Let he or she who hath not sinned cast the first stone
What a refreshing breath of fresh air are the comments made by Dame Judi Dench at a Spanish Film Festival in relation to Kevin Spacey. It’s about time common sense prevailed and it is a shame it takes an old lady of theatre now 83, to show some realism.
We seem to be in an age of pious self-righteousness. I have long been sick of the hashtag MeToo# or however it appears. Don’t do twitter!
Kevin Spacey, the same as many others with a tarnished reputation, has worked on and contributed to our entertainment a vast amount of work, in all of which they play characters and not themselves.
What would I like to see? Those convicted lose the right to repeat fees. The fees should be signed over for a period or forever depending on the severity and number of crimes to a charity engaged in work in the treatment of their victims or others of similar crimes. In that way the general public can still enjoy the characters they have created with a clear conscience in the knowledge repeat fees are going to help others.
There has been a trend of outing big names. Always worrying when so many of those who come forward seem to derive publicity they would otherwise be unable to muster, in the absence of allegation.
In writing this I have come to realise what I thought at the outset of allegations last year was a good thing may have been exploited by some who are wannabe victims for their own end.
In many ways, it is the path of the predator to have trust, authority or image that is coveted by the vulnerable. It is a minority who are swayed by their own desire to abuse and hopefully it is a similar or lesser number of the vulnerable who exploit easy targets.
Whether gay or straight or any other designation there will always be predators and victims. It may not always be clear which is which. What I could do better is not to judge from my armchair.