What is going on with Judd Apatow these days that he needs to so vehemently declare his support of #MeToo any chance he gets? Don’t mistake me for being anything but supportive of the movement, but Apatow seems to have been injected with some Me-Too steroids, and he’s ready to go to war for it any chance he gets. With all of the relentless grandstanding that the writer-director has done these last few years for the movement, you start to realize that guys like Apatow, who over-virtue signal, are often hiding something. Hell, the guy even lashed out at poor Diane Keaton a few months back for, shock, supporting Woody Allen’s case against the Farrows. "I see a man who wanted what he wanted and didn’t care that he was having an affair with a 19-year-old when he was 54 who was also his daughter’s sister,“ tweeted Apatow back in January of 2018.
In an interview this past weekend with Vanity Fair, Apatow defended his vocal political stances by saying “It’s fair to criticize anybody on a public stage” and, when he was asked about Louis C.K’s recent stand-up routine, where he joked about Trans people and the Parkland kids, Apatow stated that “sometimes your humanity is more important” than crossing the line and telling a politically incorrect joke.
Apatow (who still refuses and has mastered the art of ducking in commenting on the five allegations of sexual misconduct against frequent collaborator James Franco), seems to be thinking he has been appointed, by someone, I’m not sure who, as the moral epicenter of Hollywood. My question automatically leads to the obvious — what does he know that the public doesn’t? Don’t forget this is the same man who has a knack for producing and directing films about dumb, sexually lecherous men who manipulate women into bed. And you’re telling me he has a squeaky clean past? Careful Judd, everyone’s skeletons have a way of finding their way out of the closets they keep.
I do like Judd Apatow’s movies, and his brand of the smart “bro” comedy has paid dividends a few times in his career, most notably in “The 40-year-old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” And I do want to believe that he is genuine in his political activism, but, as mentioned, something just feels … off.