‘Saturday Night Live’ Takes on Harvey Weinstein: ‘Pandora’s Box is Open and Pandora’s Pissed’ (Watch)
Just hours after Harvey Weinstein was kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “Saturday Night Live” responded with a sketch that saw Aidy Bryant moderating a panel of three screen legends discussing sexual harassment in the industry through the years.
Leslie Jones played Viola Davis, Cecily Strong played Marion Cotillard, and Kate McKinnon reprised her role as fictional one-time starlet Debette Goldry. Goldry was the one who truly kicked off the discussion by saying, “Women being harassed is Hollywood. Everything old is new again. Producers harassing starlets, there’s nazis march in the street, suddenly nude pantyhose are on trend. I’ve never felt more at home.”
Bryant asked the women if they had ever experienced harassment when on the job, and both Jones’ Davis and Strong’s Cotillard offered non-specific examples, but again it was McKinnon’s Goldry who went all-in on Weinstein, claiming she had a meeting with him once.
“I was invited to his hotel room, and when I arrived, he was naked, hanging upside down from a monkey bar. He tried to trick me into thinking his genitals were actually his face. It almost worked. The resemblance is uncanny,” she said.
The women discussed the culture and lack of accountability in Hollywood (“It’s a real ‘you scratch my back, I’ll keep mum about the girl who drowned at your pool party’ situation,” McKinnon’s Goldry said), as well as the so-called “whisper system” created to help warn up-and-coming actresses about known predators. Once again, McKinnon’s Goldry confirmed that by saying in her day they “had a secret code among us actresses to warn each other about creeps. The code was, ‘He raped me.'”
Just last week “Saturday Night Live” opted to cut jokes about Weinstein, saying the jokes “did not resonate” with the audience during dress rehearsal. But after a week that saw the scandal deepen and dozens more women come forward with tales of harassment, abuse and rape, the show could stay silent no longer.
“Violence against women, it doesn’t just happen to famous actresses, it’s everywhere. Pandora’s box is open now, and Pandora’s pissed. Who’s with me?” McKinnon’s Goldry said.
Watch the sketch below:
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