Jimmy Kimmel Gets Defensive About His Refusal to Make Jokes About Harvey Weinstein; Decides He's Not the "Conscience of the Nation" After All

Funny, after his Chuck Schumer scripted homilies about health care and guns, the media called him the "conscience of the nation," and he didn't object. He rather seemed to like it.

But now he avoids doing Harvey Weinstein jokes -- he did a couple of obligatory ones after people criticized him, one joke having more to do with Trump than Weinstein (naturally) -- and he declares "I'm not the moral conscience of America."

Conscience of the Nation Nose ON,
Conscience of the Nation Nose OFF.

Basically he just really doesn't want to get into the whole Harvey Weinstein thing. I wonder why.

After he spoke out so forcefully on both health care and gun control over the past month, many late-night viewers might have expected Jimmy Kimmel do the same about the sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein....

"First of all, the Harvey Weinstein thing, people like this false equivalence of that's somehow equivalent to what happened in Las Vegas," Kimmel added, arguing that the alleged assault of dozens of women does not deserve the same reaction as the killing of nearly 60 people. He said that Weinstein is "not a friend of mine," adding, “I'm not in the movie business.” As a once and future Oscar host who is friends with many of the movie stars in Weinstein's orbit, that claim is a hard one to buy.

...

"They're saying that I'm calling myself the moral conscience of America, which I most certainly never did and most certainly never would," he declared.

The media called you that, and you didn't say they were wrong. You seemed to like it.

On the two recent occasions that he did decide to speak out, it was because of a personal connection to those issues. His baby son’s open-heart surgery turned him into a health care advocate and his own childhood connection to Las Vegas made him feel for that city.

His decision not to spend a similar amount of time on Weinstein seems to confirm that the issue of sexual misconduct does not hold a similar place in his heart.

I'll say.

By the way, making jokes and ridiculing people is in a comic's wheelhouse. When Kimmel spoke about health care and Vegas, he was going outside his wheelhouse -- that is, doing something out of his normal routine and thus harder. (That's probably why he had to tap Chuck Schumer as a writer.)

But making jokes at Harvey Weinstein's expense should be easy and just part of the everyday life of a TV Clown -- except he doesn't want to do his normal job that comes easily and naturally to him and is no more difficult for him than tying his shes.

Again: I wonder why.

In unrelated news, Oliver Stone had previously refused to condemn Harvey Weinstein, and even seemed to empathize with "what he's going through:"

I didn't say anything about that before, because it struck me that refusing to publicly denounce someone could be a principled stance. I don't like these outrage mobs demanding "DO YOU CONDEMN OR SUPPORT" about every new twitter convulsion, and would oppose them still if I thought that had a damn chance of helping stop them. (I know now it won't, and so I'm of the mind that we must force the people pushing this crap to Live By Their Own Rulebooks.)

But I did think, well, gee, maybe that's just a principled stance.

Well, maybe there's a hint of personal interest tangled up in refusing to criticize Harvey Weinstein. Carrie Stevens, a former Playboy Playmate of the Month, says that Stone grabbed her breast at a party.

The 48-year-old model told the Daily News that she was at a party at producer Ted Field’s home in honor of Stone more than 20 years ago when Stone walked up to her standing by the front door.

"He was really cocky, had this big grin on his face like he was going to get away with something," Stevens, who was 22 at the time, told The News.

At that point, Stone "reached out and...honked it like a horn," she said, describing him as "an immature guy in elementary school who snaps your bra."

Stevens said she was surrounded by other people, but nobody said anything.

"That's what's going on in Hollywood. That's why things have to change. He's Oliver Stone. Nobody's going to say anything," she told The News.

"He walked up like he was entitled to grab anything he wanted. He did it because he wanted to."

Meanwhile, Amazon executive Roy Price is on a leave of absence after allegations about harassing Philip K. Dick's daughter, who's executive of his estate (and thus the point person for Man in the High Castle).

She's also a lesbian. And married I think.

Just context.

This seems less serious than other allegations. These are lewd propsitions, yes, but... lewd propositions aren't a crime. Also, she wasn't in some kind of vulnerable position vis a vis Price -- she was one person with a commodity selling it to a guy who wanted to buy it.

This is unprofessional and uncomfortable for the recipient -- definitely. But I don't think you can make clumsy passes a crime. You can socially stigmatize it of course, but I don't think you can (or should) punish someone for (really bad) pick-up lines.

Also, how do I put this without being offensive? Some of this stuff is... well, you be the judge.

"You will love my dick," Price allegedly said to Isa Hackett, a producer on 'The Man in the High Castle,' who details a July 2015 incident at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Strong opening gambit.

In the wake of revelations about Harvey Weinstein's alleged years-long sexual harassment and assault, a producer of one of Amazon Studios' highest-profile TV shows is ready to talk about her "shocking and surreal" experience with Amazon's programming chief Roy Price.

...

Once in the cab, Hackett says Price repeatedly and insistently propositioned her....

Hackett says Price did not relent in the cab or once they arrived at the Amazon party. As she talked with other executives, she says that Price stepped close to her and loudly said, "Anal sex!" in her ear.

Annnnd, the strong close. Boom goes the dynamite.

So he starts off with a verbal dic pic and closes with dirty talk Mad Libs.

And all this to a married lesbian.

As they say in war movies: "With that crazy shit you just pulled, Corporal, I don't know whether to court martial you or give you the Bronze Star."

Correction: I wrote "Tom Price" instead of "Roy Price." I had "Tom Price" in my head from the news from two weeks ago.

Sorry, it's Roy Price, not the former head of HHS!

posted by Ace at 05:16 PM

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