle, with the 1300 flat four engine, but with sexier bodywork. Since the engine was in the back the gas tank was in front, just ahead of the dashboard. Not the world’s safest or best-handling sports car.

Humperdink said...

Paraphrasing the famous quote:

Winston Churchill: "Madam, would you sleep with me for five million dollars and 10 movie roles?"

Actress: "My goodness, Mr. Churchill... Well, I suppose... we would have to discuss terms, of course... "

Churchill: "Would you sleep with me for five dollars?"

Actress: "Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!"

Churchill: "Madam, we've already established that. Now we are haggling about the price”

Fandor said...

Hollywood is a sad and discusting place. We have to vote with our money and boycott the movie theaters. The movie industry has not had an original idea for a script in decades. Everything is recycled from 60s tv shows or refighting battles that have been won (i.e. The Civil Rights movement) or reimagining history to conform to current political sensibilities. No one, with the exception of old hands, like Clint Eastwood or Woody Allen, knows how to put a tight movie narrative together. Most films, like Hollywood itself. is a downer, catering to the lowest common denominator in every way. There is nothing entertaining, films or news, that comes out of Hollywood! The industry died when the last of the golden era big studios closed.

traditionalguy said...

And pray tell me what is the status of Winston Churchill's mother in this comment thread of legalistic assholes.

Humperdink said...

Paraphrasing a line from Casablanca: "I am shocked—shocked—to find that a casting couch is going on in here!"

Not sure if Churchill's mother was in the movie.

mockturtle said...

And pray tell me what is the status of Winston Churchill's mother in this comment thread of legalistic assholes.

Jennie was never paid, to my knowledge, for her whoredoms. Not even a movie part.

bagoh20 said...

Many of us come across opportunities to either make lots of money or have sex with an attractive person if we just agree to do something we find far outside our personal principles, but most of us decide to not do it. Both the sexual assaulter and the person accepting it for personal gain are making a calculation they have a hard time admitting to afterward.

How many women would accept having sex with someone only for a million dollar career, and how many men would be willing to force a woman into that deal if they could? I think the percentage is high, and if they were sure it would never be found out, the % is very high. I believe most who sacrifice their principles in this way assume it will stay unknown. Then decades later it comes out.

Robert Cook said...

"Leftist dominated institutions always seem to have a casting couch."

Don't be so childishly obtuse. "Casting couches" and domination by the powerful over the powerless is found everywhere, and is not unique to any political orientation.

Bay Area Guy said...

@DE Cloutier,

"Pulp Fiction" is my favorite movie. I also liked "Get Shorty."

I'm with you on Get Shorty - one of my favorite Elmore Leonard books and movies. As an aside, I'm friendly with the black dude in Get Shorty, Delroy Lindo. Great guy, lives in the Bay Area, his kid and mine are pals. Don't know if he's been in anything lately, except for a remake of "Point Break".

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Many of us come across opportunities to either make lots of money or have sex with an attractive person if we just agree to do something we find far outside our personal principles, but most of us decide to not do it. Both the sexual assaulter and the person accepting it for personal gain are making a calculation they have a hard time admitting to afterward.

How many women would accept having sex with someone only for a million dollar career, and how many men would be willing to force a woman into that deal if they could? I think the percentage is high, and if they were sure it would never be found out, the % is very high. I believe most who sacrifice their principles in this way assume it will stay unknown. Then decades later it comes out.


This are true and humane observations, but it's more fun to call people whores. Evidently. @@

Big Mike said...

”Casting couches" and domination by the powerful over the powerless is found everywhere, and is not unique to any political orientation.

The reason why you’re wrong, Cookie, is that right of center organizations are subject to greater scrutiny, and even allegations that are bullshit on their face can get some play in the media. Institutions that are “woke” get a pass until things get so bad it can’t be ignored anymore.

Narayanan said...

Isn't getting spiked a form of editorial rape? Dowd should invite Ronan to share his ordeal.

Would NY Times spike her!?

Jupiter said...

"(Tarantino aficionados spy an echo of Thurman’s crash in his 2007 movie, “Death Proof,” produced by Weinstein and starring Thurman’s stunt double, Zoë Bell. Young women, including a blond Rose McGowan, die in myriad ways, including by slamming into a windshield.)"

I have never seen a Quentin Tarantino movie. A friend of mine described Reservoir Dogs to me, and I knew all I needed to know about Quentin Tarantino and his movies. Nothing I have heard since makes me doubt that decision in any way. Two thousand years ago, these assholes would have been dreaming up new tortures for the slaves and Christians murdered in the Coloseum. It is a sad commentary on America that these vermin have attained almost unimaginable wealth selling sadistic fantasies to perverts. Kind of like Rap "Music" -- immense wealth from marketing sickness, filth and degeneracy.

readering said...

Sheesh. Everything left-right for some?

Pulp Fiction my girlfriend's favorite. For the dialogue in the set pieces more than the plot.
Well deserved screenplay oscar.

I thought I would hate a-historical Inglorious Basterds but I actually found it immensely enjoyable for the same reason. Well deserved supporting actor oscar.

Jupiter said...

rcocean said...
"Watching the car crash was bizarre. What happened? She seemed fine, then started weaving from side to side and crashed."

She had no clue how to drive with bad traction. Oversteer in the first slight skid, fishtail and overcorrect, and then you're spinning.

Jupiter said...

One day two Christian women were dragged into the Coloseum naked in a huge net. The younger one had recently given birth, and her nipples were leaking milk. The Roman mob decided that was a bit too much, and they had them take her back and put her clothes back on before they let the lions rip her to pieces. Tarantino would have loved to get that on film.

mockturtle said...

Jupiter: Your criticism of Tarantino movies leads me to believe that you fail to see the humor in them. They are decidedly tongue-in-cheek. My older daughter and I find new things to laugh about every time we watch Kill Bill. If your tastes don't run toward dark humor, it wouldn't amuse you.

mockturtle said...

You probably didn't like Monty Python, either.

David said...

In happier news . . .

HALL OF FAMER JERRY KRAMER!

The rhymin' lineman.

iowan2 said...

I made the comment early on, What about Oprah???? One of the most powerful media moguls in the world, and the public is supposed to believe she did not have a clue about what was, and most likely, still going on? Walk around in their vag hats and curse President Trump. While powerful women actively protected the status quo.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I no longer partake in anything mainstream Hillarywoodland vomits, but I admit to being surprised at liking the Kill Bill movies.

I cannot stand violence and Kill Bill is violent. However, the violence in KB is a bit cartoonish. Come on - one women with a sword fighting hundreds of skilled assassins and ninja freakas with spiked chain balls and bad ass kill-skilz -- and she prevails leaving them all dead. riiiight.

It was revenge porn, no doubt, but it worked.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"With the exception of Atomic Blonde, where it was deliberate for humor. The guy keeps bouncing back."

I just watched that the other day. Nice twist at the end.

chuck said...

> Jennie was never paid, to my knowledge, for her whoredoms. Not even a movie part.

Aristocrat privilege.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Beating yourself up over making a safe rational decision, at a time when you had no idea what the future would bring?

Uma looked out for number one.

D.E. Cloutier said...

Bay Area Guy: "Delroy Lindo. Great guy."

That's nice to know.

I've met a lot of nice guys in the entertainment industry. Chuck Norris is one. Michael Constantine ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") is one. Gene Barry ("Bat Masterson, "Burke's Law") was another.

I never was a fan of Tony Curtis. But he was absolutely delightful when he visited my office. He took time to chat with every employee in the building.

Jack Kelly (Bart Maverick) was a personal friend. He was very down-to-earth. I always enjoyed my conversations with him.

Paul said...

But all those young women put up with Weinstein cause they all wanted MONEY. They wanted to be a famous actress and make lots and lots of M..O..N..E..Y.

And only now, after making that money, do they come out of the closet.

Sprezzatura said...

"They are decidedly tongue-in-cheek."

Not to mention the intentional Kurosawa/Spag West hints. Which a "Good Bad and Ug" fan like Mock would appreciate.

Big Mike said...

Building on what Jupiter commented upthread, here's a summary of the Karmann Ghia's handling extracted from this excellent article.

"Based on the ruggedly simple but far from sporty underpinnings of their Beetle, Volkswagen's Karmann Ghia debuted with an underwhelming 36 horsepower and a swing-axle rear suspension prone to induce snap oversteer in frisky corners." [emphasis mine]

For those who do not remember the Corvair, the original Corvair's swing axles and the consequent risk of snap oversteer were what Ralph Nader built his career on. Bottom line, an ordinary driver -- not a racing pro -- trying to correct a slight skid that turns into an oversteer is lucky not to flip over onto the roof. Oh, that's right. Thurman's car didn't have a roof.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paddy O said...

"Not the world’s safest or best-handling sports car."

I had a '68 Ghia, my first car, back in the early 90s. It was a really fun car to drive. You felt the road, and it had a big ol' steering wheel. It was like kayaking. I thought it had great steering. No power, but great control.

I wouldn't take the car on the freeway though. Great around town.

Loved that car, miss that car.

walter said...

My god. Reduced to burning pizza boxes for heat.

Sprezzatura said...

"You felt the road, and it had a big ol' steering wheel. It was like kayaking."

What?

If guessing, I'd assume that feeling the road is meant to be similar to being near the water in a kayak. Of course, it's fun to roll a kayak. And edging is fun when you want to turn a sea kayak quickly (by changing the shape of the hull at the waterline.) Rolling and/or edging a car seems like a bad idea.

Actually, for most people edging and (especially) rolling a kayak is probably not a good idea. Assuming most folks don't know how.


IMHO.


William said...

I'm presently reading The Whisperers by Orlando Figes. Figes tells the story of Tatiana Okunevskaia. Tatiana was an actress in the Moscow film industry in the thirties. She was very beautiful and came to the attention of the NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria. He raped her repeatedly, whenever the fancy took him. She took to drink and became loud and outspoken against the regime. Her husband, who was on the Central Committee, felt he had a patriotic duty to denounce her. She was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp......She did get to live long enough to write her memoirs in 1998 and thereby gain a measure of revenge. It's an interesting story. I'd like to see someone like Dalton Trumbo do a film treatment of her life. It wold offer a comeback role for Kevin Spacey, and Uma could be given some really biting lines. Moreover, Hollywood doesn't look so bad compared to the Moscow film industry in the thirties. Weinstein never actually sent anyone to Siberia.

Ralph L said...

What was she doing living on her own at 16?

If she hadn't been abused as a teenager (or earlier), would she have put up with it as an adult?

Lewis Wetzel said...

Yep, William, Beria was a bad one. A sadistic sexual psychopath. We are supposed to be grateful that Khruschev pulled a coup had Beria arrested and executed, but that story seems a little too pat for me. Khruschev was a true believer. The things that repel us about Beria may not have influenced Khruschev.

Anonymous said...

I read the whole article, and I really don't get what the car accident has to do with Weinstein. Is she implying that Weinstein induced Tarantino to try to kill her? Is she suggesting that, in general, Hollywood males treat Hollywood females badly? Or is she just dredging up everything bad that ever happened to her, including the unnamed 20-year-older guy who tried to have his way with her?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I'm with you on Get Shorty - one of my favorite Elmore Leonard books and movies.

Shocked no one here brought up Be Cool, the underrated sequel to Get Shorty. That is a lot of fun and costars (guess who) Uma Thurman. Check it out.

Big Mike said...

Beria was a bad one. A sadistic sexual psychopath.

And a hero to Robert Cook!

rhhardin said...

I like oversteer and never had any trouble with it. It made driving easier, in fact.

Maybe a skill from tail-dragger airplanes, which are hyper-oversteer on the ground, the center of gravity being aft of the main landing gear.

Paddy O said...

I meant you feel close, a part of, the road, the same a kayak gives you a sense of current and wave and being part of the water, so close to it.

Saint Croix said...

I was struck by this bit.

“I followed him through a door and it was a steam room. And I was standing there in my full black leather outfit — boots, pants, jacket. And it was so hot and I said, ‘This is ridiculous, what are you doing?’ And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped up and ran out.”

What's striking about this is how these men are trying to craft a fantasy. And Uma is the star of the fantasy. And the fantasy keeps going even when the cameras aren't shooting.

I mean, she's in his hotel room wearing the leather suit. I'm wondering how that happened. "Come up to my hotel room for a script conference. And make sure you wear the leather suit." Or maybe it was her idea to wear the leather suit. Anyway, she's in the steam room, in the leather suit, and she breaks character. "This is ridiculous.".

And the fantasy falls apart. He got flustered and angry and he jumped up and ran out..

I feel like this is lesson #1 in sexual relations. Be aware of the fantasy and if you don't want to play a part in it, you have to break the fantasy.

sdharms said...

someone please tell Hollywood that they are so yesterdays news. I am sick of hearing from these women. there are BIGGER FISH to fry --

Peter said...

"...I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of.”

Wow, deep. So says the Hollywood knockout who became rich and famous starring in movies like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. All these stories involve indefensible male misbehavior ranging from criminal to creepy, but honestly, that sounds like a rich middle-aged Lolita declaring that we have to "evolve out of" weirdos who like young girls. It's becoming harder and harder not to roll one's eyes about the fragilities and naivety of some of these victims. Maybe we should first evolve out of the era where beautiful women dressed in leather visit the hotel rooms of powerful men without chaperones or martial arts training.

tim maguire said...

"He made a movie about empowering women! How could he not be about empowering women?"

"He was successful in Hollywood! How could he be a bad person?"

Every time a star opens their mouth, they find a new way to show me how stupid they are.

Oso Negro said...

@i have misplaced my pants - the term “whore” is what we call a woman who puzzles through Bagoh’s long moral calculus and swaps pussy for pay. Maybe you film cultists prefer to call the high end whores of Hollywood “actresses”. As for myself, I have nothing whatever against a cheerful whore. But here we have a bunch of whiny whores (if we aren’t conflating actual rapes with business transactions). Their main complaint - “that nasty man wanted the vaginal access I sold him!” The horror! I suppose that soon enough Hollywood agents will be accused of the dread “human trafficking”.

Shouting Thomas said...

Althouse continues her civil rights crusade for rich women. Poor dears.

Uma was my next door neighbor for some years in Woodstock. Saw her frequently at the post office. (No home delivery in our rural area.)

My parents were non-union factory workers, Ann.

I kinda grew up knowing people would screw me over and take advantage of me. They tried and sometimes succeeded.

Ann continues her lifelong career as the Martin Luther King of rich women. You're an inspiration, Ann! What courage! What selfless devotion in the face of... well, nothing.

My heart is aches for Uma and her massive estate.

Shouting Thomas said...

As much as buggery disgusts me, I would have let Weinstein fuck me up the ass for the career and wealth Uma has.

So would most sensible people.

You can always take a shower afterward.

Shouting Thomas said...

This maudlin bullshit Althouse is peddling is disgusting.

I was in the music biz my entire life and I also worked in video, so I was always around actors.

There are thousands, literally, of musicians and actors who could have been peddled as stars. The skills involved are really quite simple and any person can master them in a short time.

Which ones succeed and are peddled by the arts industries? The ones that project fuckability.

This is especially true in movies. Weinstein was test driving the women for fuckability. In this respect, he was properly assessing what the audience wants.

You live (and apparently always have lived) in a boring, sedate, antiseptic world, Althouse. People are sinners. The rest of us didn't sit on our asses in a sinecure in academia our entire lives where we can assume the moral grandeur you pretend to.

Shouting Thomas said...

I lived across the road from one of the great rock promoters of our lifetime for 10 years in Woodstock.

He never once spoke to me or acknowledged that I existed during those years.

My late wife, Myrna, arrived in Woodstock years after I bought a different house. Myrna was an absolutely stunning Filipino beauty and a spectacular dancer, singer and front person for a band.

Suddenly, this promoter who never spoke to me started inviting Myrna and me to have drinks with him at the Little Bear, a trendy cafe, after we finished our local gig on Saturday nights. He went so far as to begin to suggest that we front his plans to stage concerts in China.

Myrna died before those ambitions were attained. That promoter, when I see him now, pretends he doesn't know who I am. Myrna's physical beauty was the draw. Of course, she was a competent dancer, singer, front person, too, but there are, as I said, thousands of those.

Shouting Thomas said...

Interestingly, Myrna met Uma on one occasion of little importance... a chance meeting.

I watched "Kill Bill" with Myrna. Myrna was a tough kid who grew up in the gutter in Manila. She really did know how to fight. Although she was 5 foot tall and weight 90 pounds, I would have bet on her beating the hell out of a huge white American man.

Her reaction to that movie? She thought that the depiction of an obviously sedate U.S. white woman who had clearly never been in a fight in her life out dueling an Asian female martial arts master was ridiculous, unbelievable bullshit.

She was right, too.

Weinstein flattered you with that movie. He flattered you with the notion that a sedate, wispy American white woman who never experienced the real terror of fighting would win over an Asian martial arts master.

stlcdr said...

It’s a sad story. It, again, reinforces how immoral Hollywood and that entertainment industry is/can be. It’s a big industry, but, unfortunately, a lot of stars have made it their business to tell the rest of the world how to behave and what the right thing is (everything from using only 1 sheet of toilet paper, to stop using gas because global warming).

These instances aren’t all that long ago. The real world learned that this is not the right behavior well before this.

It’s tough for these people (mostly women). To be both a victim and culpable for the situation they are in.

Shouting Thomas said...

I don't want the world you're intent on creating, Althouse.

To paraphrase Mark Twain: I'd rather live in Hell than in Episcopal Heaven.

I had to put up with your obsessions in my stints in an office. Why anybody wants that shit, what Henry Miller called "The Air Conditioned Nightmare" beats me.

I like the world dirty, rough, sexy and full of adventure. Your vision of what the world should be is a fucking bore.

Peter said...

@ Shouting Thomas

If you are so "f&%king bored" why do you keep posting compulsively and repeatedly? Does your dirty, rough, sexy world full of adventure leave you with lots of spare time at the end of the day?

FIDO said...

Shouting Thomas:


I don't know. I happen to like standards. They make women feel safer and freer.

Women in America ARE safe and free. It is Feminism which is trying to destroy normal male/female interactions. That 'vive le difference' which is despised by Golden Retriever owning, flannel wearing, misandrist Gender Studies professors who will never grant that women's rights have advanced a jot or tittle.

Ms. Althouse, while a blue stocking prude who insists that women not only have all reproductive rights but should be allowed to dismiss any inconvenient male sexual needs*, has been pretty fair at puncturing some (not all) of the inconsistency, unfairness and in some cases, lunacy in Feminism.

More so than many women bloggers I've read, at least.




* "Shouldn't a man only want to have sex with a woman who wants it" is as stupid as saying 'shouldn't a man only get AS hungry as a woman? Shouldn't a man only want to eat what a woman wants to eat?'

No. As Linda in Peaky Blinders said: Keep his balls empty and his belly full.

Oso Negro said...

@Fido - I don't remember that line from Peaky Blinders, but my hearing is shot and I thought they mumbled a lot.

FIDO said...

Season 4, episode 2 or 3 when Linda went to the office to seduce Arthur into not going to the family meeting. Saw it last week.

Try close captioning. My wife found the accents off putting as well.

Shouting Thomas said...

@Peter

I'm a story teller.

I just told you a story based on decades of experience in the music and show biz industries.

It's a story that illustrates why that biz operates as it does and why, after all of Althouse's puritanical feminism is forgotten, it will continue to operate precisely in the same fashion.

The music and show biz industries provide what the audience wants. I've just told you what the audience actually wants.

That audience doesn't want what Althouse thinks it should want. In this case, we've met the enemy and he is us.

I hate having to explain the morals of my own stories.

Oso Negro said...

@FIDO - thanks pal! I tried to find closed caption, but i couldn’t make it work for that show. I am looking forward to having one of my kids come to visit and set it up for me. I look forward to watching it all again to enjoy the other 50% of the dialogue.

mockturtle said...

Shouting Thomas announces: As much as buggery disgusts me, I would have let Weinstein fuck me up the ass for the career and wealth Uma has.

So would most sensible people.


Count me not sensible, then, Thomas. I think you are very wrong. If money were more important than self-respect then all women would become prostitutes. The kind of amorality that you express [and you could just be pulling our collective leg] leads to misery, not happiness.

Shouting Thomas said...

@mockturtle

I just assume you're innocent of ever having been offered the seduction and also unlikely to ever receive the offer.

Which makes it easy to announce your virtue over refusing it.

This is a peculiar manifestation of the soft, sedate easy life free of the threat of real danger that seduces Americans into over estimating their moral valor.

MikeR said...

"‘Kill Bill,’ a movie that symbolizes female empowerment." Sigh. "Wonder Woman" and "Kill Bill". Fantasy, but I don't know if it's helpful fantasy. Didn't anyone notice that in _real life_, women were chattel in Ancient Greece, women were chattel in feudal Japan. That's because men are stronger than women. You can teach women kung-fu and samurai (Kill Bill) and still somehow 99.9% of the samurai were men who treated helpless women like dirt.
The empowerment of women is from modern civilization, where it doesn't matter whether you can win a fistfight or a knife fight. Where being clever and hard-working can sometimes be enough to propel you to the top. Where we protect women from thugs by outlawing being a thug, not by becoming a better thug.
No, Uma. Female empowerment didn't come from Kill Bill. It comes from modern civilization, and any progressives who pine for the glories of pastoral societies ought to learn that.

mockturtle said...

MikeR, no true fan of Kill Bill would see it for anything but what it is: A highly amusing fantasy, often comedic, while being uber-violent. It is entertainment, not a training film for women's rights.

A samurai sword is clearly no match for an AR-15 or even a pistol, as was portrayed in that highly-entertaining scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Shouting Thomas said...

My Filipino wife considered Kill Bill a deliberate attempt to flatter soft feminist white women like Althouse.

The flattery part is pretending that a soft American woman could somehow defeat a hardened female Asian martial arts master.

The other part of the flattery is aimed at relieving American white women of the real fear that Asian women outflank them on two fronts, being more feminine and sexually attractive and being tougher and harder.

"Soft on the outside, hard on the inside," is a phrase you will hear often from Asian women.

My wife considered the movie a propaganda bit intended to alleviate white American women's fears at having to compete with Asian women for white men.

Oso Negro said...

@mockturtle - I'm with you! No Weinsteinian buggery for bucks!

mockturtle said...

@mockturtle - I'm with you! No Weinsteinian buggery for bucks!

Oso, that has a nice ring to it. No buggery for bucks!. Maybe it could be the new motto for Hollywood hopefuls.

Anonymous said...

I respect Mockturtle and I always enjoy her comments. However, I beg to differ regarding Kill Bill. It may be tongue in cheek, but that's exactly what makes it part of a culture of violence and densensitization to violence.

I'm with Gov. Bevin of Kentucky, who commented after the Marshall County school shooting: "We can't celebrate death in video games, celebrate death in TV shows, celebrate death in movies, celebrate death in musical lyrics and remove any sense of morality and sense of higher authority and then expect that things like this are not going to happen."

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

My wife considered the movie a propaganda bit intended to alleviate white American women's fears at having to compete with Asian women for white men.

ST, if we just tell you that everyone is soooooper jealous of you and your 90 lb LBFM will you shut up?

D.E. Cloutier said...

To: openidname

FYI (I have no interest in debating the issue):

From the University of York, United Kingdom, 16Jan18: "Researchers at the University of York have found no evidence to support the theory that video games make players more violent."

NOTE: The report also says, "We also only tested these theories on adults, so more work is needed to understand whether a different effect is evident in children players."

Link:
https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2018/research/no-evidence-to-link-violence-and-video-games/

EMyrt said...

I'll just copy and past robother's post, best of the thread

robother said...

The female revenge porn flic (e.g., Kill Bill) has always seemed to be a way Hollywood men and their male fans can have their cake and eat it too. It "empowers" the woman central character by more or less graphically depicting her rape and humiliation, which then justifies her and the cheering audience in the bloody (and usually sexually charged) revenge she wreaks on her victimizers.
2/3/18, 3:09 PM

EMyrt said...

Blogger jwl said...

Bay Area Guy - I was eighteen year old working at cinema in between high school and university and we had Dangerous Liaisons for about two months - I worked during day as usher and I learned quickly at exactly what time Thurman got topless. And then we got Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was also pleasing.

I probably watched that one minute seduction scene at least fifty times. I long been bewitched by Uma Thurman, she is lovely.

2/3/18, 3:20 PM

You mean the rape scene with Malkovich? Maybe it didn't look like that to an 18 year old male, but it made me squirm.
Some males in the audience cheered, and I remember thinking, "If that were my date, I'd be outta here so fast."

EMyrt said...

And Jupiter, I'm with you on Tarantino. Read about his films, have friends who enjoy and admire them. But too many psychedelics in my past; no way I want that shit living in my head.
And the Roman analogy is perfect, thanks. I'll reuse that one. The nursing mother anecdote really twists the knife.