Posted on 11/18/2017 7:50:58 PM PST by nickcarraway
Should he stay or should he go? Hollywood, never as monolithic as Fox News viewers believe, certainly has reached no consensus on Al Franken, the Saturday Night Live veteran turned Minnesota senator.
“Zero tolerance,” tweets Alyssa Milano, firmly in the he-needs-to-go camp. On the other side: “He made a mistake,” said Chelsea Handler, agreeing with a Franken-supporting Bill Maher on last night’s Real Time With Bill Maher. “He’s not a predator.”
Maher neatly summed up the anti-resignation argument: “He did a bad thing and the condemnation has been universal, which he deserves. What he doesn’t deserve is to be lumped in with Roy Moore. Or Kevin Space. Or Harvey Weinstein. Or Donald Trump, who calls his accusers liars, threatens to sue them, did long riffs at his rallies where he said they were too ugly for him to assault.”
But with calls for Franken’s resignation coming from Republicans and some Democrats – including two candidates for governor of Franken’s state – the topic of Franken’s suitability for office remained a hot topic on cable news all day.
Now, at least two of Franken’s former SNL cohorts are wading in, both supporting their old colleague. Jane Curtin tells The New York Times today that she’s “upset about this atmosphere and good people being dragged into it.”
Curtin, one of the original Not Ready For Prime-Time Players, said the longtime SNL writer and featured player was a powerful ally of the show’s female writers and performers.
“If he did that,” Curtin said of Leeann Tweeden’s allegations, “that’s really stupid, but I have never seen him in a situation where he has been sexually aggressive with anybody.”
Also today, Curtin’s SNL castmate Laraine Newman retweeted two posts supporting Franken. Newman first retweeted a Washington Post column by Feminasty podcaster Kate Harding that begins, “I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign.” Laurie Zaks, the president of Mandeville TV and former executive producer of Castle, retweeted the same column.
Newman then retweeted a WaPo article about former female staffers of Franken who issued a statement in support of the senator that noted “He treated us with the utmost respect.”
The statement comes as the senator's accuser says she's willing to meet with him to discuss the allegations.
Another former SNL cast member, Rob Schneider (who recently said he too had been sexually harassed by a director), is in Franken’s corner. “I’ve known @alfranken for over 27 years, I disagree with him on a lot of stuff, but he is not and has never been a sexual harasser.”
Mike Shoemaker, Late Night With Seth Meyers producer, called the Franken photo “inexcusable,” but called his friend “a good man and a great senator”:
Mike Shoemaker ✔@shoemakermike
Been friends with @AlFranken since 1986. He's made countless crude inappropriate jokes. That picture is inexcusable and it's good that people were outraged. BUT his apology was exemplary and he is a good man and a great senator. Admire the people who admit when they're wrong.
Actor Terry Crews, who has also gone public with a harassment accusation, insists Franken be “held accountable.”ably!”
Dems are using the excuse that Franken was a comedian. However Hollywood uses humor to push cultural limits.
They show slides of various women they worked with like Jane Curtin and as each one goes by, they say @$^#&&ed her, etc. etc.
Gross. And Jane Curtin is useful idiot-ish enough to defend Franken, of course.
We had a FReeper with a good friend who was a masseuse in NYC. He mentioned that Al Franken was a client from time to time. The friend told him that out of all his clients, Franken was the most disgusting and had the smelliest @ss he ever had to work around.
Keep supporting Franken and try attacking Moore see how that works out for you.
Yep - they are willing to sacrifice Franken to keep Moore out and maybe revive crap against Trump - While McConnell is willing to sacrifice the freaking Congress to keep Moore out w/o asking any Dems to step down....
Agreed. The Left is trying to take the high ground. Condemning Bill Clinton, etc. I would like to see Franken gone (he cheated to get there) and Moore win, regardless.
Well Jane, check this out! It looks aggressive to me.
https://gabfiles.blob.core.windows.net/image/5a10fa4d18ba1.jpeg
WARNING - VERY FOUL & DISGUSTING LANGUAGE Footage of Al Franken Making BABY RAPE Joke Resurfaces Amid Sexual Assault Allegations
Sick! I’ll take your word, I don’t even want to listen to it.
Interesting. I hadn’t heard of this.
Yet none of this was brought up when he ran for Senate? Of course, he has a D after his name, which caused MSM to cover up for him. Just wondering if Ms. Gloria or Mitt Romney spoken out against him yet.
Is there a generational divide influencing the way women are reacting? Seems women over 50 are more likely to shrug this stuff off. Younger women want the death penalty (sarcasm).
Hollywood, never as monolithic as Fox News viewers believe, certainly has reached no consensus on Al Franken...Partisan Media Shills just can't help themselves, they must spin. Looks like it's almost everybody listed sez what he did was okay with them, and two said otherwise. Those two wre not from SNL.
The most disturbing aspect of all of this is how Franken became a US senator in the first place - from sanctimonious, hypocritical liberals.
I didn’t see where anyone from SNL ‘took sides’ against Franken. Closest really was Rob Schneider.
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