Hollywood is a place of ifs, ands, and buts.
If you sacrifice your soul, you can have whatever you want. And you have to give up your friends and family because they probably won’t understand. But only if they don’t agree with everything you do.
It’s that kind of mentality. It’s the kind of place filled with back room deals and shady bullshit that would probably turn most of our stomachs.
Yet there is a part of me – the part that attended Fine Arts School and learned how to write a script, that wants to be a part of that world so that I can see my fictional stories become a part of film history.
Yet…I am not willing to sacrifice a fucking thing, about who I am as a person to get there. This works for some people, but they have to be “bankable”. You have to be willing to give up parts of yourself if you want to be a writer in Hollywood, we all know this because we’ve seen it a thousand times before.
How many stories have come out talking about how awful the experience is for people of color, for women, for men? Thousands.
So I know that as I write this, I am announcing my intention to be in Hollywood one day, but I am also announcing that I am probably going to be a huge pain in the ass.
The Fucking Ellen Show.
I love this show, and I used to watch it religiously, I stopped as the pandemic started, because I’d heard the rumors too, and I knew it was coming. I used to read Enty’s blog, religiously, and he’s usually pretty on target, even if I don’t always understand what he’s talking about.
Usually I take what he says as a grain of salt, but this one…felt true, and low and behold, it absolutely is kind of true. Ellen’s workplace fostered an environment built on sexual and racial abuse.
A woman who ends every episode with the words “Be kind to each other,” runs an environment that has literally traumatized it’s employees, and that’s a hard pill to swallow, because unfortunately it means that Ellen, like the rest of us…is human.
I don’t know if Ellen herself is an abuser – this post isn’t actually about that. What I do know is that people are starting to draw a line in the sand and are deciding whether they are going to defend her, or step away from her.
Right now Ellen is learning who her true friends are, because Hollywood is going to divide itself based on both popular opinion and soul. Some people will stand up for Ellen because they genuinely love her, others because they don’t want to lose her support. Some will tell her off and talk about how horrible she is, and stand with those who claim that she was apart of the abuse.
Whatever line of the sand you stand on, I hope you’ll just shut the fuck up. I don’t want to fucking hear it.
I am so tired of this shit. Every time someone is accused of being an abuser in Hollywood everyone has their fucking opinions, and they largely skew in favor of the abuser, and I am just frankly over it.
Sure, maybe Ellen is the Saint we all want her to be, and maybe she is a terrible person, but I am tired of feeling like a kid in the middle of a divorce, and that’s exactly what Hollywood does to the fans every time something like this happens, and I am fucking over it.
So shut the fuck up.
Katie Perry just came out with a statement that read in part “I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’ve had a wonderful blah blah blah blah” okay great, who gives a fuck?
Let’s say that Ellen is an abuser, let’s say that she was a working part of a hostile work environment, just because you didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t fucking happen.
And if she is innocent, how the fuck would you know? Do you see what she’s like with her staff? Are you there every day of the fucking week with her? Are you there to watch her every second of the day to ensure that she’s not being abusive? No, so you don’t know what she’s like with people who aren’t famous, you don’t know what she’s like with people that can’t help further her brand and her message, so just shut the fuck up.
I LOVE and ADORE Scarlette Johanson, but unfortunately she’s supportive of Woody Allen, which means I can’t support her, because I was a victim of child sexual abuse.
I Love Scarlette, but I absolutely hate her politics, and the fact that she thinks it’s okay to stand up for an accused pedophile, and a host of other people that are basic trash.
So I don’t talk about her films and I don’t support her and when she does stupid shit I fucking call her on it, whether she sees it or not is besides the point.
When you stand up for people accused of abuse, what you are telling their victims is that you don’t believe them. That you don’t believe that a person has layers, and more importantly you are telling them that the only experience that matters is your experience, which is fucking bullshit.
Goodness is not outweighed by evil, I don’t care who you are. If you are a shitty person you’re going to get called out on it. I’m not saying that Ellen is a shitty person, by the way, but working with her is clearly not fun for some people, and that needs to be acknowledged and witnessed and cosigned without people of influence and power doing whatever they can to sway the views of the fan base.
Just shut the fuck up and let shit unfold as it’s meant to unfold, because the only thing speaking up for abusers does is put a target on your back.
So Dear Katie Perry, yes this is to you. Shut up. No one cares about your experience with Ellen, of course it was a good experience, your famous, you don’t count as one of us anymore.
You’re up there in the high echolon of success and talent, no one would dare be mean to Katie Perry right? Certainly not the most famous Talk Show host in the world, certainly not anyone on her staff, certainly not anyone that works around her.
Because you have the power to call it out, you have the power to say something and change someone’s career if they pulled that crap on you. The average Andy, so to speak however, does not have that opportunity.
They don’t have the ability to call out abuse and be listened to, without retribution, unless they come prepared with an army of supporters, which we all know is next to impossible to get in Hollywood.
I understand your intentions, I know you didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, I don’t care. It’s not about you.
It’s about the men and women of Hollywood who get treated like shit every single day so they can have the hope of having their own dreams come true.
Hollywood will fucking kill you if you let it, so don’t let the Katie Perry’s of the world step in and tell you that your truth doesn’t matter because it’s not the same as their truth.
Your truth matters.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 