Does the Academy Deliberately Award Domestic Abusers?

The 2017 Oscars celebrated two men who have been accused of domestic violence, Casey Affleck, and Mel Gibson. But surprisingly enough, the Academy Awards has a long history of acknowledging, recognizing and paying homage to many celebrities who’ve been accused of vicious and savage crimes against women. This poses the question: Is the Academy deliberately awarding domestic abusers? We may never know the answer, but we decided to dig deeper into the legions of actors, producers, and directors who have been nominated or who have won an Oscar despite their sordid and violent pasts.

1. Casey Affleck

Casey Affleck received a thunderous applause as he accepted his Academy Award for the film Manchester by the Sea. In the weeks leading up to the show, several news sources uncovered sexual harassment lawsuits dating back to 2010 against Affleck. He was accused of “sexually terrorizing” his female colleagues on the set of the 2010 mockumentary I’m Still Here. Affleck allegedly referred to the women as “cows,” insisted that one female employee share a hotel room with him, and even sent her a barrage of abusive text messages when she refused to comply. Another woman, Magdalene Gorka, says she woke up in her hotel room to find Affleck “curled up next to her in the bed wearing only his underwear and a T-shirt.” When asked about the allegations in an interview with the Boston Globe, Affleck said, “I believe that any kind of mistreatment of anyone for any reason is unacceptable and abhorrent, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect in the workplace and anywhere else.”

2. Sylvester Stallone

Three-time Oscar nominee Sylvester Stallone became everyone’s hero when he played the character Rocky Balboa in the Rocky franchise. But away from the lights of Hollywood, the actor was dealing with a disturbing allegation.

Secret tapes were revealed of Stallone speaking to his half-sister, Toni-Ann Filiti, who claimed he abused her in the 80s. She said Stallone physically injured her, and she threatened to sue until he agreed to pay her $2 million plus $16,666.66 a month for the rest of her life. The tapes were later destroyed after the two reached their multi-million-dollar settlement, Filiti later died in August 2013 of lung cancer.

3. Nicholas Cage

In 1996, Nicholas Cage took home the Best Actor award for the film Leaving Las Vegas, and years later, he would be arrested for assaulting his wife, Alice Kim.

The two were in New Orleans in 2011, when they began arguing in front of their rental home. Cage allegedly grabbed his wife by her upper arm and dragged her towards the rental property. Although there were no physical signs of injury on Kim, police arrested the actor and charged him with the crime.

4. Woody Allen

Everyone is pretty much aware of four-time Oscar winner Woody Allen’s eyebrow-raising relationship with the adopted daughter of his ex-girlfriend, Mia Farrow. But Allen’s history includes more than just his questionable relationship. Farrow’s daughter, Dylan, accused Allen of raping her when she was just 7-years-old. Her brother, Ronan, blasted the industry for praising Allen, and for the A-list celebrities who continue to work with him despite the claims. Woody has denied the allegations by stating, “I did not molest Dylan. Not that I doubt Dylan hasn’t come to believe she’s been molested, but if from the age of seven a vulnerable child is taught by a strong mother to hate her father because he is a monster who abused her, is it so inconceivable that after many years of this indoctrination the image of me Mia wanted to establish had taken root?”

5. Terrance Howard

When Terrance Howard was nominated for an Oscar for his 2006 performance in Hustle & Flow, the nomination came years after he was accused of assaulting many women in his life. Howard’s list of domestic abuse allegations is lengthy, and it all started in 2001 when he allegedly punched his first wife, Lori McCommas. Howard even went as far as to blame McCommas for the incident by stating, “She was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids.”

He married his second wife, Michelle Ghent, on January 20, 2010, and the abuse allegedly started a week after they tied the knot. Ghent accused him of punching her in the face, beating her on a balcony in South Africa, threatening her with a butcher knife, and strangling her in their Costa Rica rental house. When asked about the Costa Rica incident Howard said, “She was trying to Mace me, and you can’t see anything so all you can do is try to bat somebody away, and I think that something caught her. But I wasn’t trying to hit her.”

In 2012, his mistress, May Seng Yang, claimed Howard attacked her at his Pennsylvania home while his current girlfriend, Erica Jiles, looked on. Yang told police Howard had choked her, threw her to the ground and punched her in the eye after she accused him of giving her herpes.

6. Clark Gable

Clark Gable was acknowledged by the Academy in 1935 when he received the Best Actor award for his performance in It Happened One Night. It wasn’t until decades later that actress Loretta Young accused him of sexual assault. Young revealed via her posthumous memoirs that she had given birth to Gable’s child, and the child was a product of rape.

7. Eminem

Eminem doesn’t hide his disdain for women in his music, but that didn’t stop the Academy for naming his song “Lose Yourself” as the Best Original Song at the 2007 awards show. Eminem’s relationship with his ex-wife, Kim Mathers, was always a tumultuous one, and the music video for his song “Love the Way You Lie” depicts the extreme violence their relationship consisted of. Em basically admitted to hitting Kim in the lyrics of the song, but blamed it on “the rage that took over.”

8. Dudley Moore

Pint-size actor Dudley Moore, received an Academy Award for his 1982 performance in Arthur. Although he had an intense love for women, and he was frequently seen around Hollywood with a new leading lady on his arm, Moore was accused of being a violent, sex-obsessed drug abuser. Nicole Rothschild was married to Moore for four years up until his death. A month before their 1994 wedding, he was arrested for allegedly beating her up backstage…at the Oscars of all places.

9. Sean Penn

In 1987, Sean Penn was accused of torturing his then-wife pop singer Madonna, for nine hours straight. According to sources, Penn tied her to a chair, threatened to cut off her hair, forced her to perform sex acts, and beat her with a baseball bat. But since that incident, his violent past hasn’t harmed the two-time Oscar winner’s career at all. Almost 30 years later, Madonna denied the events took place. She claims they had many heated arguments during their marriage, but Penn never physically assaulted her.

10. James Caan

Actor James Caan is best-known for playing Sonny Corleone in the film The Godfather. He didn’t take home the Oscar in 1973, but he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. His private life has since overshadowed his career, and a series of violent charges have been brought up against him. In 1980, he was arrested for domestic violence, and he has also been in trouble with the law for brandishing a weapon and battery.

11. Mel Gibson

Two-time Academy Award winner Mel Gibson was celebrated for his film Braveheart in 1996, and he was nominated in 2017 for his movie Hacksaw Ridge. Many people believe Gibson is one celebrity who should never be honored for his accomplishments, and it all stems from his messy private life.

The actor and director pled no contest to misdemeanor battery against his former girlfriend and the mother of his child, Oksana Grigorieva. According to Grigorieva, Gibson punched her in the head and face more than once at his Malibu home in January 2010. He later admitted to slapping her to restrain her from shaking their baby daughter, but he insists he “did not slap her hard.”

12. Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film Milk, but just five years earlier, he was arrested for assaulting his wife of four months, Diane Lane. Lane called the police and claimed Brolin had hit her, and he was later charged with spousal battery. The couple divorced in 2013.

13. Jack Nicholson

In front of the cameras, Jack Nicholson always puts on a dynamic performance that captivates the audience. But the three-time Oscar winner has been accused of a horrible crime against a woman named Catherine Sheehan. In her lawsuit, Sheehan says Nicholson promised to pay her $1,000 to wear a “little black dress” and engage in sex acts, but he assaulted her when she asked for the money. He allegedly grabbed her by the hair, thumped her head on the floor, and ruptured her breast implant.

14. John Singleton

John Singleton was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for his 1991 gritty film Boyz n the Hood. Years later, he would plead “no contest” to physically and emotionally abusing an ex-girlfriend who remained unidentified. Singleton reportedly struck her repeatedly with his fist, grabbed her by the neck and choked her.

Years later, supermodel Tyra Banks claimed a former boyfriend had emotionally and physically abused her. She dated Singleton in the 90s, leading many people to believe he was the man who had assaulted her.

15. Roman Polanski

Back in 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl at actor Jack Nicholson’s home, but he continues to be honored by the academy, most recently winning the 2003 award for Best Director for the film The Pianist. When he was announced as the winner of the Academy Award, he received a standing ovation from the crowd, and Harrison Ford accepted the award on his behalf since Polanski had fled the States following his release from jail.

16. Marlon Brando

The two-time Academy Award winner was accused of heinous crimes following his 2004 death. The Godfather actor was accused of sexually abusing his own daughter, Cheyenne, who hanged herself in 1995. According to his ex-wife, Tarita Terpia, Brandon was a “disgusting pervert” who made her life a living hell with his violent mood swings and mental cruelty.

The actor was also accused of raping his co-star, Maria Schneider, during a scene in the film Last Tango In Paris. Before her death, Schneider claimed the scene where Brando abuses her using a stick of butter as a lubricant was done without her knowledge. Director Bernardo Bertolucci finally admitted that he and Brando came up with the idea, and decided to use the stick of butter in the scene without Schneider’s consent.