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‘When You’re a Star, They Let You Do It’
We all learned a valuable lesson from last night’s Academy Awards presentation. President Trump was right when speaking to Billy Bush, “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Now, from the Billy Bush tape, I believe President Trump was referring to victims of assault letting the perpetrator off scot-free or even consenting to the illegal behavior for some mutual benefit. But as was shown by recent events, not only the victims of assault may excuse a celebrity’s behavior, but the elite and well-heeled might even give you a standing ovation. You don’t need to look much further than the Academy of Motion Pictures Art and Sciences members giving Will Smith a standing ovation and awarding him an Oscar even after his illegal behavior last night was witnessed by millions.
Of course, this is nothing new. The Academy has awarded Oscars and given standing ovations to reprobates such as pedophile Roman Polanski and degenerate Harvey Weinstein. In Polanski’s case, even after he fled the country to avoid prosecution. In Weinstein’s case, even after his illicit behavior toward women was an open secret.
Let us not forget that you can also kill someone on a movie set, a la Alec Baldwin, and still walk free. Yes, when you are a celebrity, “you can do anything.”
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You are 100% correct, just as Trump was back then. We see it as well with sports teams all the time. When a person has value to the elites, then they can do anything. When they lack that value, then the rules can be made to apply to them.
And politicians, like Joe Biden.
You can drown a young woman in your Plymouth, or asphyxiate her in your office.
That was just a little raping. Not as bad as Clinton.
The problem with satire is that stupid people don’t get it. There are a *lot* of stupid people.
Maybe I’m crossing a line here, but I knew girls who let strangers do what Trump was talking about and it wasn’t assault. It was consensual.
Nothing in Trump’s statement was about illegal assault. I think the MEN who think he was have never had a woman want them like that even as they put women on a pedestal of sexual perfection.
I knew women who would let strangers at night clubs do that. Darn straight, there are women who LET rich and famous do it.
Yup. Without being crass, there’s a lot that is negotiated before-hand, non-verbally. And yes, dress, conduct, smirks, and body language are all valid means of communication. Ridiculous Dartmouth policies are the end of humanity, love, art, passion, and fun.
EDIT: To your point (I guess the larger point too), nobody is talking about a 0 to 100 grope of a passing stranger on the street.
I called what Trump was talking about illegal behavior because he referred to a situation where a celebrity touched a sexual part of a woman’s anatomy without prior permission. “Sexual assault is a type of sex crime and form of assault that arises from the unwanted sexual touching of another.”
I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that there are women who welcome that type of arousal without prior consent for whatever reason, e.g., women who believe it’s prestigious to have a celebrity touch them in that manner. Some women telegraph that behavior may be acceptable to them, e.g., the women who tossed their undergarments at “knicker magnet” Tom Jones while he was on stage.
An interesting side note regarding the Billy Bush tape. Trump never said he grabbed women “by the p*ssy.” He was referring to what a celebrity can do. As it turns out, President Trump was correct. If any intrepid reporters heard that tape and started investigating the claim’s veracity concerning celebrities, maybe the Harvey Weinstein story would have broken much sooner.
You have elided an important distinction. “Unwanted” is not the same as “without prior permission”. That’s the Dartmouth smear.
In fact what Trump said was “they’ll let you”, which absolutely does mean permission granted. The subtle part is how permission is granted, which is not going to be by certified letter.
EDIT: I didn’t quote the rest of yours, in which you kind of (?) make the same point. I’m only pushing back against characterizing Trump’s stated scenario as “illegal behavior”.
Thank you for the elucidation. You are quite correct. 🙂👏
I hope I’m half as graceful as you are the next time I get Rico-splained :-)
Maybe if you were more Rico-suave. :-)
But this was wanted. That’s the whole point of Trump’s comment.
Yes, it was wrong. Yes, it was a major over-reaction. Yes, Will Smith will be unfavorably remembered for it.
But darn it, I enjoyed seeing Chris Rock getting smacked. If it was spontaneous, I don’t know for sure, but it certainly woke me up. I normally don’t watch that drivel, but my wife’s friend won an oscar, so I felt obliged to witness the show.
Oh, yeah, it was spontaneous. Japanese television has it in slow-motion and there’s no doubt Chris Rock was unpleasantly surprised.
“Let us not forget that you can also kill someone on a movie set, a la Alec Baldwin, and still walk free. Yes, when you are a celebrity, “you can do anything.”
Can you clarify what he did that was illegal? Maybe I missed something, but if I was on a set and firing a gun for the cameras I would assume it’s by default a prop. I mean, he’s not the one loading it, or collecting it, he’s just doing what he’s told, right? Wouldn’t it be a safe assumption the gun used on a movie set was just a prop? I’m not sure why that’s something we should be punishing. Is there some evidence he intentionally loaded a real gun?
Edited for clarity.
The discussions of that event are way down the Member and Main Feed by now…
I can’t keep up with every discussion lol. I have to pick and choose when to check the site. Only so many hours between work and life, so unfortunately I miss stuff. Regardless, it doesn’t seem to me like he did something wrong
To put it simply, they weren’t using just prop guns on the set, and everyone knew it, including Baldwin.
I understand he inadvertently injected his cinematographer with vecuronium. Oh, no. He just shot her to death.
Negligent homicide. He didn’t inspect his firearm to ensure it was not shooting real bullets. As the producer he allowed slip shod practices with firearms. His negligence was so gross that no reasonable person could have thought that such behavior would not result in a fatal accident.
He shot her and killed her.
The rest is convenient assumptions, and not material.
I agree Trump’s comment was about the consensual touching of a woman’s genitalia. Before the statement, “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump mentioned, “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
I guess the idea that he doesn’t even wait to ask to kiss someone he met biased my thinking that it was nonconsensual. However, you are correct that Trump further explains why he doesn’t wait – if you’re a celebrity, it will always be permissible.
As an aside, Billy Bush was the one that prodded physical contact between Trump and Arianne Zucker when Bush and Trump exited the bus; “How about a little hug for the Donald? He’s just off the bus.”
Based on what happened last night at the Oscars and in the past, celebrities can do anything they like and, more often than not, get away with illegal and reprehensible behavior.
Even insignificant “celebrities” like Jussie Smollet.
Oldsmobile
I must be the only person who doesn’t know. Who asphyxiated a woman in his office?
I confess I’m not finding it. I had thought Condit, but maybe that was early rumormongering — turns out he had a pretty good alibi, while Chandra Levy’s murder is still unsolved. Might be a different story — at any rate, not finding it.
Wasn’t that something to do with Joe Scarborough?
We could start that rumor. He deserves nothing less. :)
Is it really just a rumor? Conveniently, no witnesses. 👀