Kobe Bryant snubbed by Academy for conduct, invite rescinded after winning Oscar
They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
For Hollywood and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it seems that the lessons learned about character assassination from the McCarthy-era blacklists have been thoroughly forgotten in the era of #MeToo.
Kobe Bryant, basketball legend and Oscar-winning director of “Dear Basketball,” which won the Oscar for animation and shorts at March’s ceremony, was all set to leverage that Oscar into full membership in the Academy, which brings with it the prestigious honor of being able to vote for future Oscar winners.
But after a hue and cry from the protest-first, ask-questions-later set that saw a petition garner 17,000 signatures, the Academy brass overruled the nomination from the animation and shorts division.
All because of an alleged sexual assault that never even went to trial, let alone result in a conviction. The end result was Kobe having to explain to his enraged wife — and by “explain” we mostly mean “buy a $4 million apology ring for” — that he was guilty of adultery but that it was consensual, an assertion that no evidence or commentary since the incident has cast doubt upon.
But to hear Hollywood tell it, you’d think Kobe was Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby or Roman Polanski, all of whom had their names removed from the honored circle of members in the Academy in the past year for their own sexual misconduct.
Which is such a wildly over-the-top and disproportionate punishment for a nonexistent crime that it boggles the mind.
Polanski raped Samantha Geimer, then 13 years old, in 1977. Since coming forward to speak of her ordeal, Geimer has been consistent with her story. Authorities saw fit to charge Polanski with a variety of crimes, not only for rape of a minor but also for “furnishing a minor with controlled substances,” which is a nice way of saying he drugged her first.
Polanski pleaded guilty to an unlawful sexual intercourse charge and promptly ran off to France in 1978. He has been on the lam for 40 years and refuses to set foot in the United States.
Cosby, meanwhile, has mountains of accusers all telling the same story about his MO: He allegedly drugged women and used their impaired state and inability to give informed consent to force himself upon them sexually. Cosby was convicted of three such counts in Pennsylvania on April 26 and faces a potential sentence that will ensure he dies in prison.
And Weinstein was Patient Zero for the #MeToo epidemic. When The New York Times broke the story of Weinstein’s sexual misdeeds and payoffs in October 2017, the call went out on Twitter for more such women to tell their stories, and a hashtag was born.
Weinstein was arrested in New York on May 25; he faces multiple counts of rape and other sexual offenses, although for the moment he remains free on bail pending settlement or trial.
Bryant was accused of a crime by a single alleged victim who refused to testify and dropped the matter with a civil settlement in time for the Lakers to lose to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals.
Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?”
Even in the most uncharitable interpretation of Kobe’s actions, he remains a devoted husband and father to his wife and children 14 years later. Everything since 2003 speaks to the character of a good man who, at best, made a mistake.
But to the crunchy granola bars of the Hollywood left, one mistake is enough to deny a man a reward he earned through working hard and producing great art.
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