Hollywood's Real "House of Cards"

By Martin Fisher

Hollywood stands like a house of cards trembling before the blast.

Their characters seem to tower above us, looming from a high edifice of empowerment, but really we have always known they have never been anything but numbers and faces painted on brittle tiles.

A storm of recent sex scandals reveal that in real life, they are shallow and soiled numbers and faces at that.

We can start with Harvey Weinestein's 87 sexual misconduct accusers outed in early October, and follow with dozens – a growing clan of vanities from Hollywood dim before our eyes. Additionally, these sex scandals come on the heels of Hollywood's hateful politics, their mocking diarrhea of the mouth, insulting a society of productive family folks who voted Donald J. Trump for President.

It's sad that society dabbled for so long in their games before realizing how shallow, brittle and morally low the characters of the entertainment industry have been for generations.

Tinsel Town is experiencing declining revenues; apparently an awakening is taking place among we the ticket-purchasing public. Would we take some pity? As our celebrity neighbors see their millions marginally threatened? Degraded first from their ugly political references, then sustaining mighty blows because of the moral and sexual ugliness. The reasons to wake up to the ugliness of Hollywood itself grow. And ugly is difficult to watch.

How can we suspend reality and pretend with them a frolicking two hours of cinematic play, when we know that in real life these painted numbers and faces represent such spite against all we stand for, marginalizing our beliefs, values and opinions as vile or stupid?

As instances emerge:

* personal infamy replaces glamorous fame

* tragic vulgarity replaces glittery vogue

and this while our ears still ring from rancorous hatred spewed toward our President, doubling down with religious fervor – literally suggesting that this year's devastating hurricanes struck our land because of Trump.

I hope we recognize they are projecting, more as the threats of their ends draw near. It says much more about this Hollywood house of cards than anything else.

(By the way, this seems to be the sum total of any projecting of particular interest Hollywood is producing these days.)

From the Machiavellian character of Hollywood's popular Netflix production: House of Cards, we see some of these projections.

Kevin Spacey, playing the main character, Frank Underwood in this political drama, is quoted, “Everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.” And, “The road to power is paved with hypocrisy, and casualties.”

Life has imitated his art, and we now add Spacey to our list of Hollywood cards that waver under the growing avalanche of scandalous sexual allegations: as production schedules were delayed for allegation probes against Spacy to finish. And the news from recent weeks in December added even more accusers.

According to Yahoo News at https://yhoo.it/2iVXLxh Spacey is accused by dozens, including Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, among other men, causing Spacey to also announce he is homosexual.

He has more sexual misconduct accusers than most. In sum, through the three months since Weinstein's outing, the entertainment industry has presented about 80 more recent examples of how tainted these cards can be. A list follows these closing remarks.

Netflix threatened to cut Spacey from their hit series, eliminating the main character Underwood.

How will this ongoing script burden the image makers toward an imploding point? Is everything drawing near a final season?

Is it ironic that the preceding two sentences are indistinguishably applicable to both the series and the entertainment industry itself? From appearances back stage, the real questions are for Hollywood's real-life “House of Cards.”

The list:

*director James Toback is accused by hundreds.

A significant number each accuse:

*celebrity chef John Besh, 21

*executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, 19

*media director, activist Mark Halperin, 15

*actor Ron Jeremy, 13

*producer Andrew Duncan, 12

*media chief Dylan Howard, 12

*director Brett Ratner, 11

*talk show host Charlie Rose, 11

*playwright, director Israel Horovitz, nine

*publisher Knight Landesman, nine

*network anchor Matt Lauer, eight

*news chief Michael Oreskes, eight

*celebrity chef Johnny Luzzini, eight

*show manager Mark Schwahn, seven

*actor Steven Seagal, six

*agent Tyler Grasham, six

*celebrity chef Mario Batali, five

Less, but still several each accuse:

*comedian Louis C.K

*casting specialist Andy Henry

*agent David Guillod

*actor Danny Masterson

*industry executive Sean Carlson

*comedian Al Frankin, who is also a U.S. Senator

*media content executive Andy Signore

*news correspondent Glenn Thrush

*director Oliver Stone

*singer R. Kelly

*animator John Lasseter

*comics editor Eddie Berganza

*actor Jeremy Piven

*music conductor James Levine

*publisher Hamilton Fish

*media editor Leon Wieseltier

*tech blogger Robert Scoble

*actor Ed Westwick

*industry manager Andre Balazs

*producer Adam Fields

*late night talk show host Travis Smiley

One or Two each accuse:

*actor Ben Affleck

*magician David Blane

*actor Dustin Hoffman

*actor Jeffrey Tambor

*actor Andy Dick

*studio president Roy Price

*media editor Lockhart Steele

*director Lars Von Trier

*Weinstein brother, producer Bob Weinstein

*band bassist Twiggy Ramirez

*Nobel Prize winning author Elie Wiesel

*musician Ethan Kath

*director Roman Polanski

*photographer Bruce Webber

*radio host John Hockenberry

*reality TV celebrity Melanie Martinez

*ballet producer Peter Martins

*director Bryan Singer

*Disney director John Heely

*radio and TV host Larry King

*New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza

*music executive L.A.Reid

*film maker Morgan Spurlock

*TV personality Carter Oosterhouse

*MSNBC host Chris Matthews

*actor T.J. Miller

*actor Geoffrey Rush

*agent Adam Venit

*musician Mariah Carey

*actor Robert Knepper

*publisher Jann Wenner

*entertainment executive Gary Goddard

*music executive Benny Medina

*actor George Takei

*musician Jesse Lacey

*entertainment executive Richard Branson

*actor Richard Dreyfuss

*media chief Kaj Larsen

*agent Cameron Mitchell

*producer Murray Miller

*actor Sylvester Stallone

*recording executive Russell Simmons

*radio host Garrison Keillor

*singer Nick Carter

*rock music icon Gene Simmons

*actor Ed Westwick