When Eliza Dushku opened up about the harassment she endured on Bull I was startled to find out that I saw him do it and had been completely unaware. What I took to be an "OK, quit goofing around, we need to work" expression when he announced that Legs was on the set (sometimes so-and-so going on or off set is announced) was her hiding something much worse.

And its easy to miss that. I have a friend I call "Leggy" when she's in a short skirt. And the guy does indeed goof around a little on set until its time to get to work. (Which as a producer was his prerogative and actually set the tone for a pleasant set.)

Now, obviously, ASH didn't see this for a week, he saw it for years. And one would hope that in the course of years he'd notice that "jokes" weren't jokes. Nevertheless, a show runner is one of the big dogs in the building and gets to set the tone. And if the tone set is... sarcastic? Pushy? Demanding? Hyper-critical? you nod and smile and do your work because you're on a project with legs and you're not going to fuck that up. And if someone asks if you're alright you say you're fine. Or you roll your eyes and say "Oh, you know..."

I'm glad its better now and will get better yet. I'm glad its being addressed... but people still tell stories about Kubrick torturing Shelly Duvall as if that was somehow necessary to his "genius" to "get that performance out of her" blah blah blah. I can believe he grew to accept the unacceptable (along with an entire industry) as the cost of doing business with a "genius." I can believe things happed that he didn't see or look for. I can believe his colleagues convinced him they were fine. To some extent, they all did these things.

People tolerated a LOT. Some of this is going to die really really hard. Time will tell if ASH can be part of this dying. I hope he can.

I also can believe that someone can act one way behind closed doors with someone they feel superior to and act a completely different way in a more public setting. Michelle Trachtenberg has updated her statement to say that there was a rule on that Joss was never allowed in a room alone with her again, which is very chilling to read.

DB, NF, NB, not holding my breath.

Yeah, DB went from having a rep as one of Hollywood's nicest stars to the "little people" behind the scenes to cheating scandals and accounts of him treating crews terribly. NF has now been the lead of more than one series that had a culture of sketchy treatment of the actresses, including apparently getting one of them canceled in his attempt to have his co-lead fired. And I'm just crossing my fingers Nick isn't beating some woman up in a hotel room at the moment. These are not the people who are going to have credibility speaking out against bad behavior.

Michelle Trachtenberg has updated her statement to say that there was a rule on that Joss was never allowed in a room alone with her again, which is very chilling to read.

Jeeeeesus Christ.

Well, that is horrifying. First, what happened to Michelle but also, and I have a whole other type of anger for this, that someone in authority knew and decided that a rule would be the best response. Gah.

Post Deleted!

J. August Richard's posted in twitter in support [link]

there was a rule on that Joss was never allowed in a room alone with her again

What the FUCK.

Very glad to see ASH speaking up but it's still hard to fathom how he could be so totally unaware. Which is part of how toxic people like JW work, of course.

Right. There's a now-famously abusive person now-formerly at my employer, and my former boss worked with him a lot and never had a bad experience. It doesn't make her doubt any of the people who did, of course, but she says she really never saw it.

Some abusers and predators are really good at figuring out who they can and can't display their baser tendencies in front of, and covering up accordingly.