What will be left to watch if the airbrushing continues?

That glorious actor Christopher Plummer has received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as J Paul Getty in All the Money in The World, a film in which he replaced Kevin Spacey just a month ago. Director Ridley Scott dumped the footage of Spacey following allegations of sexual assault that the actor failed to convincingly deny. Then he somehow spliced the veteran Sound of Music star into the gaps. I’m sure that 87-year-old Plummer makes a more convincing elderly billionaire than 58-year-old Spacey, who had to wear prosthetics.

Still, the nomination does seem to reek more of politics than performance. A way for a hypocritical Hollywood to position itself on the side of virtue, to regain some credibility following accusations against producer Harvey Weinstein, among others.

The fact that predatory, pampered stars and moguls have prospered in plain sight for so long must now be forgotten. But is it really such a good idea to start editing wrongdoers out of movies? And where will it all end? If you were to ban from the Christmas schedules, say, all actors, directors and producers who were creeps, what would you be left with? Bambi, that’s what. Not even that. Walt Disney was no cuddly woodland animal, that’s for sure. Charlie Chaplin married Lita Grey when he was 35 and she was 16 (she was also pregnant, and marriage was required to avoid a charge of sexual relations with a minor). Woody Allen married his own stepdaughter and has denied accusations of abuse by another.

And don’t even think of watching Bing Crosby singing White Christmas in Holiday Inn – not if you’ve read the infamous memoir by Bing’s son, Gary, in which he recounts the beatings he received from the much-loved crooner for being overweight. To be fair, his account was firmly denied by Gary’s brother, Phillip. Nonetheless, whoever you believe, Crosby was clearly a harsh disciplinarian. Now, he would probably be called a “child abuser”. Does knowing all that destroy his charm on screen, or ruin White Christmas?

The same kind of questions could be asked of Kevin Spacey. Spacey is only the latest in a line of major stars to have the shine rubbed off them. You can bet your Boxing Day family movie that he won’t be the last.

‘Spacey is only the latest in a line of stars to have the shine rubbed off them’