I was thinking about how depressing it is that someone like Shia LaBeouf is still being platformed in the run up to his trial, and how he's the latest in a line of men in entertainment who have recently lashed out in extreme and increasingly novel ways to discredit the women who speak about them in ways they can't control.
I'm trying to comfort myself by thinking they're taking these extreme revenge measures (while, in Shia's case, simultaneously namechecking their "great humbling" 🙄) because they're increasingly desperate. They no longer feel secure in their eventual acceptance in the industry, unlike all the many, many powerful men who came before them.
In JD's case, I'm tentatively confident that his revenge will be what fucks him in the long run and for posterity. And maybe that will slow the tide. We've already seen Shia try to spin his response to Twigs' allegations as if it's some precedent-setting acceptance of accountability for the #MeToo era (what a legend, right??), while at the same time denying all specific charges against him and taking twisted public revenge on Olivia Wilde.
And - this is depressingly cynical, but Hollywood is a depressingly cynical place - I'm not confident that FKA Twigs' allegations are enough to prevent Shia LaBeouf from going on to have a decent career in which he continues to practice his "combative process". But I suspect that his actions last week will be a decider in how likely directors and producers will be to hire him.
In Hollywood, abusing a woman is one thing....but airing a director's private correspondence to Variety?? That's really gonna put the frighteners up them!