Why Billy Bush will probably find redemption
Despite host’s firing by NBC, history shows lewd behaviour is often forgiven by the public
So what happens next for celebrity suck-up artist Billy Bush? We’ve all seen the video, we’ve all wagged a judgmental finger at his smarminess, his titillated laughter, his hug demands. His chortle session with selfproclaimed lady-grabber Donald Trump has already damaged his career: this week he was fired by NBC.
But if history tells us anything, it’s that guys like Bush usually get another shot. Is that fair? Maybe not, but no matter how much certain displays of sleaziness may shock the pundits of social media, the public is surprisingly forgiving. Bush isn’t the first celebrity to make a very high-profile gaffe, and he won’t be the last to rise from the ashes of his own self-immolated reputation.
Public forgiveness is a complicated matrix that hinges on many factors, from the number and magnitude of the offence to the perceived authenticity of a celebrity’s ceremonial apology. How it works, exactly, is a mystery — although here are some lessons we’ve learned from Bill Cosby, Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson, Nate Parker and so many other celebrities who have ventured into infamy. 1. Number of transgressions matters A single misdeed can be explained away, especially when the person responsible has built up years of good will. Amber Heard accused Johnny Depp of physical abuse, but his previous partners haven’t reported the same treatment, so some fans have rationalized that she made it all up. Despite troubling photos of her bruised face, Depp doesn’t seem to have lost any jobs.
Compare that to Cosby. It was no secret that he was accused of sexual assault in the past, but who wanted to believe Dr. Huxtable was a predator? So the news media and the public chalked up one or two accusers to aberrations. But when 60 women stepped forward with similar stories, it became much harder to ignore. Regardless of what happens with Cosby’s legal woes, his career is over. 2. Justice system doesn’t dictate public sentiment Long before he was famous, Nate Parker was tried for rape in 1999, and found not guilty. But that wasn’t enough to stop the backlash when allegations against him resurfaced earlier this year, casting a major cloud over the opening of his film Birth of a Nation. Until then, he had seemed poised to conquer Hollywood as the latest actor-turned-auteur. Now the prospects for his film, and his future as a filmmaker, are looking less rosy.
It turns out that circumstances matter. Parker was an athlete at Penn State at the time he avoided charges — the very place where Jerry Sandusky abused kids with impunity for so many years — which placed the old allegations against him into a troubling narrative. Then there was the bombshell that his accuser committed suicide in 2012. In the end, Birth of a Nation bombed at the box office. Now, the once-surefire Oscar nominee isn’t looking like such a lock anymore.
Meanwhile, Roman Polanski was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a lighter sentence. But when it seemed like the judge was going to renege on the plea deal, Polanski fled the country. He has been living in France for the most part since then.
Polanski has released nearly a dozen movies while in exile including The Pianist, in 2002, for which he won the best director Oscar. 3. Celebrity’s public persona plays a role Celebrities on high horses have a longer way to fall. Parker had some lofty goals with his mission to bring the story of Nat Turner’ s 1831 slave uprising to the screen: He wanted his movie to prompt national conversations and heal century-old wounds. A noble and worthy goal for a young actor, no? But once people learned of his past, his quest started to look a little grandiose. It didn’t help that his movie portrayed two rape scenes as a way to justify the motivations of the main character — a little tasteless for someone who had once been ac-
“I did a bad thing, and there you have it.” HUGH GRANT ADDRESSING HIS DALLIANCE WITH A PROSTITUTE ON THE TONIGHT SHOW
cused of the same crime. Whereas Woody Allen — well, didn’t people always think he was a little creepy? He can be tasteless and crass. Does that mean we hold him to a different standard? Possibly. Whether or not you believe the claims of Mia Farrow’s daughter Dylan, who says Allen sexually abused her when she was a child, he still emerged from the scandal of marrying Farrow’s other daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, with his career intact.
As he told the Hollywood Reporter, “You can see I worked right through that, undiminished. Made films all through those years . . . I am very disciplined and very monomaniacal and compartmentalized.” 4. Time heals (most) wounds If there was one person who seemed like he would never be forgiven, it was Mel Gibson, who offended just about everyone at one point or another. First it was the gay community, with homophobic comments during an interview. Then there was his anti-Semitic tirade (“F--ing Jews . . . The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”) after getting pulled over for drunken driving in 2006. (He also called a female officer by a vulgar, sexist nickname.) Then in 2010, he was also caught on tape threatening his estranged wife and spewing racist gibberish. His talent agency dropped him — and so, it seemed, did most of Hollywood.
But he’s back after serving time in Hollywood’s version of solitary confinement. This year, he will unveil Hacksaw Ridge, his first directorial effort since Apocalypto premiered just after his DUI arrest, and it’s getting major Oscar buzz. He stayed behind the camera, letting Andrew Garfield be the face of the military drama. 5. Type of transgression matters Clearly, some crimes are more serious than others. Hugh Grant had a dalliance with a prostitute, but did that really hurt anyone? Arguably only his girlfriend at the time, Elizabeth Hurley. One cheeky interview on The Tonight Show was more or less enough to absolve him and salvage his career.
“I did a bad thing, and there you have it,” he said, while the audience cheered and clapped. That was easy.
The same goes for Tom Cruise’s wild-eyed antics and couch-jumping. It wasn’t criminal behaviour but it certainly startled people, forever saddling him with the label of loony cultist. It’s obviously harder to forgive something like sexual assault — at least these days, as Parker’s flailing, failed apology circuit shows us.
What does all this mean for Billy Bush? In that leaked video clip, he came off as unctuous and pathetic, but he didn’t break any laws. And the things he said in private with Donald Trump weren’t all that shocking to anyone familiar with Bush’s smug on-air personality. Bush may not be long for the Today show. But he’s quite possibly one reality show away from being back in the good graces of an ever-forgiving public.