Hollywood Needs To Give Peace a Chance This Holiday Season

Meryl Streep released a statement this week to the Huffington Post. Yes you read correctly, just that fact should signal to you the bubble in which she lives. In this statement she professes that she had no knowledge of Harvey Weinstein’s behavior with women. While I cannot say she knew, I find it hard to fathom that someone who was in the inner circle of Hollywoods elites could not know. I say this because I knew. The problem with her statement is not that, it’s that she literally used the same playbook as HW, again getting on her bully pulpit, playing politics and furthering the divide in this country.

Before I delve further into the divisive political pulpit she had her team deliver, there was amazing and valid points that she made about women. Streep has been an advocate for women in this country, her talent, strength and passion for women’s rights are unparalleled. In 2015 she sent a plea to congress to pass the equal rights amendment. That said, she is also not very spiritually aware when it comes to changing the direction of this country. She recently did an interview with Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue. Wintour actually asked if she would run for office. The elite in this country have quite possibly lost it.

This week she and her team literally took a page from Weinstein’s playbook. After The New York Times released their article on Harvey in October, in his initial statement, he wrote, he was taking time off for counseling and rehab, and in this time he will need to channel his anger so he was going after the NRA, and the President. Meryl and the gaggle of geese who craft her statements made a similar move, while mentioning Harvey’s alleged crimes, they decided to use two more names who are conveniently conservative, Roger Ailes and Bill O’ Reilly.

What about Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and Matt Lauer, were they not entitled bosses too? Yes they were, but that’s not what she wanted to accomplish, she made a calculated political move with a divisive stroke of a key. And with that, she maintained the status quo of bitter banter that is bandied about in this country on a daily basis. Every time Streep or Judd Apatow or any one of Hollywoods super wealthy personalities pounds their fists on the table and screams at conservatives or the President YOU are the problem, it drives the stake deeper into the collective heart of our country, killing any chances of our getting out of this mess we’ve created.

It also makes the Trump voter dig their heels in even more. And when people who actually care, ask how do we change? Here’s a piece of advice, or should I say peace of advice, It’s not them that needs to change it’s you. What this uber technologically advancing time is teaching us, is that in order to see change, we must be the change we seek. Revolution is an inside job was an article I read this morning, and it literally spurred this article to it’s feet.

This is indeed what is happening on both sides everywhere. It is this, that is slowly killing us, each time we take political jabs at one another we are literally pulling ourselves apart limb by limb, until we are extinct. But for me I have faith, and what I am wishing for this year is a christmas miracle. I do believe in radical transformation, and that comes from inside you. When people scream at other people and grandstand it’s not going to change anyone’s mind, it does nothing but make the other side dig in their heels more. So how do you make the change? This holiday season reach across the divide.

While it’s no secret that I am a liberal, I am blessed with many conservative friends, who I share dinners with and thought provoking conversations. This past Friday, I went to a

friends Shabbat, the table was mostly conservative, yes that happens here in Hollywood, and they extolled the virtues of what President Trump has accomplished. If you are a liberal, don’t start screaming NO, all I ask is that you wait for a moment and try a different approach, try to listen. Even if it hurts, radical transformation isn’t always easy, but I guarantee the only thing that will possibly be hurt is your Ego.