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The Academy expels Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski over sexual assault cases.

For the third time in less than a year, the Academy booted some members.

On May 3, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that they'd voted to expel Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski.

The statement, sent in a press release, reads:

"The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors met on Tuesday night (May 1) and has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership in accordance with the organization's Standards of Conduct. The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity."

Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski. Photos by Mark Makela/Getty Images, Le Segretain/Getty Images.

"There is no place in the Academy for people who abuse their status, power or influence in a manner that violates recognized standards of decency," read the Academy's Standards of Conduct. "The Academy is categorically opposed to any form of abuse, harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, age, religion, or nationality."

On April 26, Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault. Specifically, this was for the 2004 assault of Andrea Constand, who was then an employee at Temple University. Cosby has been accused of drugging and assaulting at least 60 women over a span of more than 50 years.

In 1977, director Roman Polanski was arrested in connection with the rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer at actor Jack Nicholson's home. Polanski fled the United States for the United Kingdom and France. For the next 40 years, Polanski would remain a fugitive, fighting extradition requests and living in Europe.

Expulsions from the Academy are extremely rare, but in the cases of Cosby and Polanski, almost certainly warranted.

Prior to Cosby and Polanski, the last member of the Academy to be expelled was producer Harvey Weinstein, who is facing an ever-increasing number of sexual harassment and assault allegations. Prior to that, the last expulsion occurred in 2004 when the Academy revoked actor Carmine Caridi's membership for selling promotional copies of films.

[rebelmouse-image 19529768 dam="1" original_size="750x526" caption="Weinstein (center), celebrates an Oscar win for "Shakespeare in Love," which he produced. Photo by Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images." expand=1]Weinstein (center), celebrates an Oscar win for "Shakespeare in Love," which he produced. Photo by Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images.

While Cosby was never nominated for an award by the Academy, Polanski won the Oscar for Best Director in 2002 for his film "The Pianist." Though he was unable to attend the ceremony, as he was a fugitive of U.S. law, he received thunderous applause and a standing ovation from many members of the audience at the time.

Less than 10 years ago, Polanski still had quite a bit of Hollywood support.

In 2009, more than 100 big names in Hollywood came to Polanski's defense, petitioning for his release, as he was being held after an arrest in Zurich, Switzerland. "His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals," the petition reads in part, downplaying the seriousness of his crime. The list of signatories included names both predictable (Woody Allen, for instance) and surprising, such as Asia Argento (who was one of the women allegedly assaulted by Weinstein — she later said that she regretted adding her name to this petition), Natalie Portman (who also later expressed regret over her Polanski support), Martin Scorsese, Adrian Brody, Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton, Penélope Cruz, Guillermo del Toro, and more.

The decision to remove Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski is certainly a positive move on the Academy's part, but many will continue to ask what took so long and why less than 10 years ago were we all so indifferent to these types of crimes.

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Reese Witherspoon revealed she was sexually assaulted at 16, in a powerful speech.

Reese Witherspoon's three decades in Hollywood have been peppered with prestigious awards, a long list of blockbuster successes — and, she shared recently, several incidents of sexual assault at the hands of powerful men.

The A-lister was on stage at ELLE's Women in Hollywood event on Oct. 16, introducing her "Big Little Lies" co-star Laura Dern, when she revealed she's been sexually harassed numerous times throughout her career. One instance, she said, occurred when she was just 16 years old.

Inspired by the dozens of women who've come forward in recent days alleging disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein harassed, assaulted, or raped them, Witherspoon joined the chorus of those demanding more needs to be done.



"I didn’t sleep at all last night," Witherspoon began, reflecting on a difficult week of news for many survivors of sexual assault.

"I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly, and I found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate," Witherspoon told the crowd. "A lot of the feelings I’ve been having about anxiety, about being honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier or taking action. True disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger that I felt at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment."

Reese Witherspoon and her daughter Ava Phillipe at the ELLE Women in Hollywood event. Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for ELLE.

Witherspoon continued:

"I wish I could tell you that that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly, it wasn’t. I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault, and I don’t speak about them very often, but after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight, the things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone this week than I’ve ever felt in my entire career."

Witherspoon instructed the room of Hollywood influencers on how to advance the cause in their own lines of work.

Namely, she said, they need to do whatever they can to help put more women in positions of power.

She continued (emphasis added):

"There’s a lot of people here who negotiate quite frequently with different companies and heads of companies, and I think maybe during your next negotiation, this is a really prudent time to ask important questions like, who are your top female executives? Do those women have green-light power? How many women are on the board of your company? How many women are in a key position of decision-making at your company? Asking questions like that, I found, it seems so obvious, but people don’t ask those questions."

Witherspoon isn't just talking the talk either. She's been changing the game for women in Hollywood for years.

In 2012, Witherspoon launched Pacific Standard, a production company focused on creating more women-led entertainment projects. It's produced blockbusters like "Wild" and "Gone Girl," as well as the critically acclaimed miniseries "Big Little Lies," in which Witherspoon starred alongside Dern, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley. The series was widely praised for drawing attention to issues surrounding domestic abuse and sexual violence.

[rebelmouse-image 19529704 dam="1" original_size="750x530" caption="The cast of HBO's "Big Little Lies." Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images." expand=1]The cast of HBO's "Big Little Lies." Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images.

After the 2016 presidential election, Witherspoon also decided to launch Hello Sunshine — an online platform aimed at allowing women from across the country to share their own stories and be heard.

But so much more is needed.

We desperately need more people like Witherspoon working behind the scenes in Hollywood.

A study released in January found women made up just 7% of director roles across the industry's top 250 films in 2016 — down 2% from the year before. If filmmaking wants to be a more inclusive and less abusive industry for women, men need to become allies in action, advocating for more women to take up space behind closed doors, where deals are made and movies are green-lit.

But Witherspoon — who's "really, really encouraged that there will be a new normal" after the Weinstein allegations went public — believes change is on the horizon.

"For the young women sitting in this room, life is going to be different for you because we have you, we have your back," Witherspoon said. "And that makes me feel better because, gosh, it’s about time."

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Terry Crews described being sexually assaulted in Hollywood in an emotional Twitter plea.

Former NFL-lineman-turned-actor Terry Crews clocks in at 6 feet 3 inches tall and 240 pounds.

That didn't stop a "high-level Hollywood executive" from sexually assaulting him in public, according to the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star.

In the wake of The New York Times' bombshell Harvey Weinstein report, Crews alleged that the unnamed producer "came over to [him] and groped [his] privates" at a 2016 function.

"Jumping back I said, 'What are you doing?!'" Crews wrote. "My wife saw everything and we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk."

Like many of the women targeted by Weinstein, Crews was enraged by the incident, but ultimately opted to keep the incident quiet, fearing his attacker's "power and influence."

"I let it go," he wrote. "And I understand why many women who this happens to let it go."

For those who have endured workplace sexual harassment large and small, "letting it go" is, unfortunately, the most common response. A 2015 Cosmopolitan survey of more than 2,000 women found that while 1 in 3 reported having been sexually harassed at work, 71%  did not report the incident. Common reasons included fear of retaliation, a "masculine" workplace culture, and the "bystander effect" — the refusal of colleagues present for the harassment to validate the experience.

Though men are less frequently targeted, the fallout is often no different. Men who have been sexually harassed report feeling powerless and discouraged by the potential negative career implications of speaking out.

Crews concluded by adding he hopes his account will "deter a predator" like Weinstein and the man who assaulted him and "encourage someone who feels hopeless."

Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images.

To combat a predatory culture that doesn't care about your gender or size, he argued, change will only come though empathy — and solidarity.

"Hollywood is not the only business where this happens," he wrote. "And to the casualties of this behavior — you are not alone."

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