When it comes to Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, we must learn from the past, not airbrush it

A cursory look at history reveals bad behaviour on an epic scale, from massacres to land seizure, going back centuries. Do we edit out the bad bits of our past or study and learn from them?

Kevin Spacey has been accused of unwanted sexual advances and Hollywood has reacted

Every day fresh revelations of sexual aggression in the movie industry continue to surface with no end in sight. Famous and powerful people behaving inappropriately, picking on subordinates. Bullying. Why should we be surprised? One of my favourite books is Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, described by the New York Times as “without a single redeeming merit”. An intoxicating cocktail of smut, rampant sexual activity of all kinds and unsubstantiated gossip, Hollywood Babylon purports to lift the lid on the secret lives of movie stars from the 1920s to the 1960s – stars whose private lives bore little resemblance to their carefully sanitised public persona.

Doesn’t that sound familiar? The book was originally published in France in 1959. It appeared in the USA in 1965 and was banned 10 days later, finally re-issued in 1975. Cult film-maker Kenneth Anger – still sprightly at 90 – originally wrote it as a satire, but few industry insiders deny it contains more than an element of truth. One of Anger’s entertaining claims was that the silent movie heartthrob Ramon Navarro died with an art deco dildo stuffed in his mouth.

As current events seem to illustrate, the spirit of Hollywood Babylon lives on in some quarters. These days, stars employ PRs to control interviews which are only given with the agenda cleared in advance. Stars routinely refuse to talk about their private lives, their children and their partners – fair enough, they are entitled to privacy. The line has to be drawn, though, when they endanger or mistreat other people.

Since the Weinstein scandal emerged, huge numbers of people have felt empowered to speak up about the treatment they have received at the hands of the powerful. As for Kevin Spacey, the timeline from allegation to demonisation has been rapid. On 30 October the actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Kevin Spacey had tried to seduce him (he awoke to find the actor lying on top of him) when he was just 14. Spacey said he could not remember, but apologised, and seemed to inflame some people by choosing this moment to confirm he was now living as a gay man. Since then, there have been further allegations involving Spacey and young men – and people he has worked with – of inappropriate touching and groping. Netflix has cancelled the rest of his filming for the latest series of House of Cards (it was the final series anyway), he has been dropped by his agent and his publicist, and the International Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences announced they are no longer giving Spacey an Emmy Award for his outstanding work.

Everyone is lining up to condemn Kevin Spacey – Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, currently appearing at the National Theatre in a stage version of Network, said “he’s a phenomenal actor, but he’s not a very nice person… his career is over now, I think”. Cranston described the stories of misbehaviour that are swirling around the film industry as “beyond disgusting…almost animalistic”.

To add to Spacey’s woes, Ridley Scott announced his latest film will be reshot, removing his contribution and replacing him with Christopher Plummer. The movie, based on the kidnapping of Paul Getty’s teenage grandson John Paul III, will still be released on 22 December, in time for the Christmas box office bonanza.

Call me a cynic, but airbrushing someone out of a film has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with money. As for House of Cards, we all enjoyed series one to five, so do we beat ourselves up about that? I am not condoning anyone’s behaviour – it is always unacceptable to hit on someone less powerful than yourself. All the stories that are emerging in this current tsunami of allegations involving actors, producers, magazine publishers, MPs, comedians, and directors, share a common thread. One of the two people involved felt they were being taken advantage of. To be blunt, they were being treated as a commodity, not a person. The more victims air their grievances, the better. Transparency will lead to a new code of conduct – there is no going back now.

A cursory look at history reveals bad behaviour on an epic scale, from massacres to land seizure, going back centuries. Do we airbrush out the bad bits of our past, apologise, or study and learn from them? In Oxford and Cambridge, campaigners want to remove statues and all references to controversial benefactors like imperialist Cecil Rhodes and Christopher Codrington (who employed slaves in his sugar plantations). In Bristol, Colston Hall (named after slave trader Edward Colston) will be called something else when it re-opens in 2020, although a local girl’s school has chosen not to follow suit. On balance, we need to be reminded of our unsavoury past, and pulling down statues, removing medals and awards from people like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey achieves nothing.

Victims of sexual abuse deserve sympathy and help, not petty acts of revenge that will never change history. Harvey Weinstein was the second most-thanked person at the Academy Awards in the past 25 years – along with God. You can’t clean up the past.