Outrage over rape acquittal probably won’t hurt director’s Oscar chances

Nate Parker’s film “The Birth of a Nation” is considered an Oscar favorite for next year, but right now it’s making headlines because Parker was acquitted of raping a woman in 1999 who has since committed suicide.

Parker wouldn’t be the first director to receive an Oscar who has faced rape or sexual assault allegations. And history suggests that the outrage focused on Parker now is unlikely to matter at the box office or the Academy Awards.

Parker was charged with raping a woman when he was a student at Penn State. The unidentified woman accused Parker and his roommate, Jean McGianni Celestin, with raping her at their apartment when she was drunk and unconscious. She also said in court documents that the men repeatedly harassed and intimidated her after she filed criminal charges.

Both men said the sex was consensual. Parker was acquitted of the charges, while Celestin was convicted but later won an appeal. Celestin has a “story by” credit on the movie. Parker has maintained his innocence, but said he just recently learned the woman committed suicide in 2012 at age 30. He said in a Facebook post that he was “devastated” to hear of her suicide.

Even directors who have been convicted of sexual misconduct have avoided serious consequences in their professional lives.

Roman Polanski was pleaded guilty to charges of the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He served 42 days in a U.S. jail before he was released. He fled to Paris when he learned a judge was set to deny his probation in an upcoming sentencing hearing.

Polanski offered a public apology to the girl. But despite requests, European countries declined to extradite Polanski to the United States and he served no further jail time for the crime.

He finished making the film “The Pianist” in 2002, which won three Academy Awards, including one for Best Director. He has won multiple European and international film awards for his work since then.

Woody Allen faced charges for molesting his adopted, 7-year-old daughter in 1992. Allen’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, reported the abuse to her mother, Mia Farrow, who was separating from Allen at the time because he was seeing 21-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, whom Farrow had adopted as a child.

Farrow filed criminal charges against Allen, which were later dropped when a medical team determined Dylan Farrow had not been molested.

While questions and criticism for the incident continue to this day, it has not stopped Allen from achievements in his professional life. Many critics say they will boycott his films, but his films have been nominated for multiple Academy Awards and Golden Globes since then, and he has no problem finding A-list actors who will work with him. Penelope Cruz won an Academy Award for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” a film Allen started work on in 2007. The film also received a Golden Globe.

“Collectively we have shunned the work of Bill Cosby, and I wonder, is it because so far 60 women have come forward with stories of rape at his hands?” Nina Metz wrote for the Chicago Tribune as Allen’s latest film, “Cafe Society,” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. “Does Allen get different treatment from us because just a single person — his child — came forward?”

Cosby has recently suffered professionally due to allegations of sexual assault that were ignored for decades, until comedian Hannibal Buress made a joke in Cosby’s hometown about the assaults in 2014.

Since then, more than 50 women have come forward with assault allegations that follow the same basic narrative: That Cosby offered to mentor them as young women looking to break into the modeling or film industry, took them to his home and then gave them a drugged drink that rendered them unable to move as he sexually assaulted them.

TV Land reacted by pulling planned repeats of “The Cosby Show” from its schedule, and multiple universities withdrew previous honors for the comedian. Cosby was criminally charged for one of the assaults in Pennsylvania, though most of the assaults are past the statute of limitations. That case is still pending in the justice system.

This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 7:40 AM with the headline "Outrage over rape acquittal probably won’t hurt director’s Oscar chances."