Amid a flood of sexual misconduct allegations against prominent Hollywood personalities, a new website, Rotten Apples, lets users find out if any members of the cast and crew of a film have been accused of harassment. The name of the website is a reference to the popular movie review aggregation and ratings website Rotten Tomatoes.
The website operates as a search engine wherein one can key in the name of a movie to see the number of alleged abusers associated with it. For example, a search of the 1960 film Psycho throws up information about sexual misconduct allegations against director Alfred Hitchcock. For the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, the website throws up the names of Ben and Casey Affleck as well as producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, with links to reports on the allegations against them.
A film where no cast member is tied to reports of sexual abuse earns the “fresh apples” tag, one of which is Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008).
Rotten Apples was launched after Hollywood was hit by a a string of sexual assault allegations against some prominent personalities, starting with producer Harvey Weinstein in October. Among the many powerful men who have been accused of abuse since are directors Bryan Singer and James Toback, comedian Louis CK, and Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey.
This sparked a debate on whether it is important to separate the art from the artist while evaluating films that alleged sexual abusers have been a part of, some of which were highly acclaimed. Though Rotten Apples does not take a position on this debate, it empowers viewers with information on movies linked to sexual predators, so that they can decide if they would like to avoid these.