Oscars chief accused of sex harassment

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is reportedly investigating its president over claims of sexual harassment, after he was implicated through a whistleblowing system he helped implement in the wake of earlier #MeToo scandals.

The academy received three claims of harassment against John Bailey on Wednesday, Variety wrote. If found at fault, he could be expelled under rules that did not exist before his election last year.

While the academy has not confirmed its president is under investigation, it released a statement referring to an ongoing “review.”

Bailey, a cinematographer whose work dates to the 1970s and includes acclaimed films such as “Groundhog Day,” was elected as the academy’s leader in August, just weeks before a series of sex scandals went public and upended the film industry.

Two months after Bailey’s election, the powerful film producer Harvey Weinstein was publicly accused of demanding sexual favors from women, behavior that had apparently been widely known and tolerated in Hollywood for years. These reports inspired a chain of similar accusations — the #MeToo movement.

The group’s Board of Governors voted to expel Weinstein days after his scandal was first reported by The New York Times, vowing to reform itself.

“Recent public testimonies by some of filmdom’s most recognized women regarding sexual intimidation, predation, and physical force is, clearly, a turning point in the film industry — and hopefully in our country,” Bailey wrote to members of the academy in October.

“The Academy cannot, and will not, be an inquisitorial court,” he continued, according to Variety, “but we can be part of a larger initiative to define standards of behavior.”