Bill Cosby, once called “America’s Dad”, has had a major fall from grace in the past few days.
Last week, he was declared guilty in a criminal sexual assault case stemming from a rape he committed almost 15 years ago.
And now as of yesterday, he’s been officially expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (For those of you who live in God’s America, that’s the body of hoity-toity Hollywood elites who run the Oscars.)
Along with Cosby, the Academy also finally kicked out director Roman Polanski. (Infamous for pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13 year old girl and then fleeing the country hours before his sentencing.)
This is a surprising turn around on the part of the Academy, which has supported Roman Polanski – a convicted child rapist – for many years. (In 2003 they even gave him an Oscar.)
It’s encouraging, in a way, to see the Academy punishing its more unsavory members, even if the punishments are decades overdue. But the corruption of the self-serving leftoid cultural elite cannot be overstated.
Every single member of the Motion Picture Academy knew that Polanski was guilty. Most probably knew that Cosby was guilty as well.
And yet it has taken them thirty years or more to chase these rats out of their house. Shameful.
Despite all the finger-wagging and tsk-tsking that Hollywood aims at the residents of Real America, despite their self-righteous preaching and name-calling, Hollywood is just as wicked and misogynistic as anywhere else. More-so, in fact.
Where else in America could a man write and direct a movie about a woman who is raped by Satan, and, instead of being ridden out of town on a rail, be given tremendous applause and acclaim for his artistic vision and brilliant daring?
But that’s exactly what happened with Roman Polanski. Rosemary’s Baby, his most famous film, is a profoundly disturbing piece of work about a woman who gives birth to the Antichrist. It’s baffling that anybody could watch that movie and not believe its writer-director was a bit out of whack.
And yet Hollywood hooligans have been lining up to defend Polanski for decades, even in the face of his own admissions of guilt. Major criticism of Polanski by his movie-industry peers has only developed in the past few years, with the increasing awareness of sexual assault in Hollywood, and most recently the #MeToo movement.
All this to say, the Academy’s decision to kick out Polanski is well overdue. It makes the decision to kick out Bill Cosby seem almost hasty by comparison. After all, Cosby was just convicted last week. Roman Polanski has been guilty since 1977. But both are equally deserving of condemnation, and both were shielded by their fellows in Hollywood for far too long.
Bill Cosby was portrayed for years as a voice of wisdom in the black community. A sober, responsible, upstanding elder-statesman type. His opinions were sought on a broad range of issues. Cosby seemed like the perfect figure to offer sage advice (and sometimes criticism) from his pedestal of apparently well-deserved celebrity.
But Cosby’s fall, though it may seem swift, has been in the works for almost as long as Polanksi’s. His main accuser, Andrea Constand, first accused Cosby of sexual assault in 2005. The fact that Cosby went 13 years without any real professional repercussions ought to astound anyone with a moral compass.
Cosby was still being invited to speak to audiences, still being given acclaim, still being treated as a figure worthy of respect and emulation, for that entire period. Sure, they never gave him an Oscar, like they did for Polanski. And sure, he was never proven guilty in a court of law (the Constand case was initially settled out of court until new evidence came to light) until now.
But Andrea Constand’s allegations were not the first against Cosby. Other accusers had come forward, through the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000s. But even when they were given a platform to tell their stories (which was rare), they weren’t believed or given broad publicity. Because, at the end of the day, Hollywood protects its own.
There was money to be made in the business of praising Bill Cosby. There were interviews to give, there were book tours to organize, there were re-runs of The Cosby Show to air. Nobody in the whole entire media industry wanted to risk tarnishing the image of the puddin’ pop grampa with the zig-zag sweaters and the infectious grin.
But that image was a falsehood, concealing the leering face of a man who drugged his victims with pills so they couldn’t move their hands, couldn’t feel their legs, couldn’t push away from his bloated body as he forced himself on them. The “America’s Dad” act was a sham, and anybody willing to do a little digging could’ve figured that out.
But the pretty lie was so much more profitable than the ugly truth. And that’s why it took Hollywood decades to condemn Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski. Because Tinseltown is a city of professional liars and frauds, and people who make billions dressing them up and filming them.
If anything, it’s a surprise the Academy actually took these steps at all. It certainly took them long enough.