For anyone thinking the days of the so-called casting couch were long gone, this past week has been eye-opening, as the growing list of women directing allegations of sexual harassment and rape at Harvey Weinstein suggests they never left Hollywood.
FIRST MAJOR SEX SCANDAL
In the first scandal to shake Hollywood, the comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle attended a wild party in San Francisco in 1921 that ended in the death of actress Virginia Rappe. Writhing in pain from a ruptured bladder, she accused Arbuckle of raping her. When she died days later, he was charged with murder, which was downgraded to manslaughter. Arbuckle was acquitted after three trials.
A tainted history: In the first scandal to shake Hollywood, comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle (right) attended a wild party in San Francisco in 1921, which ended in the death of starlet Virginia Rappe (pictured left the same year). Rappe, writhing in pain from a ruptured bladder, accused Arbuckle of raping her
A TORN DRESS
Actor Errol Flynn had a two-year affair with Beverly Aadland, starting when she was 15. At the time of the affair Flynn had already been accused – and found not guilty – of the statutory rape of two underage girls in 1942. ‘I was scared,’ Aadland wrote in People. ‘He was just too strong for me. I cried. At one point he tore my dress. Then he carried me off to another room, and I was still carrying on. What was going through my head was, what was I going to tell my mother?’
Actor Errol Flynn had a two-year affair with Beverly Aadland, starting when she was 15. He had already been accused, and found not guilty, of statutory rape of two underage girls in 1942 (both pictured on the set of Cuban Rebel Girls in 1959
‘BE NICE TO ME’
Joan Collins says she lost out on the lead role in Cleopatra because she wouldn’t sleep with the studio head. ‘I had tested for ‘Cleopatra’ twice and was the front-runner. He took me into his office and said, “You really want this part?” And I said, “Yes. I really do.” “Well,” he said, “then all you have to do is be nice to me.” It was a wonderful euphemism in the Sixties for you know what. But I couldn’t do that. In fact, I was rather wimpish, burst into tears and rushed out of his office.’ The role went to Elizabeth Taylor.
Joan Collins ( left) has said she lost the role of Cleopatra because she refused to sleep with the studio head. The role ended going to Elizabeth Taylor ( right as Cleopatra in 1960)
AMERICA’S LITTLE DARLING
In her memoir Child Star, actress Shirley Temple claimed that an MGM producer known to have an ‘adventuresome casting couch’ unzipped his trousers and exposed himself to her during their first meeting in 1940. She was 12. Being innocent of male anatomy, she responded with nervous laughter and he threw her out of his office. Fortunately, she had already signed her contract with MGM.
Former child star Shirley Temple claimed in her memoir that an MGM producer unzipped his trousers and exposed himself to her during their first meeting in 1940, when was only 12 years old (pictured a year before the alleged incident in 1941)
‘OVERCROWDED BROTHEL’
Marilyn Monroe was no stranger to lecherous studio chiefs and filmmakers, and in her memoir, My Story, she didn’t hold back: ‘I met them all. Phoniness and failure were all over them. Some were vicious and crooked. But they were as near to the movies as you could get. So you sat with them, listening to their lies and schemes. And you saw Hollywood with their eyes – an overcrowded b
rothel, a merry-go-round with beds for horses.’
In her memoir, My Story, icon Marilyn Monroe admitted she often came across ‘vicious and crooked’ Hollywood bigwigs but she ‘sat with them’ to get ‘near the movies’
GROPED FOR YEARS
Judy Garland was pawed and propositioned for sex by studio bigwigs at MGM between the ages of 16 and 20, according to author Gerald Clarke, who wrote ‘Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland.’ One of the most notorious harassers was allegedly Louis B. Mayer, the head of the studio. ‘Mayer would tell her what a wonderful singer she was, and he would say “you sing from the heart” and then he would place his hand on her left breast,’ Clarke wrote.
According to author Gerald Clarke, Judy Garland was harassed by many powerful men in the industry from ages 16 to 20, including, allegedly, MGM’s former head, Louis B. Mayer (both pictured in 1939)
STILL AT LARGE
Filmmaker Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with Samantha Geimer, then a 13-year-old aspiring actress, during a photo shoot in Los Angeles in 1977. He gave her champagne and Quaaludes. ‘I didn’t want to have sex,’ Geimer wrote in her memoir, The Girl. ”But apparently that is what was going to happen.’ Polanski fled the United States before final sentencing and is still wanted by judicial authorities. He has since faced more rape allegations.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski (right) pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with Samantha Geimer (left), then a 13-year-old aspiring actress, during a photo shoot in Los Angeles in 1977
AMERICA’S DAD
Bill Cosby, the ‘Cosby Show’ star once known as America’s Dad, is facing a retrial on charges he drugged and molested a former Temple University employee at his home in 2004. He could get 10 years in prison. Cosby has said the encounter was consensual. He is free on $1 million bail. Dozens of additional accusers have come forward, including 13 women whom prosecutors want to call as witnesses to show that they were drugged and violated in similar fashion.
Dozens of women have accused Bill Cosby of drugging and raping them. He is currently facing a retrial on chargers that he drugged and molested a former Temple University employee at his home in 2004 (pictured left during the Cosby Show days and right in April leaving court)
‘GOT THE WRONG GIRL’
Charlize Theron was new in Hollywood but knew the warning signs when she went to an audition. ‘I thought it was a little odd that the audition was on a Saturday night at his house in Los Angeles, but I thought maybe that was normal,’ she told Marie Claire in 2005. ‘I go inside and he’s offering me a drink, and I’m thinking, ‘My god, this acting stuff is very relaxed.’ But it soon becomes very clear what the situation was. I was like, ‘Not going to happen! Got the wrong girl, buddy!”
Oscar-winner Charlize Theron has said that when she was starting her career, a man asked her to audition for a role in his house in Los Angeles, and she quickly left after realizing ‘what the situation was’ (pictured in 2016)
OSCAR WINNER
Two women who worked on Casey Affleck’s film I’m Still Here filed sexual harassment lawsuits against him in 2010. One woman accused him of craw
ling into her bed without her consent while she was asleep, while the other woman said Affleck pressured her to stay in his hotel room and ‘violently’ grabbed her arm when she refused. Both claims were settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in 2010. Affleck has repeatedly denied the allegations. He went on to win the best actor Oscar for ‘Manchester by the Sea.’
Filmmaker Casey Affleck was accused of sexual harassment in 2010 by two women who worked on his film I’m Still Here. The claims were settled out of court and he would go on to win an Oscar for best actor in 2017 (pictured)
