I want to enlighten the American public at large. The entertainment business has often been known to breed a vice-filled lifestyle for the past hundred years if not for the past few centuries as well. In the early 20th century, in America and elsewhere, the writers, producers, and acting talent involved in live stage performances began to shift their attentions to the film industry.

Cinema was a vibrant, young medium which called for numerous talents, and yet very quickly it came to be used to display nudity, sex, and sensuality. As early as the 1920’s, before “talkies” (or movies with audible dialogue) had even been invented, the movies being made in the United States and in foreign countries too were appealing to people’s sensual gratification. Some would say these common productions served as a means of sex education. With a foundation such as this, it is no wonder that Hollywood is the way it is today: corrupt.

It has been going in pretty much the same direction ever since it started out. It’s like the old saying, “You are what you eat.” Take this as a metaphor. In a sense, what we watch reflects on our character. As we become saturated in a culture which showcases and even promotes a lot of unnatural and immoral activities, we start to grow immune to them. In a similar manner, the actors and actresses who portray immoral behavior typically deem such behavior as acceptable. Likewise with scriptwriters who weave such material into their plots. This would explain many of the Hollywood happenings being brought to light currently.

However, I do not want anyone to get the notion that such instances which are really tabloid material are anything new or something that has only recently begun to take place in the California movie kingdom. An article from Live Action published a few months back states numerous occasions in which abortion (the murder of an unborn infant) was used by men who sexually assaulted actresses in the era of “classic Hollywood.”

These past few months, in particular, have brought everyone’s attention to all of the assaults, advances, and gropings in the past few years as well as those from decades ago. Everyone is accusing everyone. You’d think it was the Salem Witch Trials all over again! Another infamous incident from classic Hollywood was brought to light earlier this year. It involved actress Judy Garland and her role in perhaps her best-known film. Her ex-husband’s claim was this: that Garland (age 16 at the time) was groped by some of the Munchkin actors while working on the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).

So I hope this point has been made clear: Hollywood’s indecent activities are nothing new. Hollywood is by no means holy, and yet the things coming out today still surprise some of us. It shouldn’t. Yes, it is in so many ways quite appalling and saddening, but it should not come as too much of a shocker. Actors and actresses are having affairs left and right, and their marriages are dissolved and they are remarried so many times that it is likely even they have lost count. It can act as a statement from Hollywood, but what it really shows us is that on the job and off the job many of the big names in the industry act rather unprofessionally.

Now how should the public respond to these severe wrongings and assaults? Well, we can look at it with the view that there is ALWAYS room for improvement. As a Christian, I am to forgive people of their faults, yet can by no means accept their actions as appropriate in any way. Another unfortunate truth is that the youth of today look to the Hollywood stars as their idols or even role models! What we need is some good actors with strong backbones who know how to act decently in the workplace as well as in their personal lives.