Shining a light on steps to help women
After a momentous year in which Hollywood began to confront sexism and sexual misconduct in the industry, the tenor of interviews on the Academy Awards red carpet often carried a decidedly different tone.
Oscars presenter Ashley Judd brought Mira Sorvino to the ceremony as her date Sunday night. The two women had plenty to say about disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein and the Time’s Up movement that grew after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment.
“I want people to know that this movement isn’t stopping,” Sorvino told Vanity Fair’s Krista Smith during ABC’s red carpet coverage. “We’re going forward until we have an equitable and safe world for women.”
Time’s Up advocate Sorvino, who won her supporting actress Oscar for 1995’s “Mighty Aphrodite,” said she is actively supporting anti-sexual harassment legislation in California.
“We want to take our activism and our power into action and change things for every woman, everywhere working in any workplace,” Sorvino said.
What’s so spectacular about this moment, Judd said, is that finally the world is able to hear. “We women, one, our voices have been squelched, and two, those of us who have come forward, we’ve often been disbelieved, minimized, shamed. So much of the movement is about externalizing that shame and putting it back where it belongs, which is with the perpetrator.”
Judd described them as “phoenixes that can light the way” in Hollywood and beyond.
The women noted that 20,000 people have donated to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which has raised more than $21 million since it was established at the beginning of the year. — Nardine Saad
#MeToo’s got a lot to do
Tarana Burke, the #MeToo founder, walked the Oscars red carpet with a key question lingering in the air: What next?
“We’ve only been talking about sexual violence for four months, so when people are already rushed to say what’s next, we have a lot to unpack where we are right now,” Burke said.
“And so we’re continuing to unpack and look at sexual violence, and really, what’s next is figuring out how to get sexual violence resources. We have millions of people around the world who have opened up and are talking about their needs, and now we need to figure out how to meet those needs.” — Tre’vell Anderson
Putting him on the spot
As Ryan Seacrest soldiered through interviews on the red carpet, he initially managed to escape any allusions to the sexual harassment allegation recently leveled against him.
Taraji P. Henson, however, didn’t get the memo.
“You know what, the universe has a way of taking care of the good people,” Henson said to Seacrest directly, flicking a finger under his chin as she continued, “You know what I mean?” Seacrest replied, “I agree.” The “American Idol” host has since October denied the accusations made by his former stylist, Suzie Hardy.
In November, a third-party investigator hired by E! News found insufficient evidence of misconduct.
Hardy went public with details last week. — Nardine Saad
Humbled and grateful
Mary J. Blige, a supporting actress nominee for “Mudbound,” said she was deeply moved by her first Oscar experience.
“I've never been to the Oscars before in my life and this just makes me want to cry,” she said on the red carpet.
“Just to be here as an actress and to be here for music. To be nominated for acting and to be nominated for what I do already. I don’t know, I feel lightheaded, I feel humbled, so blessed. It’s a huge blessing. Man doesn’t do this. This is all God. Man can't do this.”