Nine Women Accuse Israel Horovitz of Sexual Misconduct

"This is the first notable name in the theatre world to be swept up in this reckoning."

Kad, I know his was about 17,000,000 predator-namings ago and among the very first in this extensive current reckoning, but surely you'd agree that Kevin Spacey is a notable name in the theatre world.

i was wondering yesterday, after reading about Matt Lauer, who the first non-actor theatre person would be.... didn't have to wait too long. This is really vile... and I'm just getting really sick of these men "apologizing" once they've been outed. Who's next?? When Ridley Scott spoke out on Spacey and Weinstein, he alluded that he knew of others - that they must be gritting their teeth waiting.... just a matter of time I guess.... sigh..... very disheartening.

A Canadian in NYC said: ".... This is really vile... and I'm just getting really sick of these men "apologizing" once they've been outed...."

What is the better alternative to apologizing?

I really meant a name famous for their work in theatre.

CallMeAl2 said: "A Canadian in NYC said: ".... This is really vile... and I'm just getting really sick of these men "apologizing" once they've been outed...."

What is the better alternative to apologizing?"

Admittance of guilt -- instead of oops....did that bother you? Restitution? Castration?



I think the point is: it is hollow. How can you be "sorry" when there are repeated instances? They're only sorry to have been caught.

"And some perpetrators are still maintaining innocence which is exasperating in itself."

Where would anyone get that idea that they might be considered innocent until proven guilty? How dare they? Or that an accusation alone isn't proof of guilt? Could our legal system really be that flawed?

Agreed, henrik - the brutality of the angry mob is as bad as the crimes committed by those men for whose heads they scream.

I admit I've lost track of some of the lately accused, but I can't think of anybody except Roy Moore and Donald Trump who has outright claimed that ALL of his accusers are lying. (Maybe Bill Cosby.) And the sanity of both Moore and Trump is being openly questioned in print and on TV.

Bottom line: I tend to believe accusers, too, particularly when multiple women claim to have endured the same type of attack.

But I saw a survey yesterday that claimed 5-7% of sexual assault (including rape) claims made to the police are eventually found to be false. I was shocked the number was so high.

The following blog does a pretty good job of surveying the surveys. It finds an even larger range of numbers (2-8%):

http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/11/devos-campus-rape-reports-false-title-ix

It's really not a good idea to allow this to continue - the destruction of men's lives on the basis of unproven allegations. An apology made under extreme duress is not an admission of guilt and should not allow the responsible parties to invoke the death penalty in every case.

In criminal proceedings the Bill of Rights, a remarkable document for its time, gives an accused the right to due process of law. The Sixth Amendment grants the right of an accused to a public trial before an impartial jury of peers, the right to compel those with evidence of his or her innocence to testify in court, and the right to confront his or her accusers with assistance of counsel.

For the most part, the Bill of Rights does not apply to private entities such as corporations, but why would strong supporters of this document not be guided by its principles when placed in the position of a criminal court? Yesterday Jane Curtin brought up McCarthyism with reference to its similarities to the present sexual harassment incidents.

Everyone is familiar with the short reign of Senator Joe McCarthy as the chief denouncer of anyone who ever had a kind word to say about Communism, and the concurrent proceedings of the House Un-American Activities Committee. As a result of their activities the lives of many innocent people were destroyed. No one would employ them. There is also a parallel with the 18th century Salem Witch trials, the outcome of which was the hanging of fourteen women and six men based on the wild and fantastic tales told by a group of young girls. Arthur Miller in The Crucible attacked McCarthyism by drawing parallels with Salem.

The left has never let anyone forget the short reign of McCarthyism, which occurred before most here were born, for fear that the right would some day revisit these tactics and use them against the left. People should consider for a moment if there are any parallels with what is presently going on.

Across the country this explosion of sexual harassment accusations is not playing out in the same way as it is in New York. Folks see a casting director denounced by women who sought and auditioned for important roles and were rejected. Might that not furnish a motive for striking back with a false or inflated accusation? Even if that man was a disgusting creep, disgusting creeps are still entitled to equal protection under the law.

This would only be comparable to McCarthyism if McCarthyism was an over-correction of an actual widespread problem of Communist infiltration and undermining of American society. It wasn't; it was- some notable exceptions aside- totally baseless and political powerplay.

But sexual misconduct is real, it is widespread, and has been for decades, and those who have been victims of it have been failed, whether by design or flaw, by our systems.

OlBlueEyes said: "It's really not a good idea to allow this to continue - the destruction of men's lives on the basis of unproven allegations...

Across the country this explosion of sexual harassment accusations is not playing out in the same way as it is in New York. Folks see a casting director denounced by women who sought and auditioned for important roles and were rejected. Might that not furnish a motive for striking back with a false or inflated accusation? Even if that man was a disgusting creep, disgusting creeps are still entitled to equal protection under the law."

This reads like a defense from Mr. Horovitz.

What about the lives of the women and men who were forever altered by the sexual predators? Sorry this is going on longer than you like, but the floodgates were opened by Ashley Judd, which was very very brave of her and women are stepping through them. Not all the incidents reported rise to the same level of predation. But one thing is for sure, like the beginning of the film Un Chien Andalou, as a society, our eyes have been sharply opened and unfortunately there is more to see than we would like.

As for the "women" who have made claims against a casting director after auditioning and being rejected for roles - who are you talking about? That wasn't the case with Horovitz or Huff.

The sexual harassment call-out explosion isn't McCarthyism but it is politicized. So far, it's largely effecting liberals in the media. It is possible for the accusations to be real, deserved, long overdue and at the same time being made use of by forces with great control over digital information. Our own need for justice can be weaponized against us by the powerful. There's nothing new in that but the way justice is being played out via a social media we think we have control over but really don't is new territory.