Come At Me, Feminists. I Don’t Even Care.

You know how feminists are all about insisting that all women who bring accusations against men for sexual harassment/misconduct are to be believed no matter what?

Welp, I don’t believe this one. I simply don’t.

According to that sourcelink, Michael Douglas did a pre-emptive interview with Deadline to get out in front of publicity that he suspected would occur as a result of Hollywood Reporter and Variety Magazine suggesting that they would be publishing stories about him allegedly masturbating in front of a female employee 32 years ago.

I’ve read it in its entirety, and I don’t give a crap what the #metoo and #timesup feminists say. I believe every word of his account.

We’ve written about this numerous times. We talked about it right here. And right here. And right here.

Like us, there are other folks out there concerned about just how far all of this will go, and how unfair it is to have your life ruined over an accusation for which there is often absolutely zero evidence, or police reports, or anything. Other than a chick with a story she wants to tell.

Michael Douglas just isn’t having it, and I don’t blame him a bit. As the introduction to the interview points out, he’s well aware that doing an interview about these allegations, before they’ve been published by really anyone, simply invites the kind of scrutiny most men in his position would prefer to avoid, he’s adamant that he absolutely positively did not masturbate in front of any employee.

Apparently, right before the holidays last month, Douglas got a message from his lawyer that the Hollywood Reporter was going to cover the story of a former employee of his who claimed the following:

1. Douglas used “colorful langauge in front of her.” Not AT her or TO her, mind you, but just in front of her.
2. Douglas had raunchy conversations in front of her on the phone with his friends.
3. Douglas fired her.
4. Douglas blackballed her in the industry and prevented her from finding other employment.
5. Douglas masturbated in front of her.

As soon as his lawyer told him of these allegations, Douglas decided he wanted to talk to the reporter directly. He barely remembered the woman, but knew who it was, and here’s his description of what he said to the reporter:

“Listen, as far as using colorful language in front her, I apologize. None of it was directed at her; she didn’t say it was. It was my office and that was the tone that I set and as far as conversations with friends.’ I work out of my house, my apartment in New York at the time, to the best of my recollection. As to colorful language, she may have overheard private conversations, and if she was offended, she could have excused herself. As far as blackballing her, that was completely untrue. She was a lady who was involved in development at my company, and we just didn’t have a good development record in the time she was there, so I just moved on. I never blackballed her. If people from the industry called me to ask about her, I would have been honest, but I never blackballed her.

Finally, masturbating in front of her? I don’t know where to begin. This is a complete lie, fabrication, no truth to it whatsoever.
The reporter told me, ‘she did say that you never harassed her, never touched her,’ and I said…okay. So I didn’t know where this comes from. The reporter said, ‘let me digest this, and we’ll sit on it over the holidays and get back into it after.’ My family had a lovely holiday, we came back and literally on the day of my arrival, The Hollywood Reporter got in touch with me and said, she’s running around, possibly trying to give this story to other people, so we’re going to run with it. I said, I don’t think that’s justification, just because you might get scooped, to run a story like this. My attorney did say they had been approached by Variety or somebody else, asking if there was anything going on.

I was floored. I didn’t know what to say and I tried to digest it. The accusations are minimal, except of course for the idea of masturbating in front of her. She supposedly had three friends who would back her up, that she had mentioned this to. I pride myself of being so supportive of the women’s movement. My mother was an actress, and I myself married to an actress and have been supportive of this movement wholeheartedly, through all my years. I was forced to look over my past. I’ve had up to 20 female executives who worked at my company in different areas over the years. Over 20 producers I partnered with on pictures have been women. Not to mention all the actresses I’ve worked with and the hundreds of performers. How am I, in a 50 year career in this industry, dealing with an employee 33 years ago who perhaps is disgruntled that I let her go, even though I have never heard from her in 32 years. And a legitimate trade publication is going to try and print this story? There is no corroboration, just that they found out somebody else might run the story.

Side note: Did you guys ever see the movie Disclosure, with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, when she sexually harassed him and then tried to accuse him of being the perpetrator?  It was an absolutely fantastic movie, and even though it’s from forever ago, I thought of it instantly when I read this interview.  If you haven’t seen it, and you can watch this trailer for it and not WANT to see it, then you’re a crazy person.  It was SO SO SO SO GOOD.

Anyway, back to the interview.  Deadline asked Douglas what it felt like to be targeted based on a single allegation, and this was his reply:

It’s extremely painful. I pride myself on my reputation in this business, not to mention the long history of my father and everything else. I don’t have skeletons in my closet, or anyone else who’s coming out or saying this. I’m bewildered why, after 32 years, this is coming out, now. As I say, I will fess up to colorful language, but the issue of masturbating in front of her? That rung is something I’ve only heard about the last year. It’s not an expression that related to the ‘80s. So I thought it stunk. And I tried to figure out, why the hell would somebody do this? The part that hurt the worst is having to share something like this to your wife and your children. My kids are really upset, has to go to school worrying this is going to be in some article about me, being a sexual harasser. They’re scared and very uncomfortable.

My wife has a long career, and as a woman, she has been very supportive. So what is this? The woman, it turns out, is a blogger. We’ve had to do some quick research, and she has mentioned my name sometimes in her blogs. Nothing terrible. It leads me to believe she either has or is trying to get a book deal. I can’t believe that someone would cause someone else pain like this. Maybe she is disgruntled her career didn’t go the way she hoped and she is holding this grudge. It has caused tremendous stress to me for something I believe I have nothing to regret or feel responsible for.

I’m certainly regretful if she was offended by the language in the ‘80s, but this other thing, she would not be getting a story in a trade paper with these other issues. The one that she raises, is the reason for that story.

In addition to wanting to get ahead of the story, Douglas also has concerns about how far the #metoo movement is going, even though he’s a strong supporter of it.

This is the kind of step that can set that movement back. Being accused, without a chance [to defend yourself] in court. To not even really have the information in front of you, to be able to argue or defend yourself. There is no due process, no chance of seeing evidence in front of me from my accuser. It worries me. I saw Sheryl Sandberg, warned about a potential backlash in this area. I’m just happy to be able to present my story. I’m grateful to have the support of my wife and my kids who’ve had to share this with me. It has been a complete nightmare. It’s really hard to conceive that I have to defend myself against a situation that is 32 years ago, and it was not what they are saying it was.

He was also asked if he feared additional allegations from other women coming out, but he’s confident that this woman is running solo, and had a theory about her motive:

I’ve worked with women my entire life. It has never been an issue. And now it’s an issue, with a woman who was there 32 years ago, who happens to be a writer, who happens to write blogs, who says she wants to write a book about her life, and a chapter about me, and yet, that is lost in the accusations in the period we’re in right now.

And he also said this:

I’d confess to anything I thought I was responsible for. And it was most certainly not masturbating in front of this woman. This reeks. I would have respected if she had reached out to me any time over these years, to share her pain or concerns and I would have been the first one to respond. But this, going directly to the newspapers or whatever you want to call them, it just reeks of something else. I’m upset. It wasn’t the new year I had anticipated. I’m having a hard time understanding it. I’m very grateful to my family and business associates around me. I’m fearful, I have jobs going with studios who all seem to be supportive at this time. I’m hurt, really hurt and offended and I wonder if people realize when you do something like this, it hurts a lot more than just one person.

I encourage y’all to read the entire interview, and report back in the comments section.  Do you believe Douglas?