New Site Lets Users Search Movies For Actors Accused of Sexual Harassment

ashley.rae | December 13, 2017
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With sexual assault allegations coming out against people in Hollywood nearly everyday now, a new website lets you know whether the movie or television show you’re interested in is plagued by someone who was accused of sexual misconduct.

The website Rotten Apples, which is a play on the popular movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, allows users to search for the names of movies and television shows to reveal whether someone who was accused of sexual misconduct was involved in any aspect of the film or show’s process—whether it’s the director, the screenwriter, an actor, or a member of the crew.

Searching for the show “House of Cards,” for instance, lists Kevin Spacey’s name in red and links to the USA Today story with the allegations made by Anthony Rapp.

As the AV Club notes, the current version of the website appears to be faulty as it isn’t all-exhaustive; however, the AV Club claims this is due to how pervasive sexual assault is in Hollywood:

The concept is great, and the simplistic design presents it as the useful utility that the creator intends it to be, but Rotten Apples still has a number of inaccuracies at this point. Searching for Baby Driver will bring up Kevin Spacey, searching for Kill Bill will give you Harvey Weinstein, and searching for Home Alone 2 will give you Donald Trump, but Supergirl won’t give you Andrew Kreisberg, Disney’s Hercules doesn’t come up for James Woods (though Brett Ratner’s live-action movie does), and Loud House won’t bring up creator Chris Savino.

There’s a link where you can request changes or corrections, though, so rather than an indication that the site’s mission is flawed, this seems more like evidence of just how massive an undertaking this is—which is to say that the scale of the issue really is just massive.

Indeed, according to the Rotten Apples website, users can submit their own information about allegations by including an individual’s name and a news story about the alleged misconduct.

Despite the fact that the site relies on mere allegations to attack individuals, it’s “about” section claims that the point of the website is to show how endemic sexual misconduct is in Hollywood:

The goal of this site is to further drive awareness of just how pervasive sexual misconduct in film and television is and to help make ethical media consumption easier.

The website also claims that you can still enjoy movies even if they're filled with "rotten apples," as "[b]y no means is this site meant to serve as a condemnation of an entire project."

Apparently, the adage about a rotten apple spoiling the bunch need not apply.

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(Image source: via Rotten Apples)

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