It’s Not Just Cosby: Hollywood’s Long List of Male Scumbags

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Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist, and he now stars as a loveable cartoon TV detective. Roman Polanski raped a 13-year-old and has since won an Oscar to a standing ovation. Sean Connery is the celebrated embodiment of rugged cool, who has openly championed beating women in order to keep ’em in line. Bill Murray has been accused by his ex-wife of repeated, brutal physical abuse. Rick James was arrested for torturing and sexually abusing a woman for three days straight, only to have his image rehabilitated by Dave Chappelle years later. John Lennon is one of the most worshipped artists who has ever drawn breath, and he has copped to battering the shit out of women.

Also, who could forget Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, CeeLo Green, Julian Assange, Terry Richardson, Tupac Shakur, Gary Glitter, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Nicolas Cage, and Chris Brown.

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It’s a sad reality that these men live in a world and thrive in a popular culture where too many of its patrons maintain a depressingly high threshold for indefensibility. One tragedy of the Cosby affair is that it took so damn long for these easily Google-able allegations to resurface in any meaningful way. Many were just eager to forget, absolve, or overlook serious accusations, simply because doing so would be hugely convenient.

Terrible crimes don’t automatically negate an artist or celebrity’s contribution to society—but rape, sex crimes, and brutalizing women are not hobbies that audiences should tolerate. It’s the sort of behavior that is now unacceptable in virtually all other forms of business. Surely, Hollywood should not be exempt from such a standard.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/19/it-s-not-just-cosby-hollywood-s-long-list-of-male-scumbags.html