The Celebrity Sexual Harassment and Rapists Thread

[Jazzy G]

On 20/11/2017 at 12:21 PM, BomberPat said:

There needs to be the impetus from the media - and while Linda is in Trump's administration, she's still a bit of a non-entity, and while losing their sponsorship/charity deals would be a major blow to WWE, it wouldn't make ripples in the mainstream press. Like Carbomb says, if WWE can come out of Benoit relatively unscathed, it would take something huge to really turn the pressure up - they're adept at taking a bad situation and presenting it as a one-off, or a freak occurrence, rather than indicative of the whole culture of the place.

Plenty of women have accused WWE, Vince, or specific wrestlers of sexual assault and harassment - Ashley Massaro, Sable, Mickie James and Nicole Bass just off the top of my head. When you hear some of the "ribs" pulled on male workers, it's not hard to imagine that the women must have to put up with all kinds of shit beyond that, before you even start getting into the Marty Jannettys of the world openly bragging about sexual assault in shoot interviews. Problem is, they're all workers, and the general public are always going to assume that workers are working. Throw in that wrestling is historically such a closed business, and will always pull rank to protect their own, and I don't see anything ever changing, at least not in WWE.

I honestly think that the only person in the position to cause significant damage to WWE is Hulk Hogan. Hogan will always be the go-to "wrestler" in the popular imagination. The mainstream press don't care about Mick Foley, Paul Heyman or Dave Meltzer sleeping with a teenager in the '90s, or Marty Jannetty drugging women, but if they could pin something on Hogan, that could be the catalyst for a much broader look into this sort of thing in pro-wrestling - especially in the current climate - and I'm sure there are plenty of journalists out there who want to dig into this shit, but their editors aren't convinced there's enough public interest.

 

What's more interesting to me is how indie wrestling deals with this - short of a major scandal, WWE can weather a storm, but there are a lot of indie promotions that could be sunk by a consumer boycott. Given that a lot of fuss already gets made in certain circles around companies continuing to book wrestlers with histories of domestic abuse and sexual assault, or with far-right proclivities, I wonder where the tipping point is - or if there even is one, maybe the majority of people are still happy to shrug this stuff off so long as they enjoy the show. But there definitely seems to be more of an immediate need for indie promotions and wrestlers to self-police this sort of behaviour, even if purely to protect themselves.

I feel for any indie wrestler in the position of having to speak out about this sort of thing, though - they're in a position not too dissimilar to a lot of young actresses around the Weinsteins of the world, in that they're freelancers in a competitive industry, when the word of one or two influential people could make or break your career, and it's easy to get unofficially blackballed if you're considered "difficult", and there's no real framework to protect yourself. At least actors get a union.

 

On a non-wrestling note, given his recent comments, how long before skeletons start coming out of Morrissey's closet, then?

You'd have thought if they were going to go after something like this in Wrestling they would have done off the back of the Rob Feinstein thing?

Morrissey had claimed he was taken out of context in his interview defending Kevin Spacey, but apparently the tape of the interview has been released.

[BomberPat]

The Feinstein thing was low rent, comparatively speaking. It was in 2004, when indie wrestling wasn't remotely acknowledged by the wider world at all, and was generally assumed to be full of scumbags and con artists anyway - and there was no real broader impetus to look further into the business. If people outside the business took any notice at all, it was just of one scumbag in a world of scumbags.

The culture's different now - sexual harassment claims are being taken incredibly seriously, wrestling has weathered some more high profile scandals, and independent wrestling is more likely to be acknowledged and covered by more reputable news sources. But there needs to be something to trigger it - there could be any number of journalists who want to look into sexual abuse and harassment in the wrestling industry, but unless their editor can see a viable story in it, they won't be given the opportunity to.

Again, though, on a WWE level I think it has to be a major star or a really significant scandal for anyone to start to pay attention. And there aren't too many major stars out there.

[Carbomb]

Yeah, it'd have to be Hogan, The Rock, Austin (I think in this current climate, his wife-beating would have been a bigger deal and cost him more overall), Cena, or Brock Lesnar. Maybe even The Undertaker at a pinch. Those are the only ones I can think of with a high-enough profile to cause severe problems for WWE should anything come out. I'm thinking Vince McMahon himself is the most likely out of any WWE people to have done something particularly shady, but whilst he's recognisable to a lot of people outside wrestling, he doesn't quite have the same connection with them that the big-name wrestlers do. If anything, he's probably regarded as the Face of Wrestling Dodginess, so even if something were to emerge, people would most likely shrug their shoulders and post that Alan Partridge gif.

In the UK, maybe a household name like Grado.

[BomberPat]

I honestly think Hogan's the only one - Cena at a push, due to the Make-A-Wish charity work and so on. Austin's too far out of the game, and for The Rock at this point I think any focus would be on him as an actor. I'm not sure what kind of effect an accusation against Lesnar would have. Hogan's the only person that is so universally associated with pro-wrestling, and is so synonymous with it in the public imagination, that a significant accusation about him could be expected to open the flood gates rather than giving WWE the chance to get away with a "one bad apple" excuse.

[Porkchopcash]

Did Austin actually get convicted for domestic abuse?

[Keith Houchen]

10 minutes ago, Porkchopcash said:

Did Austin actually get convicted for domestic abuse?

From Wiki.

On June 15, 2002, Debra Marshall called police to the couple's home Saturday night and told officers that Austin had beaten her on the head, back, and legs then stormed out of the house before police arrived. According to police reports, Debra suffered a swollen cheek and eye and bruises to her back and shoulder.^[93] Austin called the house while officers were there and was told he was in trouble but declined a request to return to the house or report to the police station.^[94] On August 14, 2002, Austin was arrested and charged with domestic abuse. He pleaded no contest on November 25, 2002 and was given a year's probation, a $1,000 fine, and ordered to carry out 80 hours of community service.^[95]

Marshall would later claim that Austin was a steroid user, and this incident was the result of roid rage.^[96] Austin filed for divorce from Marshall on July 22, 2002, and the divorce was finalized on February 5, 2003.^[97]

On June 29, 2007, Marshall told Fox News that Austin beat her three times.^[98] She also stated that WWE knew of the abuse, working to conceal the bruises on her face, and kept her from revealing that Austin hit her, as it would cost the company millions of dollars.^[99]

On March 26, 2004, Austin allegedly assaulted his girlfriend Tess Broussard during a dispute at his Texas home, according to a San Antonio Police Department report. Broussard claimed that Austin grabbed her, and she began struggling with him, who eventually threw her to the ground. Broussard landed on her hands and knees, and later told officers she had injured her right hand. Broussard provided a written statement to police, who photographed her injuries.

[Kaz Hayashi]

I never knew about this to this extent, what a fucking bellend.

[NoUseforaUsername]

In fairness to Vince, that time he was accused of sexually assaulting someone in a tanning salon, her timeline didn't add up.

He was also implicated by, a quite convincing, Murry Hodgson, on Donahue but he proved to be a con artist.

I remember reading all the live updates about Austin's "incident" on Wrestlezone back in the day; he even led police in a high speed car chase IIRC.

If he showed any kind of contrition afterwards I still wouldn't respect him because he batters women, but he hasn't, all I ever hear from him about that year of his life are woe is me tales about being unhappy with creative and generally being unhappy.

[Keith Houchen]

He's no Mel Gibson, that's for sure.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I remember hearing from several of the writers at the time in interviews that Vince stood up in a meeting at home and casually said "I'll have to end this meeting as I've just been accused of sexual assault. And walked out." As if it happens most weeks.

Debra claims during one of the beatings Austin tried to force her to suck his cock as well. Which is a bit grim.

Edited December 14, 2017 by IANdrewDiceClay

[NoUseforaUsername]

He probably has a tiny one and can't get it up. Perhaps that's why he treats women that way.

Didn't CM Punk go on a white knighting spree against people he perceived to mistreat women while ignoring the Stone Cold Steve Austin sized elephant in the room that time he was angling for a WM match with him?

[Porkchopcash]

Suprising a lot was not made of The Austin thing in the tabloids.....did not see it anywhere at the time.

[NoUseforaUsername]

I just watched the clip of Matt Lauer interviewing Anne Hathaway ostensibly about her new movie and asking about the leaks of actresses "personal" pictures. Bloody hell, what a creep. Talk about hiding in plain sight.

You could feel how perturbed she was just by watching it.

Edited December 15, 2017 by NoUseforaUsername

[Astro Hollywood]

9 hours ago, NoUseforaUsername said:

I just watched the clip of Matt Lauer interviewing Anne Hathaway ostensibly about her new movie and asking about the leaks of actresses "personal" pictures. Bloody hell, what a creep. Talk about hiding in plain sight.

Even worse, he was trying to shame her for 'wardrobe malfunction' pictures taken by paparazzi laying in the gutter to photograph up her skirt as she got out of a car. 

[NoUseforaUsername]

The stories about Dustin Hoffman are getting worse, a lot worse.