Molly Ringwald Endured Years Of Sexual Harassment And Degrading Remarks
In a New Yorker essay published Tuesday, Molly Ringwald came forward with accounts of the sexual harassment and assault she experienced in Hollywood throughout her teenage years and 20s.
Not long before “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club” made Ringwald one of the most distinguished 1980s stars, a 50-year-old crew member and a married director separately made lewd advances toward her, she recounted. Later, during an audition, she said a director told an actor to place a dog collar around her neck, even though the corresponding scene required no such prop.
Ringwald’s admissions arrived after dozens of actresses said Harvey Weinstein violated them, often in private hotel rooms where the notorious indie-film mogul attempted to harass them into sexual arrangements. Weinstein produced the 1990 romantic comedy “Strike it Rich,” which attracted Ringwald because it was different from the John Hughes movies that made her famous. Her interactions with Weinstein, who wasn’t yet the feared Oscar-campaign mastermind that he would soon become, were relatively benign.
“I was lucky,” Ringwald wrote in her essay.
Also nestled in Ringwald’s roundup of men’s misdeeds was a tidbit about a studio executive reportedly saying, “I wouldn’t know [Molly Ringwald] if she sat on my face.” Ringwald didn’t credit those words to a specific suit, but she did name the quote’s origins: a cover story in the respected magazine Movieline, printed when the actress was 24.
As usual, the internet has receipts. The article in question is available on Movieline’s online archives, attributing the degradation to Jeffrey Katzenberg, who chaired Walt Disney Studios before co-founding the lucrative DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. (Technically, the remark first appeared in Esquire, in a May 1994 profile of Katzenberg.)
According to the book “Down and Dirty Pictures,” it was Katzenberg’s suggestion that Disney purchase Miramax, the distribution company Weinstein launched in 1979. After Katzenberg left Disney in 1994, one year after the Mouse House acquired Miramax, he and Weinstein remained friends and business rivals, often clashing as their respective studios competed. In 1998, for example, Weinstein helped to engineer a costly awards campaign for “Shakespeare in Love,” leading to a surprise Best Picture victory over the favored “Saving Private Ryan,” a DreamWorks release.
As Ringwald pointed out, Katzenberg was also one of the first Hollywood executives to denounce Weinstein after news of his alleged misconduct broke. Weinstein had sent an email to industry friends asking for support, and Katzenberg shared his response with The Hollywood Reporter: “You have done terrible things to a number of women over a period of years. I cannot in any way say this is OK with me ... It’s not at all, and I am sickened by it, angry with you and incredibly disappointed in you. There appear to be two Harvey Weinsteins ... one that I have known well, appreciated and admired and another that I have not known at all.”
However genuine Katzenberg’s castigation of Weinstein may be, he, too, is now indicted on the ever-growing list of powerful men who spoke of young actresses’ bodies as playthings. “Maybe he was misquoted,” Ringwald said. “If he ever sent a note of apology, it must have gotten lost in the mail.”
On Tuesday, Katzenberg, who one day earlier had again condemned Weinstein, calling him a “monster,” said he doesn’t remember saying such a thing about Ringwald. He became the latest of many who owe apologies to the women (or men) they’ve demeaned.
“That Molly Ringwald had to read those words attributed to me and believe I said them is horrifying, mortifying and embarrassing to me,” Katzenberg said in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter. “Anyone who knows me now or back then knows I do not use language like that as a matter of course, or tolerate it. Ms. Ringwald, 22 years too late, I am deeply, deeply sorry.”
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Ashley Judd
She told the Times that she thought, “How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?”
Gwyneth Paltrow
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said, noting that when Weinstein found out she told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt, "I thought he was going to fire me."
Angelina Jolie
Kate Winslet
"I had hoped that these kind of stories were just made up rumours, maybe we have all been naïve," she said. "And it makes me so angry. There must be ‘no tolerance’ of this degrading, vile treatment of women in ANY workplace anywhere in the world.”
Meryl Streep
“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported," she said in a statement.
Rose McGowan
After The Weinstein Company fired Harvey, the actress and director called on the rest of the studio's board to resign.
"They knew," she said in a tweet. "They funded. They advised. They covered up. They must be exposed. They must resign."
Ben Affleck
Actress Rose McGowan denounced Affleck for implying that he didn't know of the abuse before this week, saying that the pair had previously discussed Weinstein's treatment of her.
"You lie," she tweeted.
Lena Dunham
"Abuse, threats and coercion have been the norm for so many women trying to do business or make art," she wrote. "Mr. Weinstein may be the most powerful man in Hollywood to be revealed as a predator, but he’s certainly not the only one who has been allowed to run wild. His behavior, silently co-signed for decades by employees and collaborators, is a microcosm of what has been happening in Hollywood since always and of what workplace harassment looks like for women everywhere."
George Clooney
"A good bunch of people that I know would say, “Yeah, Harvey’s a dog” or “Harvey’s chasing girls,” but again, this is a very different kind of thing," the actor told the Daily Beast. "This is harassment on a very high level. And there’s an argument that everyone is complicit in it. I suppose the argument would be that it’s not just about Hollywood, but about all of us—that every time you see someone using their power and influence to take advantage of someone without power and influence and you don’t speak up, you’re complicit. And there’s no question about that."
Jennifer Lawrence
"I worked with Harvey five years ago, and I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations. This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting," Lawrence said in a statement. "My heart goes out to all of the women affected by these gross actions. And I want to thank them for their bravery to come forward."
Hillary Clinton
Clinton said that she "was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior."
Barack and Michelle Obama
"Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein," the Obamas said in a statement. "Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status. We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories. And we all need to build a culture -- including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect -- so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future."
Judi Dench
"Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offenses which are, of course, horrifying and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and whole-hearted support to those who have spoken out," she said in a statement.
Leonardo DiCaprio
"There is no excuse for sexual harrassment or sexual assault-- no matter who you are and no matter what profession," DiCarpio said in a Facebook Post. "I applaud the strength and courage of the women who came forward and made their voices heard."
Jessica Chastain
"I was warned from the beginning" about Weinstein, she said in a tweet. "The stories were everywhere. To deny that is to create an environment for it to happen again."
Julianne Moore
Colin Firth
“It must have been terrifying for these women to step up and call him out. And horrifying to be subjected to that kind of harassment. I applaud their courage."
Tamron Hall
Blake Lively
The actress said that she was unaware of the abuse but admitted that "it's devastating to hear."
"It's important that women are furious right now. It's important that there is an uprising. It's important that we don't stand for this and that we don't focus on one or two or three or four stories. It's important that we focus on humanity in general and say, 'This is unacceptable.'"
Julia Roberts
Ryan Gosling
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