The Silence of Hollywood Women in the Age of Epstein

LOS ANGELES – As the summer grinds on with headline after headline about Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, the women’s movement is strangely silent. I’m not even sure what I mean when I say “the women’s movement.” We used to have one, but I don’t think I could name a single national figure – political, cultural, business – who is leading the fight for women’s rights.  

Merely eight years ago, the righteous rage of women abused at the hands of powerful men shook the foundations of power across the world and birthed the hashtag #MeToo, all sparked by the fall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, spreading quickly across the entertainment industry to include directors, producers, CEOs and agents. 

It was a movement aimed at change, meant to clear out the dark attics and scary basements where the bogeymen live and create a world that was better for our daughters. The women in Hollywood created Time’s Up and took up a social justice mantra that sought equity: “50/50 by 2020.”  

Reporting on this at the time, I was shocked at the depth and breadth of the misconduct. Not just the proverbial casting couch, and not just Weinstein. This was a widespread culture of men helping themselves to women in the workplace and pressuring them to stay silent – until the dam broke. 

For the most part, the men pushed out by that movement remain persona non grata, though some have defiantly returned to the spotlight. Louis C.K., canceled for masturbating in front of multiple women, is now on a national tour titled “Ridiculous” and will headline the New York Comedy Festival in November.

Jeff Shell, who had to step down as CEO of NBCUniversal in 2023 over allegations of sexual harassment, has just been named to a top job at Paramount Global with the Skydance merger complete. 

From Hollywood to politics, it feels like the #MeToo chapter is closed; Andrew Cuomo — who, after first winning praise with his high profile during COVID, had to resign as governor of New York — is back running for New York City mayor, for God’s sake.

Where are the women? #MeToo may now be a 501c3 called “me too,” but no one’s talking about it. Time’s Up disbanded in 2023 over conflicts of interest and problems in its leadership. Even women who have sought the highest office, including Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, appear to have lost their voice. 

A palpable fatigue seems to have followed that initial flurry of complaints. Even as new and lurid cases of misconduct emerge, such as accounts of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex parties during his recent trial, they have been greeted with more weariness than alarm. Combs, found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking but convicted of less serious offenses of transportation to engage in prostitution, is reportedly seeking a pardon from President Trump.  

Women, especially famous ones, sense that speaking out now is not just out of fashion, but carries real reputational risks. No one wants to be “the target of the administration’s ire,” says Leigh Goodmark, an expert in gender-based violence and the Marjorie Cook Professor of Law at University of Maryland Carey School of Law.

And undoubtedly confidence has been lost as the national movement for women’s rights has clocked one defeat after another: from the loss of Roe v. Wade to the re-election of  Donald Trump a year after he was found liable of sexual abuse in the E. Jean Carroll case. Already besieged, Planned Parenthood is fighting a legal battle for its survival with the Trump administration over Medicaid funding.

Now comes the Epstein case, which no one in Hollywood sees as a newfound rallying cry for the cause of women. It’s just an intra-MAGA political football. The survivors who say they feel abandoned also say they are simply exhausted, trying to manage their trauma, fight their court cases and make ends meet.  

“Survivors aren’t stupid. They understand that calling for the [Epstein] files to be released is a political move,” Goodmark said. “No one thinks it’s about survivors.”

Of Trump, she added, “He’s a serial violator of women. They know already he was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein. They don’t believe he doesn’t make little drawings. So continuing to weigh in on this when Epstein is dead, when the people who support him don’t care, doesn’t seem like a great use of time or resources.”

More ominously, a lawyer who has worked on the Weinstein case said that both Epstein and Diddy involved too many powerful people, and the current silence is just plain fear of the consequences.

“These guys are in a power network rubbing elbows with presidents and senators — people with real power. It’s paralyzing,” said the lawyer, who said she declined to represent victims of Diddy and Epstein. “I’m as guilty as the women who aren’t saying anything. I didn’t want to have a great career and then have it ended — either dead or bankrupt or vilified. And that’s the math on everyone else’s mind. The men were too powerful.” 

When I reached out to speak to some of the women who came forward in 2017, I was met with the harsh sting of their disappointment.

“We are drowning in sorrow,” said Rosanna Arquette, who has said she was blacklisted from working as an actress in Hollywood after she rebuffed Weinstein. A longtime activist against sex trafficking, she is friends with women who came forward with claims of abuse by Epstein.

More concretely, “there’s a real dearth of a national-level, umbrella organization that focuses on sexual violence,” said Weinstein survivor Louise Godbold, who counsels victims of sexual abuse.

“Survivors are busy dealing with their personal trauma, that’s the level I’m working with. It’s a formidable foe if you’re talking about the entrenched establishment power who have so much to lose if it came out that they were perpetrators. It’s an uphill battle. Most survivors are dealing with their PTSD and trying to hold down a job. They’re caught up in court cases that take every ounce of their energy. They don’t have the capacity to do more.” 

Is the silence a tacit agreement in Hollywood that #MeToo may have gone too far? I wonder. If pressed, I would argue that people seem to just want to get on with their lives, get back to work and declare a truce. 

The power dynamics may never permanently shift in an industry where men dominate decisions and beautiful women will always vie for media attention and roles. But in Hollywood right now, the silence is deafening.

 

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