Where’s the righteous celebrity outrage? The moral indignation?
It’s been nearly 48 hours since Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was arrested and indicted on charges of sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.
Also alleged in this indictment is his staging of recurrent ‘Freak Offs’, in which his victims would be drugged and forced to have sex for days on end, left with such severe injuries they needed weeks to recover — crimes stretching back to at least 2009.
But what do we hear from an industry that otherwise loves to preach about equity, fairness, inclusion, and the rights and safety of the marginalized and abused? An industry that so proudly pushed #MeToo?
Nothing. A disgusting, disturbing, uniform silence.
Recall the A-list celebrities who swiftly came forward, or spoke out, after now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was exposed: Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, Charlize Theron, Emma Thompson, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep — I could go on.
Where’s the righteous celebrity outrage? The moral indignation? It’s been nearly 48 hours since Sean ‘ Diddy ‘ Combs was arrested and indicted on charges of sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. (Above) Jay-Z embraces Sean Combs at Combs’s 50th birthday party in December 2019
Recall the A-list celebrities who swiftly came forward, or spoke out, after now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was exposed. (Above) Harvey Weinstein celebrates alongside Gwynneth Paltrow after ‘Shakespeare in Love’ won the best picture Oscar, in Los Angeles, March 22, 1999
Several of these women wrote op-eds in the New York Times. They valorized such activism. Nothing was chicer in 2018 than turning up to the Golden Globes dressed in black, expressing solidarity with Weinstein’s victims and sorrow for all the careers he vindictively killed, proclaiming that such systemic abuse would never be countenanced again.
Outrage extended into boardrooms, politics, and fashion.
Hillary Clinton — who took a lot of money from the disgraced movie mogul — issued a statement praising the victims who spoke up, writing that ‘their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.’
Disney CEO Bob Iger called Weinstein’s actions ‘abhorrent and unacceptable’ with ‘no place in today’s society.’
Vogue editor Anna Wintour: ‘appalling and unacceptable.’
These are but a smattering of celebrity social justice warriors who, despite their formerly close ties to a decades-long known predator, felt they needed to speak out — perhaps, in some cases, to save their own jobs and reputations, but who nonetheless made it clear that Weinstein was done, found guilty or not.
Yet when Combs’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, whose music career Combs helped launch, bravely filed a civil suit against him last November — a suit that may have put her own life at risk — almost no one stood with her.
Among her allegations: Relentless beatings, including one in January 2009 after Combs saw Ventura talking to a music manager at a party in L.A.: ‘[Combs] became enraged . . . In the car leaving the club, Mr. Combs beat Ms. Ventura, pushing her into a corner of the vehicle and stomping on her face. . . [she] was bleeding profusely, and was ushered into Mr. Combs’s home, where she began to throw up from the violent assault.’
When Combs’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, whose music career Combs helped launch, bravely filed a civil suit against him last November — a suit that may have put her own life at risk — almost no one stood with her.
Combs denied all of it, until surveillance video of an attack in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 was released last year: Cassie making her escape from what we now know was a ‘Freak Off’, Combs running after her dressed in nothing but a towel, grabbing her by the neck, throwing her to the floor and kicking her while she was down, over and over and over.
This is what he did in public. Imagine the atrocities he may have been capable of in private.
What was striking then, nearly one year ago, was the similar silence. Not one celebrity or colleague came forward to defend Combs, to insist that there was no way he could have committed such savagery, that Ventura’s detailed accusations had to be a money grab or revenge by a woman scorned.
One would be safe to assume, as was the case with Weinstein, that people knew.
Yet, look at the hip-hop icons and celebrity pals who are all-too-quiet: Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Rihanna. New York City mayor and nightlife habitué Eric Adams, who gave Combs a key to New York City last year — a key he revoked three weeks after the Cassie video came to light.
Jennifer Lopez, who dated Combs in the ’90s and was arrested with him in connection with a 1999 club shooting that left one victim with part of a bullet lodged in her face, has said nothing.
She was on the invite list for his 50th birthday party in 2019, as were Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, Post Malone, Cardi B and Offset, Kevin Hart, Mary J. Blige, Pharrell, Kanye West, Naomi Campbell, Lil’ Kim, Usher, The Weeknd, Janelle Monáe, Queen Latifah, and America’s own ambassador to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Snoop Dogg — as well as the aforementioned Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
None of these people knew? Where’s his pal Oprah?
Look at the hip-hop icons and celebrity pals who are all-too-quiet: Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Rihanna. New York City mayor and nightlife habitué Eric Adams, who gave Combs a key to New York City last year (above)— a key he revoked three weeks after the Cassie video came to light.
Ashton Kutcher, who so deplorably defended convicted serial rapist Danny Masterson, is a close, longtime friend of Combs. On an episode of ‘Hot Ones’ in 2019, Kutcher was asked about that. ‘I’ve got a lot I can’t tell’, Kutcher said.
This was Combs interviewed by Andy Cohen on ‘Watch What Happens Live’ in 2018.
Cohen: Hey, what do you think of Oprah for president?
Combs: I love that.
Cohen: You’ve known her well for a long time.
Combs: Yes.
Ashton Kutcher, who so deplorably defended convicted serial rapist Danny Masterson, is a close, longtime friend of Combs. On an episode of ‘Hot Ones’ in 2019, Kutcher was asked about that.
‘I’ve got a lot I can’t tell’, Kutcher said.
I’ll bet.
In December 2019, Beyoncé posted a birthday message to ‘Diddy’ on her Instagram account, a picture of her husband and Combs on a couch with hands over their mouths, a post that remains up today.
What kind of message does this send to Combs’s other victims, ones U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams has said he is sure will come forward?
Every celebrity in a position to help here should do so.
So far, only two hip-hop figures have spoken out: 50 Cent, who is working on a Netflix documentary exposing Combs, and Eminem, who has rapped about Combs’s long-rumored involvement in the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
On his new album ‘Fuel — Shady Edition’, Eminem raps: ‘Till he’s in police handcuffs, guilty, will he step up?/Like gee, never turned himself in, who knows all the murders there’ll have been’.
In July, 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson), told The Hollywood Reporter that Combs lies about ‘everything’.
‘I’ve been very vocal about not going to Puffy parties and doing s**t like that’, he said. ‘I’ve been staying out of that s**t for years. . . Like, they let him get away with it.’
What kind of message does this send to Combs’s other victims, ones U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams has said he is sure will come forward? Every celebrity in a position to help here should do so.
Everyone knew.
On Wednesday, a second federal judge refused to grant Combs bail. He will remain in prison throughout his upcoming trial.
Meanwhile, his attorneys are blaming the female victims. Of Ventura, lead attorney Marc Agnifilo had the gall to say she should be thankful for her time with Combs.
‘These two people were in love,’ Agnifilo said of Combs and Ventura, outing her in the indictment as ‘Victim-1.’
Ventura, he said, ‘ended up marrying the trainer that Mr. Combs got her . . . Years later, she realized she had a good thing with Mr. Combs.’
This is the kind of repulsive misogyny that allowed a monster like Combs to roam free for so long. We’ve heard, for years now, that ‘silence equals violence.’
If that is to mean anything — well, who in hip-hop, in politics and fashion or any position of power, will now speak up for these victims?