Before we go full throttle with the fashion coverage, please enjoy these photos of Taraji P. Henson in Vera Wang. Taraji looked awesome, she was there as a former nominee and presenter, and she looked like she was having fun in general (she introduced Mary J. Blige’s performance). But let’s also NOT talk too much about Taraji’s look. Let’s use Taraji as a vehicle to discuss how f–ked up the whole Ryan Seacrest situation was.
As we discussed all of last week and Sunday too, Ryan Seacrest was accused of sexually harassing, abusing and assaulting his subordinate, a stylist named Suzie Hardy. Hardy went to E! first, and they fired her, then launched a quiet investigation into Ryan’s behavior. They covered his ass. Hardy went public last week, and she has witnesses. E! still covered for Ryan and allowed him to anchor one of their best properties, the Oscar Red Carpet show. And peeps, very few people wanted to speak to him. In the first hour, it was almost exclusively music people and Kelly Ripa who came to talk to him. Actors avoided him. And then this happened when Taraji spoke to him:
Taraji P. Henson telling Ryan Seacrest about himself… omg 😂 #oscars #eredcarpet pic.twitter.com/lJ1DBDX2Bz
— Michael B. Binge-watching (@michaelcollado) March 5, 2018
Taraji straight-up murdered him. And for that, let’s give her all the respect in the world.
As for Ryan… I tweeted this last night and I still believe it: NBCUniversal and E! Corporate need to save everyone a lot of time and money. Just fire him, apologize publicly, rehire the female producer they fired, offer Catt Sadler her job back with adequate pay and let Sadler anchor the red carpet from here on out. That’s the only thing that can save any of this.
Taraji when she saw Ryan Seacrest on the #Oscars90 red carpet pic.twitter.com/DHQpHr0Qji
— Matthew T'Cherry (@MatthewACherry) March 5, 2018
Update: oh, it turns out that Taraji supports Ryan? Taraji told People that her comments were “misconstrued” and “I did it to keep his chin up. It’s an awkward position to be in. He’s been cleared but anyone can say anything.” She said she was “absolutely” supporting Ryan and Ryan ended up thanking her on Twitter too. Ugh.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Taraji issued a statement in support of him though. 🤷🏻♀️ I’m not sure what the deal is.
ETA: “in support” might be a little strong, but she basically said she was telling him to keep his chin up, and something about him being cleared?
Yeah I watched this ready for the shade and all I see is support. People wanted to see shade but she was saying that he is a good person and will be vindicated as far as I can see. I’m so disappointed in her and in everyone who spoke to him. They are on my sh*t list for now.
Also, sidenote: I hate her dress. She’s a beautiful woman with a great figure and I loathe this tacky dress with nude bra.
She was very supportive. She said something like the Universe takes care of good people, winked at him and touch his chin. You could feel his relief and joy. I like her, but really didn’t want to get that familiar with her nipples!!
Hehe I actually loved her outfit on her, she looked hot and pulled it off. <3 I also saw it as her being supportive of Seacrest and not throwing shade, so I was confused by the headline. Then I saw her issuing statements of support and it made more sense.
I was watching it and thought she was indirectly giving him support, so this was really weird to me.
So the takeaway is believe only famous women. If they are subordinates, give the guy the benefit of the doubt???? Wow, disappointing
But why are you disappointed? Disappointment implies you expected better from Taraji. This is a woman who not only works with Terrence Howard but is very close friends with him, flaunts that closeness on social media and the press and has publicly backed him in his DV accusations. The accusations were all made PRE- MeToo and have been made by multiple ex-wives and gfs.
Oh and by the way Terence doesnt deny them. He asserts that there is a “double standard in DV that permits women to abuse men and complain when they reap what they have sowed”. His defence is basically, “those b*^ches were asking for it”. Do with that what you will. We shouldnt blame Taraji for Terence but please know that she is no ally unless its convinient for her.
The dress is so horrible, who could hear a word.
Yeah she hugged him. Also previously been messy before and in the same vein if I remember correctly
Nope, sorry. She put out a strong statement in support of him, saying that what she did there was about him ‘keeping his chin up’ and that he’d been cleared but “anyone can say anything”.
The only person she shaded yesterday was his victim.
So disappointed she issued that statement
Her whole interview was gushing on him, this moment of shade was directed to his victims. I lost all respect for Taraji and all people who spoke to him.
me too.
Aw, come on Taraji! So disappointed.
To focus on the look for a second, why on earth did her stylist put her in that terrible nude bra? It totally draws the eye.
i agree. Did not like her outfit for that particular reason.
Is it because they couldn’t get a “nude” bra in her skin tone?
The only thing I don’t like about this dress is the way it kind of shortens her waist.
That dress was too Salomé-ish. It did absolutely nothing for her.
Great, wild, dress; very poor judgement. She was genuinely supporting him.
So weird people are interpreting it this way. She put out a statement to 1) support him and 2) accuse the victim of lying.
She’s not the hero here. She’s basically another #NotAllMen shill.
People like her so they made a massive reach that makes her look good instead of questioning why she was talking to him in the first place.
It’s like when people thought Adele was telling off Chris Brown at the Grammys, when she was actually telling him she was a big fan.
I think people like shade and it’s increasingly hard to distinguish sincerity as the world runs on duplicity these days. I’m most concerned about the victims. This is terrible to do so publicly and tactless.
This woman is a full on avoid as is Ripa. These people are dim at best and that’s being kind to cruel people. Dunning Kruger effect with them both.
Has anyone taken the time to think that maybe he is INNOCENT? I mean that is a possibilty why dont we believe the men that say they are not guilty. Look how alot of the guilty men have reacted hiding away,goin to rehab, not showing up for certain awards. Would someone guilty really stand on the red carpet and open themselves to everyone attending and watching.
What we learned from #metoo is that these abusers go after not just one woman, but MANY women. The behavior is habitual. That’s why I tend to believe somebody like Michael Douglas. One woman accused him of being inappropriate, and then…silence. No other women. If Seacrest is indeed an abuser, there will be other women to bring that to light. Until that happens, I can give him the benefit of the doubt.
A man can have several victims who have come forward and it can still be a struggle for…many… to even refrain from proudly supporting his presidency, despite there being a tape where he brags about being able to get away with that kind of behavior. Is it any surprise that a case where only one victim has come forward leads to the accused man being given the benefit of the doubt?
Most abusers and harassers who make headlines do seem to already have multiple victims, but it all begins somewhere. Maybe this woman was his ‘beginning’. Or, he could have harassed or assaulted other people (male or female) who just haven’t gone public.
Narcissists don’t accept that they’ve done something wrong. They have an overinflated sense of their own importance, so of course they will stand on a red carpet. Have we learned nothing these past 6 months? Nothing at all?
Seriously. +1
See this is where it gets tricky. Yes Seacrest has one accuser, no other allegations and was investigated. Gets benefit of the doubt.
Woody Allen has one accuser, no other allegations (in THIRTY years) and was investigated (twice). So…benefit of the doubt right?
How do we decide who gets the benefit of the doubt? Does it come down to who people like? 99% of these Hollywood accused will not and are not going to jail. So sure, times up. But also: what’s next?
There’s a big difference between the way Seacrest was investigated (by his employer for whose company Seacrest is the biggest assett) and the way Allen was investigated (where both a judge and a prosecutor let it be known that they believe the victim but thought it was too harmful for the victim to prosecute and the judge ordered all contact to be supervised).
There is NO “innocent” when it comes to this man – he is responsible for releasing the Kardashians on the world. He should be skewered for that reason alone. 😉
That was great! Totally made me laugh on an otherwise serious thread. Justifiably serious, but still. Hilarious.
Also, Taraji is sex on a stick here.
Except in this case there’s a witness to the harassment. Also the victim complained to several people about his behaviour immediately after it happened. So … no, I believe the victim.
Yea nope. And I’m disappointed.
I am not calling his victim a liar but the first thing that popped into my head when those allegations leaked was that they were fabricated to convince people he is heterosexual.
No person in their right mind would do that at this point in time. What a ridiculous idea.
That would be an insane thing to do.
Apart from anything else sexual harassment doesn’t always correlate with sexual attraction. A lot of predators just enjoy humiliating people, and if they think a target will be most humiliated by sexual harassment that’s what they’ll use. The allegations made by Seacrest’s abuser fit that. He demeaned and humilated her in sexual ways, but he wasn’t ever trying to sleep with her. If Seacrest was trying to convince people he was straight it would be a story about how he went too far romantically pursuing his accuser, not a story about how he publicly demeaned her in various ways.
It also fits with what he did to Kathy Griffin. He knew he couldn’t embarrass her with words, so he ripped her top off. I don’t think he wanted to sleep with Griffin, I don’t think he wanted people to think he wanted to sleep with Griffin…he just wanted to hurt her as best he could at that moment, and exposing her on live TV did that.
Nope. IMO, there were too many details and she told too many people at the time, for this to be made up. I believe her.
Oh damn. I really read it as her “you know what I mean” comment being so pointed him. Disappointing to hear she is supportive of him.
Ugh. Taraji I love you but girl, please.
Taraji is playing the game. Let her. Ryan will get his obviously. Lol e! is so dumb.
I never could understand his popularity. Did we need to revive another era of Dick Clark and his American Bandstand reign? Apparently so. I watched an episode or two of American Idol 2002’ish to see Simon rip and thought RS stepped out of a 1950s commercial. I mean, sand tarts are excellent cookies, let’s get that right, but I pack variety plates when gifting.
His interviews were on a time delay (probably so that if someone did say something bad, they could cut it out). So even if she hadnt clarified and said it was meant as support, I still wouldnt have bought it as shade.
I thought the interviews were on a time delay but wasn’t sure ! Yeah thought the same thing, they probably wanted to protect Ryan from certain comments so they decided to not have those segments live.
Her friendship with Terrence Howard disturbs me so I’m indifferent about this.
I thought Ryan was hay or asexual after the stunt with Teri hatcher, however, I believe Suzy is telling the truth. I wish stars wouldn’t support people who have accusations against them. Ryan is not Taraji’s relative, co-worker or bestie, there was no need for this.
If she didn’t support him she never would have done the interview with him in the first place. I don’t think she was throwing shade at all.
They wont fire him because he owns the damn thing… almost.
Like E! And NBC are deeply connected to the man, KUWTK, and so many shows, hes a money maker. So i don’t think they will fire him over one story.
If more people come forward, maybe he will be suspended or something, but I doubt it. I think that these celebs defending him are covering their bases because they probably believe he has too much power.
And if you just glance at his wikipedia, you’ll see why. Hes like the beyonce of entertainment lol, i think i saw a joke a few years ago here, saying like wow i Wonder when does RS sleep?
I don’t believe he’s innocent or anything, i believe the victim, but i also think he won’t go down until it is an advantage to the companies that pay him.
That’s what I believe.
Absolutely stunning in that dress!
Seacrest being “cleared” by an E! investigation holds about as much weight as Ivanka Trump saying she believes her father. Seacrest makes E! so much damn money I don’t trust their investigation in the slightest.
…again… knowing what I know of him… he doesn’t swing that way. This is the one story I just don’t believe.
Wow, I dont see why she thought that comment was even necessary. Such an eyeroll…..she is so extra!
Taraji is so beautiful, but I don’t care for that dress. Oh and she says that she is on Ryan’s side and her comments were taken wrong. So…there’s that… This is why it’s not good to idolize celebs when it comes to them supporting movements…because they are usually huge hypocrites.
Did anyone consider he might be completely innocent? You can’t paint all men with the same brush. This is going to blow up in women’s faces.
Oh indeed it will. The tide is always turning.
Have you considered men are systemically raised like this? The judges and jury are men that sexually assaulted, the men that control the system are sexual assaulters. How can you be surprised? And it blows up in the victims faces all the time? Name one victim that hasn’t been harassed even after the men confessed, name one that hasn’t received death threats after conclusive proof has been shown. People who support these men.. well they don’t think sexual assualt is wrong don’t you, ‘Claire’?
Sexual assault is wrong obviously. But when does it become sexual assault? What line is crossed? An innocent man can have his career and family completely destroyed and its happened more than once. I guess you just haven’t heard about it.