BIll Maher (almost) never met a famous man accused of misconduct that he did not want to defend. The dawn comic, which once warned that the #MeToo Movement was creating a “police state” for sex, defended MSNBC’s Chris Matthews after he was accused of sexual harassment (and scoffed at his accuser just in case); defended the friend Al Franken, who was accused of non-consensual touching and kissing; defended former Trump companion Corey Lewandowski after he was caught on tape pushing a reporter; repeatedly defamed Joe Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, whose lawyer later accused him of “recycling old rape myths”; and he once argued that married men sexually harass women “because they have a shitty sex life”. There are many other examples, of course; this is just a fitting room.
Which brings us to Friday night Real Time with Bill Maher, where the political comedian took on the responsibility of defending Hollywood actor Armie Hammer, who is accused of physical and emotional abuse by several women. According to Maher, “feminism” may be the real culprit here.
“I think we can talk about that in relation to where feminism is, because apparently Armie Hammer has a predilection for telling girlfriends that he wants to ‘eat them’. And who wouldn’t want to be eaten by Armie Hammer? We will, ”Maher started. When a woman shouted in the audience, Maher proclaimed, “Exactly what I mean. Thank you, an honest woman. “
Hammer, the star of 34 years of films like The social network and Call me by your name, initially came under scrutiny when Instagram leaked DMs were released by the @houseofeffie account, in which he expressed cannibal, rape and kidnapping fantasies for women. Unfortunately, some members of the media and the public began to confuse the actor’s twists with the real allegations of coercion and physical and emotional abuse.
“Apparently, this is something called ‘ethical human cannibal fetishism’. No real women were eaten in the making of this film. They were just talking. They have his texts, in which he said things like: ‘I want to remove your rib and boil it with barbecue sauce’ ”, says Maher. “We are in a society so focused on pornography – people have been watching really hardcore porn for so long that ‘hitting you’ really doesn’t do any more.” (So pornography is apparently to blame for Hammer’s fetishes now, based on … what exactly?)
Maher then painted Hammer’s accusers as women who simply changed their minds: “My point is that women who are opposing it now, who went out with Armie Hammer – voluntarily – and remained – voluntarily – and there were no bad things happening, OK … we can all agree that it is intolerable, but if there was no physical coercion, why was it not just filed away, ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time – let Armie Hammer eat me – but it really wasn’t.’ we have no more property of our own choices. ”
One of the Real Time panelists, TIME correspondent Charlotte Alter, countered that “there was something physical” between Hammer and his accusers. “Some of the women claimed that there were some slaps. A woman said he engraved his initials on her body, ”added Alter.
“Did he tie you up and do that?” shot Maher back. “I think not.”
This is where we must go over exactly what Hammer is accused of. One of the first women to publicly assume and accuse Hammer of misconduct was Courtney Vucekovich, a businesswoman and app founder, who told Page Six that the actor had coerced her into an unsafe relationship, forcing her into “dangerous situations in which I didn’t it was fine, ”Including the sexual ones.
“He quickly prepares you for the relationship,” she told Page Six. “He kind of captivates you and, while he’s charming, is preparing you for those things that are darker, heavier and more exhausting. When I say consume, I mean mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, just everything. ”Vucekovich claims that she had to be hospitalized for 30 days with PTSD she suffered after dating Hammer.
“The women approached me with their case histories as we talked, overwhelmed with sadness for days and nights without sleeping or eating, with some ending in the emergency …“
Then there was 22-year-old Paige Lorenze, who said that Hammer sent his nude photos to other people without their consent, and manipulated her emotionally to let him hurt her repeatedly, encouraging her to “show” the marks and “be proud” of them. She claims that Hammer “liked to hurt women, but used BDSM as a mask for that,” and told Page Six that he has since been on trauma therapy due to the ordeal.
Several other women have anonymously reported to @houseofeffie, claiming that Hammer has exceeded his limits and that he has experienced abusive behavior on his part.
“Women approached me with their case histories as we talked, overwhelmed with sadness for days and nights without sleeping or eating, some ending up in the emergency room,” wrote the person who runs @houseofeffie in an Instagram story. (Hammer, who was removed from film and TV projects, removed from his agency and beaten by his ex-wife, denied all charges.)
Cut back to Maher, who insisted on Real time that all women accusing Hammer said that everything was “consensual” and that “I think he’s exactly the guy in the book Fifty Shades of grey, which was the most popular book of all time, I think, with women … He is a rich and handsome guy, a movie star, and he has a fold. “
He then blamed the Hammer accusers expressly – again: “If you’re going to swim with the alpha sharks, you’re not going to come out right in the end. Shouldn’t you know that? I mean, is it really that hard to find out without the law getting involved? ”Said Maher, adding:” He’s a scoundrel! “
Maher, by the way, has his own troubled past with women. Actress and activist Rose McGowan recently accused Maher of harassing her when she was a guest on her show: “I was on your show Politically Incorrect in the late 90s – when the show came back from the commercial break, you leaned over to me and whispered in my ear: ‘my parents didn’t give me a good face, but they gave me a huge dick,’ ”she wrote, adding:“ I could feel his hot breath on my ear when an image of his horrible face and his supposed big dick flashed through my mind. They both turned my stomach. I always wondered what you say and do to girls who are not famous? “