The place’s the righteous movie star outrage? The ethical indignation?
It has been almost 48 hours since Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs was arrested and indicted on expenses of sex trafficking, compelled labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.
Additionally alleged on this indictment is his staging of recurrent ‘Freak Offs’, by which his victims could be drugged and compelled to have intercourse for days on finish, left with such extreme accidents they wanted weeks to get well — crimes stretching again to at the very least 2009.
However what can we hear from an business that in any other case loves to evangelise about fairness, equity, inclusion, and the rights and security of the marginalized and abused? An business that so proudly pushed #MeToo?
Nothing. A disgusting, disturbing, uniform silence.
Recall the A-list celebrities who swiftly got here ahead, or spoke out, after now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was uncovered: Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, Charlize Theron, Emma Thompson, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep — I might go on.
The place’s the righteous movie star outrage? The ethical indignation? It has been almost 48 hours since Sean ‘ Diddy ‘ Combs was arrested and indicted on expenses of intercourse trafficking, compelled labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. (Above) Jay-Z embraces Sean Combs at Combs’s fiftieth celebration in December 2019
Recall the A-list celebrities who swiftly got here ahead, or spoke out, after now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was uncovered. (Above) Harvey Weinstein celebrates alongside Gwynneth Paltrow after ‘Shakespeare in Love’ gained the most effective image Oscar, in Los Angeles, March 22, 1999
A number of of those girls wrote op-eds within the New York Instances. They valorized such activism. Nothing was chicer in 2018 than turning as much as the Golden Globes wearing black, expressing solidarity with Weinstein’s victims and sorrow for all of the careers he vindictively killed, proclaiming that such systemic abuse would by no means be countenanced once more.
Outrage prolonged into boardrooms, politics, and vogue.
Hillary Clinton — who took some huge cash from the disgraced film mogul — issued an announcement praising the victims who spoke up, writing that ‘their braveness and the help of others is crucial in serving to to cease this type of conduct.’
Disney CEO Bob Iger referred to as Weinstein’s actions ‘abhorrent and unacceptable’ with ‘no place in at present’s society.’
Vogue editor Anna Wintour: ‘appalling and unacceptable.’
These are however a smattering of movie star social justice warriors who, regardless of their previously shut ties to a decades-long recognized predator, felt they wanted to talk out — maybe, in some instances, to save lots of their very own jobs and reputations, however who nonetheless made it clear that Weinstein was completed, discovered responsible or not.
But when Combs’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, whose music profession Combs helped launch, bravely filed a civil swimsuit in opposition to him final November — a swimsuit which will have put her personal life in danger — virtually nobody stood along with her.
Amongst her allegations: Relentless beatings, together with one in January 2009 after Combs noticed Ventura speaking to a music supervisor at a celebration in L.A.: ‘[Combs] turned enraged . . . Within the automobile leaving the membership, Mr. Combs beat Ms. Ventura, pushing her right into a nook of the automobile and stomping on her face. . . [she] was bleeding profusely, and was ushered into Mr. Combs’s house, the place she started to throw up from the violent assault.’
When Combs’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, whose music profession Combs helped launch, bravely filed a civil swimsuit in opposition to him final November — a swimsuit which will have put her personal life in danger — virtually nobody stood along with her.
Combs denied all of it, till surveillance video of an assault in a Los Angeles lodge in 2016 was launched final 12 months: Cassie making her escape from what we now know was a ‘Freak Off’, Combs operating after her wearing nothing however a towel, grabbing her by the neck, throwing her to the ground and kicking her whereas she was down, again and again and over.
That is what he did in public. Think about the atrocities he might have been able to in personal.
What was hanging then, almost one 12 months in the past, was the same silence. Not one movie star or colleague got here ahead to defend Combs, to insist that there was no approach he might have dedicated such savagery, that Ventura’s detailed accusations needed to be a cash seize or revenge by a girl scorned.
One could be secure to imagine, as was the case with Weinstein, that individuals knew.
But, take a look at the hip-hop icons and movie star friends who’re all-too-quiet: Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Rihanna. New York Metropolis mayor and nightlife habitué Eric Adams, who gave Combs a key to New York Metropolis final 12 months — a key he revoked three weeks after the Cassie video got here to gentle.
Jennifer Lopez, who dated Combs within the ’90s and was arrested with him in reference to a 1999 membership capturing that left one sufferer with a part of a bullet lodged in her face, has mentioned nothing.
She was on the invite listing for his fiftieth celebration in 2019, as had been Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, Publish Malone, Cardi B and Offset, Kevin Hart, Mary J. Blige, Pharrell, Kanye West, Naomi Campbell, Lil’ Kim, Usher, The Weeknd, Janelle Monáe, Queen Latifah, and America’s personal ambassador to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Snoop Dogg — in addition to the aforementioned Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
None of those individuals knew? The place’s his pal Oprah?
Have a look at the hip-hop icons and movie star friends who’re all-too-quiet: Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Rihanna. New York Metropolis mayor and nightlife habitué Eric Adams, who gave Combs a key to New York Metropolis final 12 months (above)— a key he revoked three weeks after the Cassie video got here to gentle.
Ashton Kutcher, who so deplorably defended convicted serial rapist Danny Masterson, is a detailed, longtime buddy of Combs. On an episode of ‘Scorching Ones’ in 2019, Kutcher was requested about that. ‘I’ve received rather a lot I can not inform’, Kutcher mentioned.
This was Combs interviewed by Andy Cohen on ‘Watch What Occurs Stay’ in 2018.
Cohen: Hey, what do you consider Oprah for president?
Combs: I like that.
Cohen: You have recognized her nicely for a very long time.
Combs: Sure.
Ashton Kutcher, who so deplorably defended convicted serial rapist Danny Masterson, is a detailed, longtime buddy of Combs. On an episode of ‘Scorching Ones’ in 2019, Kutcher was requested about that.
‘I’ve received rather a lot I can not inform’, Kutcher mentioned.
I will guess.
In December 2019, Beyoncé posted a birthday message to ‘Diddy’ on her Instagram account, an image of her husband and Combs on a sofa with palms over their mouths, a submit that continues to be up at present.
What sort of message does this ship to Combs’s different victims, ones U.S. District Lawyer Damian Williams has mentioned he’s positive will come ahead?
Each movie star ready to assist right here ought to accomplish that.
To this point, solely two hip-hop figures have spoken out: 50 Cent, who’s engaged on a Netflix documentary exposing Combs, and Eminem, who has rapped about Combs’s long-rumored involvement within the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
On his new album ‘Gasoline — Shady Version’, Eminem raps: ‘Until he is in police handcuffs, responsible, will he step up?/Like gee, by no means turned himself in, who is aware of all of the murders there’ll have been’.
In July, 50 Cent (actual title Curtis Jackson), informed The Hollywood Reporter that Combs lies about ‘every thing’.
‘I have been very vocal about not going to Puffy events and doing s**t like that’, he mentioned. ‘I have been staying out of that s**t for years. . . Like, they let him get away with it.’
What sort of message does this ship to Combs’s different victims, ones U.S. District Lawyer Damian Williams has mentioned he’s positive will come ahead? Each movie star ready to assist right here ought to accomplish that.
Everybody knew.
On Wednesday, a second federal decide refused to grant Combs bail. He’ll stay in jail all through his upcoming trial.
In the meantime, his attorneys are blaming the feminine victims. Of Ventura, lead legal professional Marc Agnifilo had the gall to say she ought to be glad about her time with Combs.
‘These two individuals had been in love,’ Agnifilo mentioned of Combs and Ventura, outing her within the indictment as ‘Sufferer-1.’
Ventura, he mentioned, ‘ended up marrying the coach that Mr. Combs received her . . . Years later, she realized she had a superb factor with Mr. Combs.’
That is the type of repulsive misogyny that allowed a monster like Combs to roam free for therefore lengthy. We have heard, for years now, that ‘silence equals violence.’
If that’s to imply something — nicely, who in hip-hop, in politics and vogue or any place of energy, will now converse up for these victims?