The New Zealand Herald

Raybon Kan

- Continued from A32

going to the next round. As did so many others, brave and defiant, a clickbait photo gallery of “Where Are They Now?”

The New Yorker site has police audio, taped by a brave actress who’d been molested by him previously, wearing a wire.

It’s chilling. He works every angle in the space of a minute, trying to get the actress into his room — good cop, bad cop, multiple-personalit­y cop, beggar, bully, confidant, henchman, ally, assassin, and back again — no doubt the negotiatin­g tactics that made him a successful producer.

The menace is stone cold.

But the audio doesn’t seem to have been enough to start a prosecutio­n.

When you’re a star, they let you do it. More like, help you do it.

How many fixers were there? The people who delivered the actresses. Then the people to draft the settlement­s, haggle the victims down to below six figures, collect the signatures promising silence, agreeing nothing had happened. What a team. They really put the HR into harassment.

For a moment this week, he’d even enlisted Lisa Bloom (usually a lawyer for sex assault victims) to speak up for him. “He is an old dinosaur learning new ways,” she said, gobsmackin­gly, making his assaults seem

The New Yorker site has police audio, taped by a brave actress who’d been molested by him previously.

almost adorable, a sit-com dad listening to the kids’ music. Turns out she had a deal with his company to turn a book of hers into a TV show. Ultimately, she quit being his “adviser” but the point was made, and to her soul and her name, the damage done. That’s how powerful this guy was — up to a point, he found Lisa Bloom’s price — and that’s how powerful power is.

When Hugh Hefner died, there was a divergence of opinion: a hero of free speech, or an objectifyi­ng villain? (His robe seemed less sinister.) Times do change. Once upon a time, sexual harassment wasn’t even a phrase.

People have always joked about the casting couch. Acting is an industry where beauty is a relevant job qualificat­ion. Even the legit, above-board, job interview consists of being looked up and down, videoed (in close-up, mid-shot, fullbody), being asked to turn right around so we can take a look, thank you, being asked if she’ll do nudity, partial nudity, how comfortabl­e she is in a swimsuit. Make love to the camera. And this is when the audition is profession­al.

(In most other industries, in 2017, this would not be an acceptable job interview.)

But, the presence of a camera, numerous people in the room, lines to read, and in the hallway, a queue of others who look just like you, make this okay. Not just okay: an opportunit­y. For a prize.

At least now, to cross that bridge, there’s one less troll to get past.

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