It's Hard to Imagine a Worse Reaction to the Harvey Weinstein Allegations Than This

Not long before The New Yorker published a stomach-churning piece by Ronan Farrow that included first-hand accounts of women alleging that former Hollywood kingmaker Harvey Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted them, director and writer Paul Schrader offered perhaps the worst reaction yet to the allegations.

Schrader, who’s best known for writing the 1976 film Taxi Driver, called Weinstein a “sexual gangster” in a post on his Facebook page and suggested there’s something EVEN WORSE than rampant sexual abuses being systematically covered up and abetted by the industry’s power players. That something is………what Weinstein did TO THE ART.

That’s right: Schrader managed to turn Weinstein’s fall from Hollywood loyalty—made all the more concrete on Tuesday by household name stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie coming forward to say he harassed them as young actresses—into a sob story about him, Bret Easton Ellis, and The Canyons, their almost universally panned film starring another accused rapist, James Deen.

It was hard to imagine a worse reaction to the Weinstein allegations than his friend, fashion designer Donna Karan, suggesting the woman Weinstein victimized were “asking for it.” (She later apologized for the remarks, which she claimed were taken out of context.) But just when you think you can’t set your expectations any lower, someone will come along and force you to start digging.