Casey Affleck started the week, and 2017, at the Palm Springs Film Festival where he received the Achievement Award. On Tuesday he was in New York to accept the Best Actor Award from the New York Film Critics Circle where he read aloud some of the worst reviews of his career and people laughed. Last night, still in NYC, he picked up his Best Actor recognition at the NBR gala. And on Sunday, at the Golden Globes, there is no doubt he will win Best Actor in a Drama. There can be no doubt about it now. Casey Affleck, alleged sexual harasser, will win an Oscar this year. And, as I wrote back in December, it’s not that he shouldn’t, it’s that it would be nice if he could while we could also have a conversation about sexual harassment in the workplace.

A few weeks ago, IndieWire posted an article that included commentary from women working in the film and television industry about their experience with harassment in the workplace.

Most of the women IndieWire spoke with say, at some point, they or someone they know has been sexually harassed. Some said it happened on “nearly every job,” while others say it’s “once in a while.” But on this point, they were unified: Coming forward with any claim has the potential to kill a career.

She’s the pain in the ass. She’s the one with no sense of humour. Oh, that frigid bitch. Not sure she’s worth the trouble. Her? She can’t take a joke.

Yesterday the NY Times, which had previously softballed Casey in a profile in the fall, published an article addressing the comparisons that have been made between Casey and Nate Parker with a Harvard law professor insisting that while both cases were “repulsive”, it’s unfair to equate to the two because Nate Parker’s was much more extreme. Yes, of course. But I’m not sure that’s the comparison in question. The comparison in question, at least to me, is why there was so much discussion in the one example and so much silence in the other. And, perhaps even more significantly, the factors that led to that silence. Still, the NYT does report that, “there are people in Hollywood — none of whom would speak on the record — who believe that Mr. Affleck is insulated because he is a white man. Their feeling is that the entertainment-industry awards groups, still largely dominated by white men, are judging him differently than they judged Mr. Parker”.

Not that that will make a difference in terms of Oscar. Casey Affleck is about as locked in to that Oscar as Leonardo DiCaprio was last year.

One more recommended read about Casey Affleck – I read a review of Manchester By The Sea yesterday (thanks Susan!) in The Towner written by Helen Holmes who grew up in Massachusetts. The review focuses on the authenticity of the film as seen through the lens of a Massachusetts native. This part stood out in particular:

In a sick, poetic way, I find Casey Affleck’s brilliance as an actor to be in total accordance with his history of monstrous behaviour towards female colleagues. Along with his movie star brother, Ben, Casey has long stood in as an avatar for a particular strain of Massachusetts manhood, and he fits these roles like a dream. With his dark hair and finely carved nose, he reminds me of the high school classmate with perfect grades who assaulted me in the back seat of my own car.

Click here to read the full piece.