It turns out fighting the NRA can atone for other moral failings.
Hollywood is eagerly jumping at the opportunity to get its virtue-signaling credentials back by inserting itself into the gun-control debate after months of feigned self-reflection over its treatment of women. Celebrities seemed more than ready to move on after the Golden Globes, which became a publicity campaign with a new hashtag and stars patting themselves on the back for speaking out after three decades of silence.
Harvey Weinstein was ridiculed for attempting to obfuscate his predatory sexual behavior by diverting attention to his Good™ political views. "Yeah, I may have raped and harassed women for decades, but look over here! I'm a Democrat. And guns are bad."
It didn't work for Weinstein, but apparently going after the NRA is a foolproof way for Hollywood to get its sanctimony back.
George Clooney and his wife Amal started by donating $500,000 to the "March Of Our Lives," an anti-gun rally organized by students who survived the Parkland shooting and Everytown for Gun Safety, liberal billionaire Michael Bloomberg's group.
Oprah "does not have the DNA" for politics Winfrey followed. Democratic mega donors Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg donated too.
Clooney said he and his family would join the kids at the rally in Washington, D.C., next month. Maybe they should skip it. It's probably better for gun-control advocates that the face of their movement be Emma Gonzalez rather than Hollywood, which does not have much moral ground to stand on these days.
Fittingly, the same day the news broke of Hollywood donating millions to the new gun-control push, a new survey was released. The results? Virtually every woman in Hollywood has been sexually harassed or assaulted.
The list is long: "Unwanted sexual comments and groping. Propositioning women. Exposing themselves. Coercing women into having sex or doing something sexual. And, especially pertinent to showbiz, forcing women to disrobe and appear naked at an audition without prior warning."
USA Today, the Creative Coalition, Women in Film and Television, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center teamed up and surveyed 843 female producers, actors, writers, directors, and editors to ask about sexual misconduct in Hollywood. The results were staggering.
Ninety-four percent said they experienced some form of assault or harassment. In other words, Weinstein is just the beginning.
"Worse, more than one-fifth of respondents (21 percent) say they have been forced to do something sexual at least once," USA Today said.
Sixty-nine percent of the women working in Hollywood said they have been groped, slapped, pinched, or brushed in a sexual way at least once. Sixty-four percent said they have been propositioned for sex or a relationship at least once.
"It happens so frequently that it's just the functioning normal," said a female camera operator.
So while Hollywood is happy to lecture the rest of us about the Second Amendment, let's remember who our moral betters are. They might change the subject, "virtue signal," and use "liberal causes as a shield" against a scandal that doesn't seem to be fading anytime soon.