In the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter, there’s a fascinating article called “The New Politics of Hollywood Sex Scenes in the #MeToo Era.” It’s all about how some things are different on film and TV sets now that some people are being more careful about nude scenes and sex scenes in general. The article is about how it’s a mixed bag, and how of course some actresses are still being taken advantage of, but no-nudity clauses and sex-scene riders are being enforced and protected. You can read the full piece here. There were some interesting comments by actresses and one unnamed source:

Actresses with leverage: Sarah Jessica Parker, for one, has a no-nudity clause for her HBO series Divorce, as she did with Sex and the City. “I’ve always had one,” she recently told THR. “Some people have a perks list and they are legendary. They have to have white candles in their room. I don’t have a crazy list like that. I’ve just always had [a no-nudity clause].” Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke is said to have scored the right to veto any nude scenes in her most recent renegotiation. And The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss, also an executive producer on the show, recently told THR, “I have 100 percent approval over all the footage and I can literally say, ‘You cannot use that scene.’ I can say, ‘I’m comfortable with this, but I’m not comfortable with that.’ They can’t send out a cut without me approving it.”

Whether unused scenes/footage are truly destroyed: If a shot scene isn’t used, most nudity riders call for the producer to use “good faith efforts” to delete the scene at the artist’s behest. Yet the very vague and nebulous idea of “good faith efforts” elicits a scoff from a number of representatives. Perhaps that’s why an increasing number ?of them are also calling for unused nude footage to be destroyed, though there’s little accountability on that front, either. Sources involved with the 2015 Todd Haynes forbidden-love drama Carol, which included nude sex scenes between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, say there are worries that Harvey Weinstein, who distributed the movie, kept unused footage for his own personal collection. “I don’t even think it’s possible to destroy anything in the digital age,” says one Carol insider. “The idea of anything being erased from existence is naive.” (A rep for Weinstein says he never kept any footage from the film.)

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

I’m so naive that this is the first time I even considered the possibility – and probability – that Harvey Weinstein probably has a vault full of unused footage from all of his films, and that the vault includes sex scenes and nude footage which should have been deleted, and footage which actresses were told was deleted. Of course he does. I bet he has Carol footage and footage from ALL of the films he’s ever produced. Jesus. Now I wonder if he’s ever used that footage for blackmail purposes.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.