Playboy Has Decided Brett Ratner Is Too Creepy To Direct Hugh Hefner Biopic
Since Weinstein was officially outed as the prolific sexual predator that he is, powerful abusers have been dropping like dominoes. Having witnessed the swift justice dealt to Weinstein in the wake of the allegations, many women have felt personally empowered to come forward with their own accounts of sexual harassment and abuse — which means there are a hell of a lot of men reckoning with consequences they never imagined would arrive.
It’s only sad that Hugh Hefner is no longer here to witness the carnage. It would seem that Hefner departed this world just in time.
Fortunately, his successors aren’t so lucky, including director Brett Ratner, who was slated to direct a biopic about the play boy’s life. Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct by six women Wednesday morning, including actress Olivia Munn. The Los Angeles Times broke the story, detailing allegations of forced oral sex and masturbation in front of non-consenting women.
The allegations come just days after the Jewish National Fund presented Ratner with its annual Tree of Life Award.
Although Ratner denies every accusation, Playboy has decided to put the biopic deal on hold for now. In a statement issued to TheWrap, a spokesperson said, “We are deeply troubled to learn about the accusations against Brett Ratner. We find this kind of behavior completely unacceptable. We are putting all further development of our projects with RatPac Entertainment on hold until we are able to review the situation further.”
There is little question that Ratner, a self-described “play boy” himself, would have glorified Hugh Hefner’s life and career in the making of the movie. Instead, it appears he will have to reckon with the consequences that Hefner evaded by dying.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
