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Activists Fly 'Hollywood: Stop Enabling Abuse' Banner Over Hollywood
The banner flew over Hollywood on Tuesday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Ultraviolet)
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Angelenos who managed to look up from the unending rounds of Harvey Weinstein-related news push notifications on their phones Tuesday morning found a message in the skies: a plane flying a banner that read "Hollywood: Stop Enabling Abuse."
Women’s advocacy group Ultraviolet arranged for the plane and banner to fly over Hollywood from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday. "The banner was commissioned after a report by The New York Times revealed that Harvey Weinstein spent decades paying off sexual harassment accusers," according to a statement from Ultraviolet. Weinstein was fired from the production company he co-founded on Sunday, and another bombshell New York Times story was released on Tuesday, along with a New Yorker story reporting 13 women's stories of being sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein (this number included three alleged rapes, one against Italian actress-director Asia Argento.)
Jodi Kantor, co-writer of the New York Times article that exposed Weinstein's history of alleged sexual harassment and prompted his firing, shared a photo of the banner on Twitter:
Activists flew this banner over the Hollywood sign today. pic.twitter.com/CXrAl3FlX6
— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) October 10, 2017
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Hollywood passersby who saw the banner also took to Twitter to note the exhortation overhead:
A plane just flew over my school with a banner saying "Hollywood, stop enabling abusers" and that's what made me smile today
— 🌻Moni🌻 (@MaydayMoni) October 10, 2017
Ultraviolet co-founder Nita Chaudhary pointed out the hypocrisy of Weinstein's misconduct remaining an "open secret" in Hollywood for years, saying in a statement, "It is appalling that an industry would cover the tracks of a man who spent literally decades abusing his power by abusing women."
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