It seems that these days we are facing scandals after scandals of prominent people in the media. First we have the undying saga of “the tiger living in the woods”, then we have “a cheating husband of a Hollywood darling and Oscar winner”, and now it is the “husband of a prominent acting agent and a lovable father figure in Australia”.
Now if all these people ever want to live a life as just another human being, they successfully did it – as they could have committed a sin as every other human being could commit on Earth. For Mr Wood and Mr James, they were involved with adults – not that their adulterous actions are correct or justifiable, but at least they are consenting adults. How messy they got, adults are dealing with adults. What distressed me most is the allegation of two powerful personalities – one leading actor and one major producer – trying to execute and cover up evil deeds against children worked on set. I don’t want to jump into conclusion that Robert Hughes is guilty as there is yet a trial on that. But I really dislike people taking advantage on helpless people and exercise their power to a magnitude that it helped to “conspire” and “perpetuate” such evil acts.
Everyone in the acting business knows that this is a tough business. Every time we got a job, we want to do our best to keep it (well maybe not all but most of us). So when a 6 year old who is on the set earning bread and butter for her family was experiencing such horrible thing, what could she do? According to the information she eventually sought help and advice from an elder cast member who was eventually told to shut up or “risk not working in the country anymore”. Now what interested me was why did that producer do that? Is it also just to keep the show running so he could earn a lot more out of it? If that’s so and if it was proved that the allegations are correct, the media industry should unite against this producer and throw him out of business too as he is equally guilty.
Another thing that kept me thinking was that if according to all the actors who came out to talk about this that Hughes’ behaviour is well known throughout the industry, why didn’t his wife know and take actions? As one of the most prominent agents of the country, surely there would be wind blowing pass her letting her know about this. So how could that kind of behaviour continued for so many years behind her back? I am not saying she had a part or she allowed this to happen, but then if she really didn’t know about all these, people surely had kept her in the dark very well. I could only feel sorry for her.
At this point it is really difficult for us to make judgement as there is no real judgement unless the case is officially filed and a trial is officially carried out. However, in due time hopefully the truth will come out as I do think that with such allegations, Hughes does have the responsibility to let the society know the truth because as I said, this is not private fun between two consenting adults behind his wife’s back but the exercise of power one a helpless kid in a wrongful manner. How many more people will come out and make further allegations is still unknown but I think not only for us but for just for human conscience, actions have to be taken. And should the truth prove Hughes is guilty, as I said earlier, the producer in question should be hung too.
As for all of us, as my friend said in his blog, if you are in the acting business or media industry and experienced harassment of such magnitude, do not hesitate to report it to the union: http://www.alliance.org.au/ as the more we tolerate such behaviour, the messier and more unprofessional the business becomes. Hopefully, bit by bit we can clear out the cancer cells in the industry and people who deserve to work will get work and not a bunch of conspiring evil wankers.
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