Duckshoot Strikes Back
Dec. 14th, 2018 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjlasky7Follow me here, folks. This is both complicated to explain, and yet extremely simple to understand. It involves everybody's favorite brunette vampire slayer and how she completely slaughtered her opposition...
In case you haven't heard, Eliza Dushku just won a $9.5 million settlement from CBS as compensation for being written out of a prime time series under extremely suspect circumstances.
The back story: last year, Eliza Dushku signed on to the TV series "Bull" for a three episode arc, with plans to set her up as the regular romantic interest of the lead character, played by former NCIS star Michael Weatherly. However, during the filming of these episodes, Dushku was subjected to multiple attempts at alleged humor--of a sexual nature--by Weatherly. Dushku told Weatherly--in a firm, polite manner--to fucking cut that shit out. At that point, Weatherly and the producers re-evaluated Dushku's status on the series, and her character was written out.
It's not precisely clear what happened next. News articles only state that Dushku "entered negotiations" with CBS in order to resolve the circumstances of her dismissal. (It wouldn't be too much of a guess, though, to suppose that the words "massive lawsuit" were thrown around before "entering negotiations.") In the end, Dushku was paid the amount of money she would've been paid for four seasons' work as a series regular. End of story.
Only not really.
I watched NCIS on-and-off for a couple of years, and one of the big storylines (up until 2013) was the tempestuous relationship between Weatherly's Agent Tony DiNozzo and Cote de Pablo's former Mossad operative, Zira David. Then, at the end of S10, de Pablo abruptly left the series, under vague circumstances. There has never been a definitive explanation, but it's widely suspected that she could no longer tolerate an atmosphere of sexual harassment, but was unwilling to name names. The cloud over NCIS never really cleared, but the ratings didn't suffer, either. So the series sailed on smoothly...
Until last year, when Pauley Perrette, who played enormously popular NCIS lab technician Abby Sciuto, announced SHE was leaving the series under vague circumstances. (In case you're wondering, Weatherly had long since moved on to his new series.) There are odd stories about a conflict between Perette and series star Mark Harmon over Harmon bringing his dog onto the set--and the dog biting a crew member. But it all seems a little slight for Perette to toss away such a well-paying gig; unless, of course, the dog incident was just the last straw.
There seems to be a pattern of "incidents" on CBS' longtime dramas. Criminal Minds lost its lead actor, Thomas Gibson, due to "anger issues," and the show's DP was fired after incidents of sexual harassment piled up too high to ignore. Did CBS investigate the mood on the set of their most profitable properties, and let some fresh air into the room? No, of course not. Like many other institutions, the higher ups buried the conflict, paid off the victims, and plowed ahead.
Then Les Moonves got caught, and shit got real.
I guess it just goes to show that "isolated" incidents aren't isolated at all. If the powers that be are not confronted, and the victims' voices aren't heard, the toxic atmosphere will stay in place. Eliza got paid, but the struggle goes on.
In case you haven't heard, Eliza Dushku just won a $9.5 million settlement from CBS as compensation for being written out of a prime time series under extremely suspect circumstances.
The back story: last year, Eliza Dushku signed on to the TV series "Bull" for a three episode arc, with plans to set her up as the regular romantic interest of the lead character, played by former NCIS star Michael Weatherly. However, during the filming of these episodes, Dushku was subjected to multiple attempts at alleged humor--of a sexual nature--by Weatherly. Dushku told Weatherly--in a firm, polite manner--to fucking cut that shit out. At that point, Weatherly and the producers re-evaluated Dushku's status on the series, and her character was written out.
It's not precisely clear what happened next. News articles only state that Dushku "entered negotiations" with CBS in order to resolve the circumstances of her dismissal. (It wouldn't be too much of a guess, though, to suppose that the words "massive lawsuit" were thrown around before "entering negotiations.") In the end, Dushku was paid the amount of money she would've been paid for four seasons' work as a series regular. End of story.
Only not really.
I watched NCIS on-and-off for a couple of years, and one of the big storylines (up until 2013) was the tempestuous relationship between Weatherly's Agent Tony DiNozzo and Cote de Pablo's former Mossad operative, Zira David. Then, at the end of S10, de Pablo abruptly left the series, under vague circumstances. There has never been a definitive explanation, but it's widely suspected that she could no longer tolerate an atmosphere of sexual harassment, but was unwilling to name names. The cloud over NCIS never really cleared, but the ratings didn't suffer, either. So the series sailed on smoothly...
Until last year, when Pauley Perrette, who played enormously popular NCIS lab technician Abby Sciuto, announced SHE was leaving the series under vague circumstances. (In case you're wondering, Weatherly had long since moved on to his new series.) There are odd stories about a conflict between Perette and series star Mark Harmon over Harmon bringing his dog onto the set--and the dog biting a crew member. But it all seems a little slight for Perette to toss away such a well-paying gig; unless, of course, the dog incident was just the last straw.
There seems to be a pattern of "incidents" on CBS' longtime dramas. Criminal Minds lost its lead actor, Thomas Gibson, due to "anger issues," and the show's DP was fired after incidents of sexual harassment piled up too high to ignore. Did CBS investigate the mood on the set of their most profitable properties, and let some fresh air into the room? No, of course not. Like many other institutions, the higher ups buried the conflict, paid off the victims, and plowed ahead.
Then Les Moonves got caught, and shit got real.
I guess it just goes to show that "isolated" incidents aren't isolated at all. If the powers that be are not confronted, and the victims' voices aren't heard, the toxic atmosphere will stay in place. Eliza got paid, but the struggle goes on.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-16 01:34 am (UTC)Reminds me of Dushku and Benze supporting Boreanze less than gentlemanly behavior on the set of Angel. And I have to admit, it is easy to do, handwave it. I saw a guy in power do crap like that at my workplace ten years ago and handwaved it out of fear of reprisals. In fact another co-worker and I explained to a Compliance Officer why we couldn't report them.
It's so easy to say -- oh, I'll report this person -- but if they have power and you don't? Not so easy.