By MARTHA ROSS | Bay Area News Group\nThe Mercury News<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>George Clooney once again this week found himself having to issue a statement denying he helped enable perpetrators of sexual assault in Hollywood after an actress said he helped \u201cblacklist\u201d her after she complained about rampant sexual harassment on the set of \u201cE.R.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a series of tweets over the week, Vanessa Marquez called \u201cB.S.\u201d on Clooney\u2019s statements of concern about the female victims of workplace harassment and assault in the wake of reports that the actor\u2019s former collaborator Harvey Weinstein abused multiple A-list actresses and other women for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez said Clooney \u201chelped blacklist\u201d her when she spoke up about about abusive behavior on the set of \u201cE.R.,\u201d the hit NBC medical drama that catapulted Clooney to movie stardom in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>The actress, who played Nurse Wendy Goldman on the first three seasons of the show, first took to Twitter to\u00a0retweet an article in which Clooney\u00a0spoke out against Harvey Weinstein. She said he\u2019s full of \u201cB.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClooney\u00a0helped blacklist me when I spoke up abt harassment on ER,\u201d she tweeted in response to the article.<\/p>\n<p>She added that the message on the set, perhaps emphasized by Clooney himself, is that women \u201cwho don\u2019t play the game\u201d will lose their careers.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/twitter.com\/vanessathought\/status\/917640021452058624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2F2017%2F10%2F14%2Fis-george-clooney-complicit-e-r-actress-says-he-helped-silence-her-sexual-harassment-charges%2F<\/p>\n<p>She also retweeted one of her own posts from earlier this year in which she leveled other accusations. In the tweet, she claimed she was \u201cracially and sexually harassed on set daily.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"SandboxRoot env-bp-350\" data-twitter-event-id=\"0\"><\/div>\n<p>She specifically accused actor Eriq La Salle and a crew member of being \u201cp\u2014sy grabbers\u201d and said racial abuse about her Mexican heritage came from \u201cAnthony, Noah, Julianna,\u201d referring to cast members Anthony Edwards,\u00a0Noah Wyle, and Julianna Margulies.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez said she complained to executive producer John Wells, whose first concern was over whether Clooney, the biggest break-out star of the series, hurt her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWells was the boss&I 1st reported it to him.His 1st question:Did George do something to u,\u201d she tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez said that her complaints led her to be blacklisted. Since leaving the show in 1997, she has only appeared in a handful of\u00a0short films and TV movies,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0549882\/\">according to her IMDb page.<\/a>\u00a0In 2005, she discussed her shopping addiction on the A&E reality show \u201cIntervention,\u201d the New York Post said.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez\u2019 claims continued to keep Clooney\u2019s name in the news over his professional association with Weinstein. But he\u2019s not the only A-list male star to face backlash over the Weinstein controversy. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have also been ensnared in the scandal to varying degrees, with Affleck himself having to fend off allegations from women on social media that he groped him.<\/p>\n<p>Since initially speaking out against Weinstein earlier in the week, Damon and Affleck have mostly kept silent.<\/p>\n<p>But Clooney decided to address Marquez\u2019 claims on Friday. In a statement to E! News,\u00a0he denied he played any role in Marquez being shut out of further work on \u201cE.R.\u201d but said he believed her story that this happened to her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no idea Vanessa was blacklisted. I take her at her word,\u201d Clooney said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show,\u201d he continued. \u201cI had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to. The fact that I couldn\u2019t affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clooney\u2019s statement in regards to Marquez came several days after he gave<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/george-clooney-speaks-out-on-harvey-weinstein-its-disturbing-on-a-whole-lot-of-levels\">\u00a0an extensive interview to The Daily Beast<\/a>\u00a0to address questions about whether he knew about the allegations involving Weinstein. Clooney has worked closely with Weinstein on several films and has credited the once powerful producer for helping\u00a0him kick-start his film career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s indefensible. That\u2019s the only word you can start with,\u201d Clooney said in the interview about the reports that Weinstein raped and otherwise abused multiple women. \u201cHarvey\u2019s admitted to it, and it\u2019s indefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clooney said he was aware that Weinstein liked to hit on pretty, young women but never knew that he took things with women to the level of harassment or assault.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve known Harvey for twenty years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had dinners, we\u2019ve been on location together, we\u2019ve had arguments. But I can tell you that I\u2019ve never seen any of this behavior\u2014ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Clooney also condemned the culture of silence around workplace harassment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a big problem in our society, that people in power are taking advantage of people not in power\u2014particularly powerful men with young women,\u201d he said, mentioning that the downfall of other powerful men like Bill Cosby or Roger Ailes seems to have spurred evolving attitudes on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re all going to have to be more diligent about it and look for any warning signs,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore, people weren\u2019t paying enough attention to it. Now we have to. This is the moment to start scaring people like this into not acting this way anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This interview prompted Marquez\u2019 tweet this week calling B.S. on Clooney. She also wasn\u2019t pleased with Clooney\u2019s statement later in the week, denying her blacklisting allegations.<\/p>\n<p>She tweeted: \u201cYou lie!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/twitter.com\/vanessathought\/status\/919008059422253067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2F2017%2F10%2F14%2Fis-george-clooney-complicit-e-r-actress-says-he-helped-silence-her-sexual-harassment-charges%2F<br \/>\n___<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"njGPIqdW1B\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2017\/10\/14\/is-george-clooney-complicit-e-r-actress-says-he-helped-silence-her-sexual-harassment-charges\/\">Is George Clooney complicit? ‘E.R.’ actress’ says he helped silence her sexual harassment claims<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"“Is George Clooney complicit? ‘E.R.’ actress’ says he helped silence her sexual harassment claims” — The Mercury News\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2017\/10\/14\/is-george-clooney-complicit-e-r-actress-says-he-helped-silence-her-sexual-harassment-charges\/embed\/#?secret=Flban1asg8#?secret=njGPIqdW1B\" data-secret=\"njGPIqdW1B\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is George Clooney complicit? \u2018E.R.\u2019 actress\u2019 says he helped silence her sexual harassment claims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}