SAG-AFTRA Can't Say "Christmas"

Add SAG-AFTRA to the list of organizations that can't say "Christmas." The Fall/Winter 2018 issue of SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles (the newsletter of the actors union's Los Angeles local) has a "Calendar of Events" on page 7 that states:

Monday, Dec. 24 -- Office closed for holiday

Tuesday, Dec. 25 -- Office closed for holiday

Monday, Dec. 31 -- Office closed for New Year's Eve

Tuesday, Jan. 1 -- Office closed for New Year's Day

Now, which holiday do you suppose the office is closed for on Decembers 24 and 25. There's only one that fall on those dates. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So why not say it?

It's not like the newsletter was referring to the "holiday season." It was referring to two specific days that contain only Christmas.

And it's not like the newsletter is averse to mentioning other holidays. New Year's Day is specifically named.

The only reasons for SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles's newsletter to refrain from writing "Christmas" is that union leaders themselves find the word offensive -- or they fear that the word might offend non-Christian readers.

This is no oversight or trivial thing. The newsletter's editors certainly thought it was important to avoid writing "Christmas." They made a conscious decision to mention one holiday by name -- "New Year's Day" -- while simultaneously avoiding the name of another holiday -- "Christmas."

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Sacramento Bill Promotes Diversity in Hollywood -- But Only "Below the Line"

Sophia Bollag of the AP reports that the California legislature is making diversity hiring a condition for tax credits to the film industry. Unfortunately, this only applies to "below the line" workers.

 

Bollag writes [June 19, 2018]:

"The film commission assigns credits based on a production's 'below the line' jobs, including set builders, makeup artists and extras -- not the highest profile workers, such as starring actors and directors. Applicants who receive the tax credit would help fund a program to train people from underrepresented communities to do 'below the line' jobs on film sets."

That's commendable as far as it goes. But diversity in the workplace will always depend upon the kindness of employers until the gatekeepers to jobs -- producers, studio executives, talent agents, casting directors -- also more accurately reflect our nation's racial, religious, ethnic and gender makeup. Diversity among "below the line" workers is nice. Diversity among decision makers is better.

 

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Rose McGowan Trashes Quentin Tarantino's Foot Fetish

Actress Rose McGowan's new book, Brave, recounts her decades of suffering sexual harassment -- and even rape -- at the hands of Hollywood's top men. While the meat of the book targets producer Harvey Weinstein, McGowan also trashes other Hollywood notables.

At one point, McGowan expresses disgust at Quentin Tarantino for his foot fetish. Tarantino had allegedly told McGowan that he enjoyed watching her paint her toenails in a movie scene. McGowan writes:

"Tarantino has a known foot fetish. That means Tarantino paid extra money to jerk off to my young feet and he told me about it loudly, over and over, for years in front of numerous people, as if I should be so thrilled that he donated his solid-motherfucking-gold semen that is clearly better than all the other semen in the world, and he gave it up for little ol' me? It's time men realized their semen isn't all that."

While McGowan's "revelation" might disgust some people, it comes as no revelation to readers of the Hollywood Investigator. The Investigator reported on Tarantino's foot fetish as early as 2004!

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