Stars skipping red carpets to avoid talking about scandals

In the wake of the industrys ongoing harassment scandals, many stars are skipping the red carpet at events to avoid talking about the issue.

"A lot of people are skipping the carpet," pagesix.com quoted a top publicist as saying.

"The celebs are coming in side doors" to avoid the press.

"It's not just Harvey Weinstein, it's Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner, that country-music guy (Kirt Webster)... It's playing six degrees of separation. Anybody can make a connection."

The public relations official added: "I've never seen anything like it. People are avoiding and dodging the carpet. They won't even do photos."

The Country Music Association also banned the press from asking certain questions at its awards, but then reversed the decision.

Many people from the entertainment world are debating how men in power take sexual advantage of women in exchange for taking forward their dream of making it big in showbiz.

It started when a foreign media house published a story revealing numerous accusations of sexual harassment against Hollywood mogul Weinstein. Since then many have come out in the open to talk about sexual advances from big names like Kevin Spacey, James Toback, Ben Affleck, Brett Ratner and Dustin Hoffman.

--IANS

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